Question

In the context of the environment, globalization critics argue that Select one: A. manufacturing enterprises are put at a competitive disadvantage by moving their production facilities to nations that do not have burdensome regulations. B. while pollution levels are rising in the world's richer countries, they have been falling in developing nations. C. adhering to labor and environmental regulations significantly increases the costs of manufacturing enterprises. D. free trade discourages firms from advanced nations to move manufacturing facilities to less developed countries. E. as countries get richer, they relax their environmental and labor regulations.

Answer 1

Answer:

C) adhering to labor and environmental regulations significantly increases the costs of manufacturing enterprises.

Explanation:

Many times large corporations move their production facilities to countries with very few or nonexistent environmental regulations. That way they can lower production costs and avoid any type of fine or penalty associated with polluting the environment. The same happens with labor laws, corporations look for countries with cheap labor and the fewest or weakest labor laws. In the US labor is restricted to a certain number of hours per week and a minimum wage, while that operate in some Asian countries force their workers to work 12-16 hours per day and pay them only a few cents per day.

But somehow this scenario seems to work for some poor countries, e.g. China has grown a lot and is currently leaving behind certain practices specially by enforcing a minimum wage on factories. But the leaders of other poor countries apparently are fine with the situation and are not interested in changing it. They probably fear that if they apply strict labor and environmental laws, foreign corporations will leave.