When many people pick up the phone and hear a telemarketer on
the end their immediate reaction is to hang up or get angry. My roommate is
known for yelling, “DO NOT CALL THIS NUMBER AGAIN!” when she receives a call
from a telemarketer. But how many people
have ever thought about the person on the other end of the phone? With an
increasingly globalized world, the operator may be in a different state or even
different country. I have attached the
movie information and a short clip from a longer documentary titled
"Bombay Calling." This documentary captures and explores the lives of
workers that work in a call center, and the company has been outsourced to
India. This movie paints a positive picture of the relationship between
globalization and the modernization of India. This documentary highlights the
opportunity for managerial positions, the average work day, an intense work
environment, and payment opportunities. This
movie highlights the benefits on working in a calling center in India and points
out the high wages they receive. Despite the odd hours, the workers documented
seem to genuinely enjoy their jobs at the call center. This movie shows the
voice on the other end of the phone having an actual life, with goals, and
plans for the future. Bombay Calling illustrates the positive effects of a
globalized world.
This movie relates to the general theme and
discussion of globalization. This documentary shows the impact of globalization
in everyday life. Globalization can be defined as an"inexorable integration
of markets, nation-states and technologies to a
degree never witnessed before-in a way that is enabling
individuals, corporations and nation-states to reach round the world
farther, faster, deeper and cheaper than ever before"(Shirk, Lecture
5). This documentary shows the globalized connection in both an economic and
social manner. This movie is related directly to the article we read called,
“Is the World Flat?” by Thomas Friedman. Both the movie and the article show the
important role globalization has played when it comes to call centers. Both the
movie and the article discuss the increased competition to land a great job
with great pay. Like we started to bring up in class today, these sources show
globalization in a positive light and fail to show any of the negative side
effects. While globalization can help bring new opportunities to countries it
can also hurt them by exploiting wage and labor laws, exploiting natural
resources, creating environmental problems, and sometimes there is a decrease
in the value of currencies in order to make the exports from that country more
appealing. Either way globalization has an impact on our world.
I wonder how the currency in India is doing now, as you mentioned above there could be negative effects on devaluing the currency of specific nations. I'm also very interested in watching this documentary and seeing that if the harsh work environments possibly violated any human rights laws and to possibly see if that is another negative effect of globalization is the exploitation of workers rights?
ReplyDeleteI think something interesting about globalization is the ability to pay someone a much lower wage in another country for the same work that someone in the US could do, though for much more money. While they are getting paid less than they would in the US, these people are generally still making significantly more than those without their job and the money probably is equal depending on the strength of the currency in terms of how far it can go. While human rights obviously need to be respected and it is a reality that often times globalization takes advantage of weak labor laws (or the absence of them altogether), globalization could have the positive effect of infusing money into the local economy and forcing wages to rise naturally over time. Thus, in this sort of ideal situation, everyone would truly be a winner. How often this is the case, however, needs to be closely examined before I could offer up a judgement on globalization's effects on local peoples.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that American corporations that have outsourced to other nations should still abide by US minimal wage laws and other labor laws in their factories over seas?
DeleteThat would be ideal, though there is absolutely no way to enforce that due to the sovereignty of other nations. If they had to abide by US laws, the corporations would have no reason to outsource and may even return to the US and represent a decrease in the globalized nature of production.
DeleteI think countries are taken advantage of more often than not. I know it may sound like a pessimistic view, but the bottom line is many times people are worried about making the most money. The answer lies in overseas labor and exploitation. The sad fact is those working in call centers may feel that they are making a decent to pretty good wage, but they will never enjoy the comforts that some of the United States' poorest class enjoys.
ReplyDeleteI believe that it is very important to point out that although globalization has many benefits, there are also some drawbacks. In the India situation, there can be some positives to the globalization, creating jobs and expanding their economy. However, in other countries there have been seen, as Valerie pointed out, human rights violations and wage exploitations from higher profile countries. It would be interesting to examine globalization's effect around the world, to see if it is helping economies more than it is hurting.
ReplyDeleteI think that there can be positive benefits but I wanted to bring attention to the negative effects because I feel like these articles looked. While globalization may make call center jobs pay more than other jobs, globalization also makes jobs in factories pay incredibly low wages. I agree with Frank that while these may be great paying jobs in the context of India's economy when you look at it on a larger scale things do not necessarily play out that way.
ReplyDeleteAddress what Valerie said about the currency. Overtime Currently 1 Rupee is equal to .016 US $ or .014 Euros. According to the CIA World Factbook; Indian rupees (INR) per US dollar -
58.68 (2013 est.)
53.437 (2012 est.)
45.726 (2010 est.)
48.405 (2009)
43.319 (2008)
According to that the Rupee has been getting worse over time? Unless I'm reading that wrong, so it does support the point you had previously made!
DeleteAccording to that the Rupee has been getting worse over time? Unless I'm reading that wrong, so it does support the point you had previously made!
DeleteOne of the major issues with globalization, or economic development in general, is that it often (though not always) runs contrary to the goals of alleviating poverty. Trade agreements, free trade agreements in particular, are made in the interest of the wealthy (corporations and countries). This comes at the expense of those who have little agency, such as impoverished peoples on the micro-level and small countries on the macro-level. This is similar to having, for example, a Wal-Mart in Mexico City as a result of NAFTA and globalization. While Wal-Mart may present a great deal for some consumers and increases profits for a large multinational firm, it comes at the expense of low wages and driving out the local competition.
ReplyDelete