204 Chapter 6 The Challenge of Globalization: What Are the Consequences? The Noble Feat of Nike NORBERG Norberg contributed this article to London's The Spectator in June 2003. In the essay, he takes issue with those who think that globalization is the invention of "ruthless international capitalists." In arguing his case, Norberg centers his discussion on one symbol of globalization-Nike-suggesting that we simply have to look at our "feet" to understand Nike's "feat" in advancing a benign form of globalization. Norberg is the author of In Defense of Global Capitalism, and writer and presenter of the recent documentary Globalization Is Good. Since 2007, Norberg has been associated with the Cato Institute, a conservative Washington-based think tank. Before Reading Check your sneakers. Where were they made? What do you think the workers earned to manufacture them? Do you think they were exploited? Explain your response. Nike. It means victory. It also means a type of expensive gym shoe. In the minds of the anti-globalisation movement, it stands for both at once. Nike stands the victory of a Western footwear company over the poor and dispossessed. Spongy, smelly, hungered after by kids across the world, Nike is the symbol of the unacceptable triumph of global capital. A Nike is a shoe that simultaneously kicks people out of jobs in the 2 West, and tramples on the poor in the Third World. Sold for 100 times more than the wages of the peons who make them, Nike shoes are hate- objects more potent, in the eyes of the protesters at this week's G8 riots, than McDonald's hamburgers. If you want to be trendy these days, you don't wear Nikes; you boycott them. So I was interested to hear someone not only praising Nike sweatshops, 3 but also claiming that Nike is an example of a good and responsible busi- ness. That someone was the ruling Communist party of Vietnam. Today Nike has almost four times more workers in Vietnam than 4 in the United States. I travelJed to Ho Chi Minh to examine the effects of multinational coroorations on poor countries. Nike being the most and Vietnam being a dictatorshio with a "The Noble Feat of Nike" by Johan Norberg, The Spectator, June 7, 2003. Reprinted by permission. Johan Norberg The Noble Feat of Nike 205 documented lack of free speech, the operation is supposed to be a classic of conscience-free capitalist oppression. In truth the work does look tough, and the conditions grim, if we 5 compare Vietnamese factories with what we have back home. But that's not the comparison these workers make. They compare the work at Nike with the way they lived before, or the way their parents or neighbours still work. And the facts are revealing. The average pay at a Nike factory close to Ho Chi Minh is $54 a month, almost three times the minimum wage for a state-owned enterprise. Ten years ago, when Nike was established in Vietnam, the workers had 6 to walk to the factories.

1. 204 Chapter 6 The Challenge of Globalization: What Are the
Consequences?
The Noble Feat of Nike
NORBERG
Norberg contributed this article to London's
The Spectator in June 2003. In the essay, he takes issue
with those who think that globalization is the invention
of "ruthless international capitalists." In arguing his
case, Norberg centers his discussion on one symbol of
globalization-Nike-suggesting that we simply have
to look at our "feet" to understand Nike's "feat" in
advancing a benign form of globalization. Norberg
is the author of In Defense of Global Capitalism,
and writer and presenter of the recent documentary
Globalization Is Good. Since 2007, Norberg has been
associated with the Cato Institute, a conservative
Washington-based think tank.
Before Reading
Check your sneakers. Where were they made? What do you
think the workers
earned to manufacture them? Do you think they were exploited?
Explain your
response.
Nike. It means victory. It also means a type of expensive gym
shoe. In the minds of the anti-globalisation movement, it stands
for both at once.
Nike stands the victory of a Western footwear company over the
poor

2. and dispossessed. Spongy, smelly, hungered after by kids across
the world,
Nike is the symbol of the unacceptable triumph of global
capital.
A Nike is a shoe that simultaneously kicks people out of jobs in
the 2
West, and tramples on the poor in the Third World. Sold for 100
times
more than the wages of the peons who make them, Nike shoes
are hate-
objects more potent, in the eyes of the protesters at this week's
G8 riots,
than McDonald's hamburgers. If you want to be trendy these
days, you
don't wear Nikes; you boycott them.
So I was interested to hear someone not only praising Nike
sweatshops, 3
but also claiming that Nike is an example of a good and
responsible busi-
ness. That someone was the ruling Communist party of
Vietnam.
Today Nike has almost four times more workers in Vietnam
than 4
in the United States. I travelJed to Ho Chi Minh to examine the
effects
of multinational coroorations on poor countries. Nike being the
most
and Vietnam being a dictatorshio with a
"The Noble Feat of Nike" by Johan Norberg, The Spectator,
June 7, 2003. Reprinted by
permission.

