Content area
Full text
ABSTRACT
As globalization becomes a growing factor in the US business world, it is important to understand what college students know and think about the subject. In the beginning of 2008, a survey was undertaken among a convenient and disperse group of students. The survey was conducted in NY and Connecticut among undergraduate and graduate students. The survey results were presented at Thirty Fifth Northeast Business & Economic Association conference in November 2008. Between the time that the first survey was taken and the second, there have been seismic changes in the US. Then the elected president was George W. Bush, a Republican, and today the president elect is Barak H. Obama, a Democrat. The Republicans, in general, and President Bush, in particular, were "internationalists " and strong advocates of free trade. The Democratic party philosophy was more domestically-oriented being anti-free trade, in general, and NAFTA, in particular. Additionally, the economic situation was perceptually better then than now. These changes were reflected in the attitudes of the college students that were surveyed. In 2009, the survey was repeated. After a devastating economic decline worldwide with millions of jobs lost in the US, the attitudes of college students in NY were again surveyed to measure any impact on their attitudes on globalization.
Keywords: Globalization, Free Trade, NAFTA, Free Trade
INTRODUCTION
lobalization is defined by Miriam Webster as "the act or process of globalizing: the development of an increasingly integrated global economy marked especially by free trade, free flow of capital, and the tapping of foreign labor markets". There is no question that globalization has had a very positive impact on developing countries. China has become the manufacturing center of the world and the US has benefited from an endless stream of low-cost imports. However, as the current economic crisis has shown, there are two sides to the story. Out-increasing interdependence has caused the crisis to spread everywhere. The economic downturn in the US and Europe is resulting in fewer orders from China and other countries. Millions of American...