“Technological Developments Have Been Credited with Rapid Growth in Global Trade. Discuss How This Has Impacted Global Poverty.”

Technological developments have played a key role in the rapid growth of global trade; although the reduction in barriers of trade has made the globalisation of markets and production possible, the advancements in technology have made them possible in reality. The world has seen major developments in communication, information processing and transportation technology, we have also seen the explosive emergence of the World Wide Web (WWW) (Hill, 2009). This essay will discuss the effects of technology on global trade and how these effects have impacted global poverty.

According to United Nations (UN) “poverty as the total absence of opportunities, accompanied by high levels of undernourishment, hunger, illiteracy, lack of education, physical and mental ailments, emotional and social instability, unhappiness, sorrow and hopelessness for the future. Poverty is also characterized by a chronic shortage of economic, social and political participation, relegating individuals to exclusion as social beings, preventing access to the benefits of economic and social development and thereby limiting their cultural development.” It is also worth noting that poverty is not only prominent in developing countries, developed countries are also affected. This is where absolute and relative poverty come into play; absolute poverty is when people lack the necessary food, clothing, or shelter to survive, this is more prominent in developing countries, and relative poverty is defined as the inability of a citizen to participate fully in economic terms in the society in which he or she lives, this would appear more in developed countries.

Over the years we have seen several innovations of technology; however, it is argued that the single, most important innovation has been the development of the microprocessor. The microprocessor has enabled the growth of high powered and low cost computing, whilst increasing the amount of information which can be processed by individuals and...