Introduction
The world has become a global village, thanks to globalization. Globalization is the process by which the world is moving towards becoming a unit, owing to the increased levels of technology. This has taken place in areas of communication, transport and trade. Today, people from all corners of the earth can communicate with one another using mobile phones and social sites such as Facebook, and Twitter.
Countries have become integrated through trade to an extent that there are some countries that are depending on others for survival. For example, in the 2008- 2009 economic melt down, countries that have pegged their currency to the dollar were affected more than the United States of America. This was because they lacked enough dollars to carry out their transactions.
How will globalization affect social welfare programs in the future?
Social welfare programs are government initiatives that aim to cushion its citizens from the constant changing economic trends. Therefore, any time the people’s fortunes tend to decrease, the government has its machinery on the ground to deal with such cases. With globalization in place, Isaac (2010) points out that the social welfare programs are headed for both bright and dark days ahead.
According to Miguel (2005), globalization has enabled people far apart share their ideas in regard to a cross cutting issue. As a result, they can share it to the government and if found appropriate by the relevant department, it can be used to improve the social welfare programs.
In addition, Frances (2011) notes that globalization has brought about improvement in technology. As a result, management of the social welfare groups will improve.
For example, he says that prior to the invention of the computers as devices for storing information, people used to have big and many files where records were stored. This led to loss of essential data. However, with computers, the future of social welfare groups looks bright because important information could be stored there.
Globalization, on the other hand, is likely to contribute to the collapse of the social welfare groups. According to Isaac (2010), there are many people moving from one country to another to seek for greener pastures.
He notes that, Middle East for example, has immigrants that are estimated to be about three quarters of the population in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Therefore, if the governments of such countries fail to have a proper planning for its citizens, such a program is likely to collapse in the future.
Increase in number of cyber crime has been associated with globalization. This is according to Frances (2011), who argues that people have been hacking in others’ accounts with malicious intentions.
Therefore, if the government fails to put in place enough security on its accounts, such people can hack into them and gain access to very important and confidential information that may jeopardize the government’s operations in that sector. Therefore, if adequate measures are not initiated, social welfare programs are doomed to fail incase of such eventualities taking place.
Conclusion
Globalization is both beneficial and harmful to humanity. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the government to make sure that the only information available to its people is the important one.
This will prevent access of materials that might not go down well with the majority of the people and the government. Although it is said that controlling the content being accessed by people on the internet is impossible, strict penalties should be imposed on those circulating prohibited materials.
Reference List
Frances, H. (2011). The Leader of the Future 2: Visions, Strategies, and Practices for the New Era. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Isaac, J. (2010). Social welfare in global context. London: Routledge.
Miguel, G. (2005). Globalization and the future of the welfare state. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.