Make-Up Assignment May 19-23 (double credit):
I just read a article by Fareed Zakaria titled:” The rise of the Rest: Living in the Post-American World”. When I started it was pretty boring until I really got into it. I’ve never looked at America in this way! Little did I know how much we went downhill. Fareed gives many examples of how everyone else is better than us, he also talks about the positive outcomes of the rest of the world coming out of poverty. He goes into globalization, its positives and negatives.
In this article there are many examples of how the rest of the world is rising about America. The article states that,” The world's tallest building is in Taipei, and will soon be in Dubai. Its largest publicly traded company is in Beijing. Its biggest refinery is being constructed is in India. Its largest passenger airplane is built in Europe. The largest investment fund on the planet is in Abu Dhabi; the biggest movie industry is Bollywood, not Hollywood.” These are prime examples of how other countries are outshining us Americans in territories that we use to dominate in.
Yes it is true that this could be a good thing because other countries are coming out of poverty. Maybe were just being selfish. “In 2006 and 2007, 124 countries grew their economies at over 4 percent a year. That includes more than 30 countries in Africa. “ A specialist predicts that 25 companies are most likely to be the world's next great multinationals. The list includes four companies from Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, and Taiwan. Three Will be from India, two from China, and one each from Argentina, Chile, Malaysia, and South Africa.” The good thing about these countries growing is that they will now how more money for their people which could make their lives easier and give them better opportunities at life. The world as a whole does benefit from these companies also. By these countries prospering it takes away from our shine and we end up looking bad.
Globalization was talked about in this article. It can effect America in a positive and negative way. The positive way could be that since everything would be shared that the cost for important items would be much cheaper. Making gas prices more likely to drastically decrease. A negative is that America would personally loose money because they wouldn’t be profiting from other countries buying our goods. American social life would also be better in a way because gas prices would be cheaper along with everything else. More common American needs would become much cheaper, that could ultimately leave many out of a job in the future.
I personally never thought about how low America has been portrayed. We’ve lost a lot of our hype. Were no long seen too much as a superior country. Other countries are advancing and making us bad, but can we really get mad at that? I mean their success is bringing their people out of poverty. We’ve always been the best of the best do we really need all of this shine? I’m not sure I think it’s a matter of American’s always want to be overachievers. It’s the peoples greed. I guess its not bad to be the second best right? Taipei can have the tallest building! Is it really that important? South Africa will have one of the highest profiting companies, is it wrong for them to have a way out of poverty? Globalization could be an option. Or do we not want to come together? It a matter of opinion, I’m sure that everyone will say something different you know? I personally believe that America is great no matter what. Even though I would like us to eventually be on top of the charts again. ;]
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