Brandon Navratil

Robots: The End of Globalization

Globalization is a way that large companies can produce products for less money by making
factories in other countries. Workers in these countries get paid less than 50 cents a day in some
cases. But, this causes an unhealthy system where a company has control over the country its
in.
If robots take over the manufacturing, it could be a disaster for people if its not implemented
correctly. We dont realize it yet, but robots are changing the way we view globalization.
Part of globalization is the process in which goods are made in and shipped to various countries.
Now, you may be thinking this sounds like not such bad idea and you are somewhat rightbut
globalization can have a darker side.
Sweat shop workers suffer unnecessarily; they are treated poorly and forced to work extremely
long hours. But, there is hope. Manufacturing companies have found a new technology that can
replace the people in the sweat shops and improve the environment. Companies are now using
technology called robots. They cant be abused or overworked. Also, they can work in the
extreme sweatshop conditions.
Companies will look for countries in which to set a factory. The countries will make a bid on
what they can offer the company. Most of the time the countries will modify child labor,
environmental, and minimum wage laws so they can have the company bolster their economy.
This process is called the race to the bottom and it is what causes the bad conditions for the
workers.
Currently workers are sharing the production line with robots. One of the well known companies
doing this is a touch device manufacturing company, Foxconn. This company replaced one
million workers with robots across their assembly lines. This was done to add more automation
to the manufacturing processes. As stated by Foxconn CEO Terry Gou, "This is a part of a
company-wide effort to adopt more automated manufacturing processes. Because of this new
trend to remove the human element of manufacturing, the way we get goods will be improved.
We will no longer depend on the outsourcing of manufacturing to the other countries. This will
improve the quality of life for the people there. Their government wont bypass labor laws for a
company. This also means that all jobs in these countries will have a higher minimum wage and
better worker rights.
This will be a total shift in how we produce products in the world; robotic manufacturing will be
cheaper in the long run because companies do not need to pay robots to work. The quality of
goods will become better because robots are more precise and with the money that the company
saves, better materials could be afforded without increasing the price of the product. All of this
would occur without needing to change labor laws. And as an added bonus, robots will improve
the environment by running on renewable recourses and by not requiring things like air
conditioning, which can use up a lot more power.
As Dr. Andrew McAfee states, Imagine a world where the robots did all the work. They tend
the crops, sew the clothes, cook the food, drive the trucks, and work on all the assembly lines in
all the worlds factories. In this world, everything would be a lot cheaper because labor costs
would drop to zero."
Soon robots will phase out globalization. As a global community we need to accept that. When
we do, the environment will be better off, the quality of goods will be better off, and the third
world countries that companies have taken control of will be allowed to grow.
There are a lot of pros to the Robot Revolution, but do the pros outweigh the cons?
Some people will think it is a bad thing to move to robotic manufacturing because it will lead to
a loss of jobs. Robots are going to take over the manufacturing industry and take all the blue
collar jobs while leaving humanity to fend for it. In the article Robot Revolution, Caoimhghin
Croidhein states that "The US Bureau of Labor Statistics expects automotive jobs to decline
18% by 2018 despite expected increases in production. Robots eliminate the need for more
workers." Robots are extremely appealing to manufacturers because they work twice as fast and
do not need to collect a paycheck, take breaks, or receive benefits.
It may seem that only manufacturing jobs will be affected, but sadly that is not true any longer.
Robots are doing more jobs everywhere. A good example of this is the automated checkout line
at the market. It does the same job faster and the only reason that we still have people working
checkout counters is the fact that the robots are prone to errors.

The pressing questions remain, "Is my job safe? Are robots going to improve the world we live
in? How is this going to effect the people who go to work every day?" The truth is only time will
tell. Robots are changing the way we view globalization, but it is our job as humans to decide
how before it is too late.
Word Count: 865





Works Cited
Croidhein, Caoimhghin O. "Global Research." Global Research. Gaelart.net/, 23 Apr. 2013. Web. 04 Feb.
2014.
McAfee, Andrew, Dr. "Why I For One Welcome Our New Robot Underlings." Andrew McAfees Blog RSS.
N.p., 9 Apr. 2013. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.
Toor, Amar. "Foxconn Begins Replacing Workers with Robots Ahead of US Expansion." The Verge. The
Verge, 11 Dec. 2012. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.