I have the same exact discussion with a family member at least two or three times a year about the effect of globalization on developing or third world nations. My family member is of the opinion that the world is becoming increasingly flatter with technology, the Internet, and globalization and firmly believes that globalization is positive for all parties involved, even in third world or developing nations. 

In our arguments, he cites statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO) that show that developing and third world nations are getting healthier; he believes that life expectancy has increased while infant mortality has decreased. Both statistics have changed, but there are many other factors to consider when looking at the discrepancies between the haves and the have nots on a global scale, not to mention the additional problems caused by an overall population increase globally. 

According to THIS, a World Bank economist recently examined the differences in wealth discrepancy between the countries in the haves category and the countries which can be firmly placed in the have not categories between 1820 and 2002. He found some disturbing trends:

From the same source:

 “As shown by the Gini coefficient, the most commonly used metric, inequality increased steadily throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. It plateaued after the 1950s, but inequality between countries -- in particular between the developed West and what came to be known as the Third World -- exploded throughout the 20th century and is now a broad gap.”

The economist further examines the possible reasons for the inequality gap; his findings indicate that any difference in the amount of wealth between individuals may more or less be the result of which location an individual resides in rather than by class, which may have been more of a factor in the past. 

Again, not everyone is convinced that globalization is entirely negative; like my family member, writer Thomas Friedman who first coined the phrase, “The world is flat” and who wrote the book of the same name believes that the Internet and technology have leveled the playing field for countries like China and India. In an interview, Mr. Friedman told Wired magazine that he was so concerned about America’s competitiveness on a global scale that he was now telling his children to study harder so that they could compete against emerging students in China and India. 

However, when you look closely at the so-called leveling of the playing field, it doesn’t appear to have reached a large segment of the population within China and India. It’s hard to be as optimistic about the world being flat when you take into consideration the fact that nearly a billion people on Earth lack access to clean water.