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About 200 years ago, everything a person needed could be found within 5 or 10 miles from their home. Whatever you or your family needed could be made nearby. For example, if you needed shoes, you would go to the town cobbler, and he would measure your foot, make a tracing and then set about making you a pair of shoes. It would take him about a week, but you would get a fantastic pair of shoes that were custom-made for your foot, so they fit perfectly, and lasted a long time because they were hand-made. It was expensive- after all, he spent a full week on them. You might be able to trade a service that he needed, or something that would help his family out- like fresh vegetables, clothing if you made it, or some other product. Otherwise, you paid cash. Unfortunately, that is not very efficient. Because the cobbler has to make shoes for everyone in the town, you could only get a new pair of shoes every 4 or 5 years. Naturally, if you were rich, you could get shoes more often, but most people couldn't. So they passed shoes down (hand-me-downs) and tried to take care of them. But there had to be an easier way to make shoes. Finally, some brilliant people began to invent machines that did some of the hard work that people were doing by hand. The first machines made thread and cloth, and then sewing machines put the cloth together faster. Suddenly, you had a lot more products. The machines were gathered into large buildings called "factories" and people came there to work. There were lots of problems with factories. They used a lot of energy, made pollution (some of it toxic) and used the resources of the land. People who came to work there crowded cities, and there was not enough housing. That allowed disease to spread, and crime went up. But there were good things, too. People made money. They no longer had to depend on good weather for their crops, or starve. Sometimes they could send their children to school. In some cases, they could see doctors for the first time. They could get better housing for them and their families. It was a trade-off. Some good, for some bad. That is what is happening now in countries that are trying to industrialize. They are building the factories, and seeing the same problems- pollution, overcrowding in cities, spread of disease and the loss of natural resources as they are used up. Animal habitats are destroyed to make room for the factories. But still, they are willing to build them. Why? Because, just like us, they want to make money. With that money, they can afford better housing, medical care (sometimes for the first time in their lives, they can see a doctor, and children don't die of preventable illnesses so often) and education. Did you know that the US is one of the very few countries that pay for education? In most nations, it is the parents who have to pay for it, and if they can't afford it, the kids never go to school. So they think it is worth the price of the pollution, the crowding- all of it. What do they hope for? They hope that their company will be so big that everyone in the world will want their product. They can sell it anywhere, and it will become a "globalized" company. I heard the other day that the most recognized word on the PLANET is "Coke." Can you imagine? Everyone on the whole earth wants a Coke. The people at Coca-Cola must be so proud. For more information on industrialization and globalization, please click on the video links below. |
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