Countries Are Becoming More And More Similar | Band 9 IELTS Essay Sample

Countries are becoming more and more similar because people are able to buy the same products anywhere in the world. Do you think this is a positive or negative development?

Here is a band 9 IELTS essay on this topic. Need help with IELTS writing? Get your IELTS essays, letters and reports corrected by me.

Band 9 IELTS essay sample

Thanks to the advent of globalization, international corporations have opened their branches in every corner of the world. Consequently, the same products are available everywhere and this has made people and countries look the same. In my opinion, this is not exactly a positive change. I will support my stand with valid arguments in the following paragraphs.

First of all, when people everywhere buy the same products, cultural identities disappear. For example, in Shanghai, many foreign clothing companies sell T-shirts to local residents. As a result, few local people wear traditional clothes like qipao now and the traditional clothing industry is dying. Many young people cannot even identify their traditional clothing and fewer people know how to make traditional clothes. If the government took actions to help the traditional clothing industry, people would be able to keep their cultural heritage and craftsmen working in this sector would not lose their livelihood. Unfortunately, that is not the case and locals are forgetting their culture and ethnicity.

On top of this, buying the same stuff everywhere is bad for local economies and the environment. Oftentimes, products are imported from foreign countries and have to travel thousands of miles before they reach the end user. This does not help the environment or the local craftsmen. The only beneficiaries are multinational companies. Small businesses and manufactures cannot compete with them and quickly lose their market share and there is less demand for skilled workers who can produce goods with local features. Consequently, people employed in traditional sectors are becoming jobless. For instance, the young generation prefers fast food rather than traditional Chinese food. The market is shrunk for these people who make a living by selling traditional Chinese foods. Likewise, carpenters, cobblers, potters are all becoming jobless in the current scenario.

To sum up, the disadvantages overweigh the benefits when people begin to buy the same goods everywhere and different regions become more and more similar. In this scenario, the cultural heritage will be destroyed and the unemployment rate will rise.

Band 8 essay sample

These days the same products are available everywhere and hence countries and nations have started resembling one another. In my opinion, this is a positive development. When people everywhere can buy the same products, it creates a sense of equality.

In the olden days, high quality gadgets were only available in developed countries. This made people in poor countries feel deprived. This is no longer the case. Even the poorest of countries now have access to all the latest gadgets and products. If you have money, you can buy whatever you want from any part of the world. This has also reduced the gap in living standards in different countries.

Being able to buy the same products everywhere prevents discrimination. When everyone uses the same products or wears the same garments, they are less likely to be ridiculed for their choices. This is helpful when people travel abroad. This practice also saves times and money. To buy the famed Swiss watches you no longer have to travel to Switzerland. You can now buy it online and get it delivered to your doorstep. This similarity has also improved relationship among people. When people everywhere use the same products, it creates a sense of oneness among them. This is beneficial for international peace and co-existence. There are many other advantages too. When the same products are sold in all countries, companies can mass produce and this causes prices to fall. This benefits both the manufacturer and the customer as the former can reduce production costs and the latter can benefit from drop in prices.

In conclusion, being able to buy the same products everywhere is definitely a positive development as it saves people from many kinds of discriminations and improves relationships between nations.

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Manjusha Nambiar

Hi, I'm Manjusha. This is my blog where I give IELTS preparation tips.

6 Responses

  1. Ajay Tiwari says:

    Each and every country is in a race to become to most powerful, developed country in the world. There are similar products available in every country due to the growth in the technology and the import, and export is also increasing in day to day life. Due to these there are many pros and cons that can be lean to latter consideration.
    Because of the high demand of the product by the customer it is increasing the business of many companies to produce ample product to the customer. The companies make large amounts of profits by these processes, and also play a role in developing the country, by paying taxes to the government. For example, if the mobile phone is sold all countries, the selling has to give some amount of money to the government in the form of tax.
    Beside of the many positive points there are also some negative. As product are imported from another country the cost of the product is being increased much, which is a drawback for the economy. The local craftsmen will suffer because of the foreign product have a high demand in the society. As the result, it creates unemployment in many countries, whose majorly depend on import.
    In conclusion, the people have keen interest to the modern technology to satisfy their own comforts many different companies gain a huge amount of profits. Moreover, there is no opportunity for a new company to launch a product as there is an increase in import rather than export.

  2. Kevin Gu says:

    Due to globalization, many companies have franchised their operations or opened local branches internationally. Hence, the access to international products has become easier. While I think this phenomenon has a positive impact on the standards of the lives of individuals, it brings about some problems to the local industries and economy.

    The quality of life is significantly improved, especially in developing countries as there are more options from which the locals can choose. When shopping for clothes for example, normally people would only have a limited number of choices. However, this has changed as companies like Nike and Adidas open local stores in those countries. Local individuals are now able to spend less money for better quality and better designed clothes.

    On the other hand, the fact that people are able to purchase the same products despite their locations most definitely has negative effects on the local economy and industries. In developing countries where all technology companies are in a pure competition, the arrival of Apple and Samsung causes those companies to become price takers and lose market power by a substantial amount. Big successful multinational giants capture the market leading to the dying out of the local industry. Smaller players are unable to compare with larger companies which have access to cheaper supply and economics of scale.

    To conclude, the phenomenon where the same products are accessible to individuals all over the world allows people to purchase better quality items for cheaper prices. However, this phenomenon negatively affects the local economy as a result of successful corporations taking over the market.

  3. Kavi says:

    In rapidly changing environment in globalization era, each and every contingent are interconnected as well as interdependent. International corporations growing like mushroom by positioned their innovation in other countries. The availability of similar products worldwide eventually made similarities in countries purchasing power among people. This ultimately will lead to both negative and positive perception. In this essay, will shed some light on the good development elements.
    There are several compelling reasons for this development. Firstly, this similarity occurs due to open economic concepts. As a result, this allows them see many openings to enhance the countries economics of scale as a whole. By welcoming more international business into the country consequently there will be job opportunities, improve standard of living and local community able to enjoy international goods. Meaning to say, this will improve in money circular flow and the country’s GDP will be in better direction.
    Secondly, tourism industry will improvise. Having to say, the more undifferentiated products available widely, foreigner will be more comfortable to land in a certain country. Foreigner will have choice between local and international products. For example, having fast food chain restaurant like McDonald or KFC, would be beneficial for both local and foreigner. At the same time, local people able to be employed, hitting two birds with one stone.
    On the other view, local manufacturer will suffer with high competition from multinational company. The product will cheaper with similar quality, they will act as price control over the market. Perhaps, this push local government to provide special subsidiary to help the local manufacturer to stay competitive advantage.
    In conclusion, I would certainly say, the positive development is more highlighted for countries having similar products for the people. Moreover, this situation should inspire local businesses to cater more products and make an effort to create more loyal customer.

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