Monopolies and Globalization: Impact on Markets

Monopolies

Around the world, large companies control most of the markets in different areas, producing and selling their goods and services. These industries do not have many competitors because they absorb them or merge, leading small and medium enterprises. This fact is more remarkable in developing countries than in the richest nations, although it happens all around the world. This kind of commerce has positive and negative aspects that will be discussed in the following paragraphs.

Firstly, most monopolies are related to the industries of electricity, oil, food, banking, and telecommunications. These companies are expanded in key points of the earth, where they have factories, shops, and stores. In all countries of the world, there are some companies which have enormous percentages of their profits because they do not have other industries that can steal their customers. This situation results in these large companies choosing the price of all goods and services, or not giving customers the opportunity to discover different brands or products.

Nowadays, it is very difficult to fight against monopolies due to their economic, political, and technological power, which gives them the capacity to control different aspects of the world’s society. Various critics say that these companies do not comply with financial and trade ethics because they can have their own policies or laws, as they do not have any competitors to share a common regulation. Besides, when monopolies have difficulties with other industries, they can wear down the smaller companies by decreasing their prices or offering more hours of service, for instance.

In conclusion, monopolies are not the greatest option for the commercial and financial system, since it is better for all of society to have a few options of companies and choose what they prefer. When people only have one alternative, it is not an option; it is an imposition.

Globalization

In human history—millennium by millennium, century by century, and decade by decade—the world’s society has always been increasingly connected. With the evolution of mass media and, above all, the Internet, all people can know what is happening on the other side of the earth. However, there are other ways of globalization that are much older, and they affect developed and developing nations differently.

So, in the richest and poorest countries, there are some positive and negative components which have been changing from the last half of the 20th century to the present day. Initially, developed countries like the USA, UK, and Germany created the main factories and companies that are currently present throughout the world. They lead most of the global markets and produce a large part of the total amount of many products. For many years, they used the poorer states, most of them in Africa and some parts of Asia, to have cheaper labor and also to pay fewer taxes. With the creation of some organizations like the International Community and the United Nations, these situations have changed to a small extent, and more restrictions and controls are necessary.

On the other hand, developing countries are in a bad situation to compete against those powerful nations. In many cases, governments of poorer countries do not help their own citizens, trying instead to gain more power and money. Of course, there are many elements that developing countries provide to other states that cannot produce or create them by themselves, such as, for example, the cinema industry or the quality of roads and paths in cities. Therefore, it could be very helpful for developed and developing countries to share their knowledge in different subjects of life and try not to abuse their situations.