The Widening Gap

The distribution of global wealth has never been fair, but economic globalization has widened the chasm between rich and poor. True, it appears that some developing countries have benefited from their integration into the global economy. Experts clam that during the past  ten years, the number of people below the poverty line in India has gone down from 39 percent to 26 percent and that Asia as a whole has seen a similar improvement.  One study shows that by 1998, only 15 percent  of the East Asian population lived on a $1 a day, compared with 27 percent ten years earlier.  The global picture, however, is no so rosy.

In sub-Saharan Africa and some other less-developed regions, income has actually decreased in the past 30 years.  "The international community . . .allows nearly 3 billion people-almost half of all humanity-to subsist on $2 or less a day in a world of unprecedented wealth," points out Kofi Annan, UN secretary-general. One of the major causes of this huge social divide is financial self-interest.  "The world over, private financial markets fail when it comes to the very poor," explains Larry Summers, former U.S. treasury secretary.  "Mainstream banks do not seek our poor communities-because that's not where the money is."  

The vast income divide between rich and poor segregates people and even countries from one another.  No long ago the fortune of the richest man in the United States surpassed the combined net worth of more than 100 million of his fellow Americans. Globalization has also favored the growth of rich multinational companies that have practically taken over the world market for certain products.  In 1998, for example, just ten companies controlled 86 percent of the $262-billion telecommunications business.  The economic clout of these multinationals often exceeds that of governments and, as Amnesty International points out, "human rights and labor rights are not a priority on their agenda."

Human rights organizations are understandably worried about the concentration of the world's wealth in the hands of a privileged few.  Would you like to live in a neighborhood where the richest 20 percent earn 74 times more than the poorest? And thanks to television, the impoverished  20 percent of mankind know perfectly well how their rich counterparts live, although they see little chance of improving their own lot.   Such gross unfairness in the global neighborhood clearly sows many seeds of unrest and frustration. 

Next time: THE GLOBALIZATION OF CRIME AND TERRORISM

From the Awake! magazine, 2002