Navtej S. Ahuja
IDC 4001H
Professor Maciuika
February 2, 2014

Show Me the Money

            Economics has driven and will drive globalization. Because of this, those who enter new markets tend to focus less on the cultural differences between those they are interacting with and more on the possible monetary benefits they can attain. The globalized world has become more about taking advantage of opportunity rather than preserving national and cultural identity.

This can be seen in The Economist article titled “Rocket Machine.” The company that is the subject of the article has expanded to serve consumers all around the world. While some have noted that the company has not had any projects that are unique, Oliver Samwer fired back that consumers are similar everywhere, and thus vastly different services are simply not required. This demonstrates the fact that consumers, from an economic perspective, are not as different as they used to be, and national and cultural identity is starting to matter less.

A similar pattern can be seen in Beck’s What is Globalization? He describes the difference between economic and political globalization, and how states, being territorial entities, are not able to keep up with how globalization is progressing in different “dimensions”, such as communication networks. Moreover, Beck writes about the emergence of transnational economies and corporations. Because these entities are now becoming more prominent, those who are better able to take advantage are able to reap maximum benefits. However, the downside of this is an increased gap between the rich and the poor. Therefore, the issue now in the spotlight is not on national issues, but on global inequality.

Berman, too mostly agrees with this sentiment. Although he states that economics is not the sole driver of globalization, he points to it as a major component, along with “growth in experience, in pleasure, in knowledge, in sensibility.”

Though many things fuel the engine of globalization, the main force behind it is economics. Monetary equality is slowly taking the place of national and cultural identity.