3. Johan Norberg The Noble Feat of Nike 205
documented lack of free speech, the operation is supposed to be
a classic
of conscience-free capitalist oppression.
In truth the work does look tough, and the conditions grim, if
we 5
compare Vietnamese factories with what we have back home.
But that's
not the comparison these workers make. They compare the work
at Nike
with the way they lived before, or the way their parents or
neighbours still
work. And the facts are revealing. The average pay at a Nike
factory close
to Ho Chi Minh is $54 a month, almost three times the minimum
wage for
a state-owned enterprise.
Ten years ago, when Nike was established in Vietnam, the
workers had 6
to walk to the factories, often for many miles. After three years
on Nike
wages, they could 'afford bicycles. Another three years later,
they could
afford scooters, so they all take the scooters to work (and if you
go there,
beware; they haven't really decided on which side of the road to
drive).
Today, the first workers can afford to buy a car.
But when I talk to a young Vietnamese woman, Tsi-Chi, at the
factory, 7
it is not the wages she is most happy about. Sure, she makes

4. five times
more than she did, she earns more than her husband, and she can
now
to build an extension to her house. But the most important
thing,
she says, is that she doesn't have to work outdoors on a any
more.
For me, a Swede with only three months of summer, this sounds
bizarre.
Surely working conditions under the blue sky must be superior
to those
in a sweatshop? But then I am naively Eurocentric. Farming
means 10 to
14 hours a day in the burning sun or the intensive rain, in rice
fields with
water up to your ankles and insects in your face. Even a Swede
would
prefer working nine to five in a clean, air-conditioned factory.
Furthermore, the Nike job comes with a regular wage, with free
or sub- 8
sidised meals, free medical services and training and education.
The most
persistent demand Nike hears from the workers is for an
expansion of the
factories so that their relatives can be offered a job as welL
These facts make Nike sound more like Santa Claus than
Scrooge. 9
But corporations such as Nike don't bring these benefits and
wages
because they are generous. It is not altruism that is at work It IS
globalisation. With their investments in poor countries,
multinationals
bring new machinery, better technology, new management skills

5. and
production ideas, a larger market and the education of their
workers.
That is exactly what raises productivity. And if you increase
..hp amount a worker can produce-you can also increase his
wage.
Nike is not the accidental good guy. On average, multinationals
in the 10
least developed countries pay twice as much as domestic
companies in the
tammy
tammy
206 Chapter 6 The Challenge of Globalization: What Are the
Consequences?
same line of business. If you get to work for an American
multinational
in a low-income country, you get eight times the average
income. If this
is exploitation, then the problem in our world is that the poor
countries
aren't sufficiently exploited.
The effect on local business is profound: "Before I visit some
foreign 11
factory, especially like Nike, we have a question. Why do the
foreign fac-
tories here work well and produce much more?" That was what
Mr. Kiet,
the owner of a local shoe factory who visited Nike to learn how

6. he could
be just as successful at attracting workers, told me: "And I
recognise that
productivity does not only come from machinery but also from
satisfac-
tion of the worker. So for the future factory we should
concentrate on our
working conditions."
If I was an antiglobalist, I would stop complaining about Nike's
bad 12
wages. If there is a problem, it is that the wages are too high, so
that
they are almost luring doctors and teachers away from their
important
jobs.
But-happily-I don't think even that is a realistic threat. With
growing 13
productivity it will also be possible to invest in education and
healthcare for
Vietnam. Since 1990, when the Vietnamese communists began
to liberalise
the economy, exports of coffee, rice, clothes and footwear have
surged,
economy has doubled, and poverty has been halved. Nike and
Coca-
Cola triumphed where American bombs failed. They have made
Vietnam
capitalist.
I asked the young Nike worker Tsi-Chi what her hopes were for
her 14
son's future. A generation ago, she would have had to put him to
work

7. on the farm from an early age. But Tsi-Chi told me she wants to
give
him a good education, so that he can become a doctor. That's
one of the
most impressive developments since Vietnam's economy was
opened up.
In ten years 2.2 million children have gone from child labour to
educa-
tion. It would be extremely interesting to hear an antiglobalist
explain
to Tsi-Chi why it is important for Westerners to boycott Nike,
so that
she loses her job, and has to go back into farming, and has to
send her
son to work.
The European Left used to listen to the Vietnamese communists
15
when they brought only misery and starvation to their
population.
Shouldn't they listen to the Vietnamese now, when they have
found a
way to improve people's lives? The party officials have been
convinced
by Nike that ruthless multinational capitalists are better than the
state at providing workers with high wages and a good and
healthy
Johan Norberg The Noble Feat of Nike 201
workplace. How long will it take for our own anti capitalists to
learn
that lesson?
Thinking About the Essay
1. Examine the writer's introduction. Why is it distinctive? How

8. does
Norberg "hook" us and also set the terms of his argument? Why
is
Nike an especially potent symbol around which to organize an
essay on
globalization?
2. Explain the writer's claim and how he defends it. Identify
those instances
in which he deals with the opposition. How effective do you
think his
argument is? Justify your answer.
3. What is the writer's tone in this essay? Why is the tone
especially effective
in conveying the substance of Norberg's argument?
4. Analyze the writer's style and how it contributes to his
argument.
specific stylistic elements that you consider especially
effective.
5. To a large extent, the writer bases his argument on direct
observation.
How can you tell that he is open-minded and truthful in the
presentation of
facts? What is the role of a newspaper or journal in claiming
responsibility
for the accuracy of this information?
Responding in Writing
6. Select a symbol of globalization and write an essay about it.
You may use
Nike if you wish, or Coca·Cola, McDonald's, or any other

