Golbalization and corporations.

The Other Side Of Globalization
By Paul Buchheit
26 February, 2007
Countercurrents.org
Corporate leaders are driven by the profit motive, and from a business standpoint they're unmoved by the plight of the 50% of the world's population that can't take advantage of capital gains.
The world has experienced moderate economic growth in the last quarter- century, but the income gap is growing. According to the 2005 Human Development Report, "The gap between the average citizen in the richest and in the poorest countries is wide and getting wider." The lower half of the world’s adult population today owns just 1% of global wealth.
The income gap WITHIN countries is also growing. In almost two-thirds of the countries for which data is available Gini coefficients (a measure of inequality) have been rising since the 1980s. Workers' share of national income in rich countries is at its lowest level in 30 years.
A 2003 IMF review found no evidence that globalization encouraged growth in developing countries. A World Bank study in December 2006 reported that 14 of the world’s 25 poorest countries experienced increases in poverty over the past ten years. According to the United Nations Report on the World Social Situation 2005, the OECD countries that have most vigorously implemented economic policies have experienced the greatest increases in inequality within their countries. The money doesn't reach the people most in need. The New Economics Foundation reports that only 60 cents out of every $100.00 of world income goes to those in extreme poverty, much less than in the 1980s before the growth of structural adjustment policies.
Paul Buchheit
Global Initiative Chicago
Harold Washington College
30 E Lake St
Chicago IL 60601


Send this page to a friend