

For some of us the thought of globalization comes off as one of the grandest ideas of the modern day. The word itself may even prompt a visual in ones’ mind of a globe scored with lateral and horizontal streaks stretching from continent to continent symbolizing the worldly commerce globalization represents. Those visuals may even drift off into picturing people in 3rd world countries who once struggled to find access to electricity, food, and water finally finding themselves in a new world filled with an access to utilities the rest of the world finds all too common.

But that would be wishful thinking, and maybe just a tad bit over-sighted for anyone reading through a naked lens. Globalization does have its’ benefits for the world as a whole, yes. But on the flip side, those benefits, may diminish the individual benefit most in the industrialized world have grown accustomed to. And this diminished effect could be caused by national forces more so than international.

For the most part, globalization leads to substantial economic gains across all borders. But the gains are distributed unequally throughout all countries as well as within them. Countries that got in early on the globalization game years ago seem to see decreasing marginal returns while countries who have just now entered into the markets are experiencing the opposite. In other words, the more developed the nation, the less of an increase in average income growth.



However, within all countries there seems to be a common dynamic. The most significant benefits of globalization appear to be reserved for the those on the top tier of national wealth. These findings ring the truest in economies that openly engage in international commerce. For more developing and isolated parts of the world, globalization seems to play a key role in the reduction of poverty. Outside of a nations economic prowess, factors like local education, and taxes, play a big part in how much of an effect globalization has on the citizenship.

What’s even more interesting is that the global inequality of incomes is increasingly driven by forces within ones’ own country more than they are driven by forces outside of it. The reason for this is mostly due to the increase in quality of life for those in developing countries, and the increase of incomes to the top 1% in nations already developed.

So basically, globalization may cause the rich to get richer, the poor to become average, and the average to end up a little less average. Taking all of this into consideration, is globalization truly a benefit if it essentially, and eventually evens out the playing field for the majority of the world, but only leaves a lifestyle of excess and wealth to a very select few? We shall see.

Gordon Gambill Jr