9. company that has
a global reach.
7. Write a rebuttal to Norberg's essay. to answer him by point.
8. Why have clothing manufacturing and other forms of
manufacturing fled from
the United States and other industrialized nations to less
developed parts
of the world? Write a causal analysis of this trend, being certain
to state a
thesis or present a claim that illustrates your viewpoint on the
issue.
Networking
9. In groups of four, examine your clothes. List the countries
where they were
manufactured. Share the list with the class, drawing a global
map of the
countries where the various items were produced.
10. Check various Internet sites for information on Nike and its
role in
globalization. On the basis of your findings, determine whether
or not
this company is sensitive to globalization issues. Participate in
a class
discussion of this topic.
Thesis: the disadvantages of globalization outweigh its
advantages, especially in technology and environment.
Point1 advantage also exists.
-Global world helps poor countries growth their economic and
improve their life condition. (Norberg)

10. - Globalization culture broad people’s horizon, learns more
countries ‘diversified culture.
However, more/serious disadvantages.
Point 1: globalization causes environmental problems.
Point 2. Environmental problems-from economic globalization
(greenhouse gases, deforestation)
developing countries are having more problems--Developed
countries build many industries and firm there. Pollutions
everywhere Western countries buy Eastern countries’ natural
resources; Eastern developing countries lose resources. the
environment becomes bad.
Point 3: technology brings many disadvantages.
Acknowledge benefits of technological globalization. With the
development of technology, many hackers can look into many
people’s private information and fraud people.
High Technology skill can help human beings work, the
unemployment rate increasing these years; many unemployed
people increase bear for government.
Meizhen Zeng
Dr. Kim
English 0812
? April 2015
The Disadvantage of Global World
Nowadays, globalization is potential exist. The global is a
global village, every one live in and begins to get their life.
Actually, globalization just likes a double-edged sword. It has
many advantages for the society, on the contrast; the
disadvantage of global world outweighs its advantage.
It is no doubt that globalization’s advantage exists. Global
world helps poor countries growth their economic and improve
their working condition. In “Fear Not Globalization”, Joseph S.
Nye Jr. argues that multinational corporations changed many

11. poor countries. They gives […..] In Norberg’s article, in
Vietnam, Nike Company provided jobs for Vietnamese. In the
past, these people are under the fire, but nowadays, they have
more money to buy a car and built a new house.
English 812—Dr. Kim
Essay assignment # 3
Length: Five to Seven double-spaced pages
Due date:April 22 (Wednesday)
Globalization, sometimes referred to as Americanization, is
considered a set of complex processes by which goods, services,
capital, ideas, and culture are exchanged on the international
level. This means that globalization is not just an economic
phenomenon, but also political, technological, cultural, and
social in its scope, as Anthony Giddens claims in his essay
“Globalization” (17).
Many writers, including Giddens and Verdú, acknowledge both
the positive and negative effects of globalization. Supporters
argue that globalization benefits the world through the
promotion of such ideals as human rights, democracy, and
freedom and that it enhances the prosperity of the world through
free trade, free investment, and better technology (Norberg).
On the other hand, critics argue that we need to control the
“runaway” global process because it widens economic
inequality (Giddens 22); increases consumption of world
resources such as oil, paper, and meat, resulting in
environmental disaster (Zachary 29); creates homogeneity of
world culture (O’Connor 162); and violates local norms of
propriety (Bayles 174).
What do you think? Do the costs of globalization outweigh its
benefits?

12. Write an essay in which you argue whether or not the
advantages of globalization outweigh its disadvantages.
Although there are diverse effects of globalization, to avoid
superficial coverage of each topic, do not choose more than
three main effects of globalization. Like the second assignment,
you need to introduce opposing views and successfully counter
them in your discussion to construct a strong argument. Also, as
this assignment requires synthesizing different source materials,
it is vital to make clear connections among source materials and
between your own ideas and those presented in sources.
In your essay, you should formulate a clear and focused thesis
and provide a detailed account of your evidence. For this
assignment, you need to provide at leastsix sources, five of
which should be outside sources from library databases.
* Checklist
1. Does the introduction include a statement of the thesis that
clearly represents the purpose of your essay? In other words,
does your thesis include the topic of your essay and
yourassertion about it to reflect the purpose of writing this
essay (argument)?
2. Does each paragraph relate to and support the thesis of the
essay?
3. Does each paragraph discuss only one main idea? Are all the
sentences in each paragraph related to the main idea stated in
the topic sentence?
4. Is each main idea supported with enough, specific, concrete
details? Or are the supporting ideas scanty, general, or abstract?

13. 5. Are ideas presented according to logical order or must the
reader jump back and forth among ideas?
6. Is there a smooth flow between sentences/ideas? (i.e., Does
one idea lead smoothly to another, or does information seem to
be missing?)
7. Does the conclusion briefly restate the thesis, instead of
summarizing all the main points in detail,and include other
insightful concluding remarks?
8. Are your quotations, paraphrases, or summaries adequately
incorporated in your discussions? Are these properly
documented in MLA style?
9. Is punctuation properly used and positioned?
10. Are your sentences grammatically correct?
11. Are opposing views introduced (including their sources)
and countered successfully?