GLOBALIZATION

Globalization and its Impact on World Poverty and Inequality

Globalization and its Impact on World Poverty and Inequality

Introduction

Globalization can is one of chief reason for the living standards of poor people in the world. We are seeing anti-globalization protests, but they are not actually against globalization as they themselves are global events instead they are against the rising disparities and continuing deprivations in the level of living of the people(Sen, 2002, pp 11-16). The questions whether to disagree with it has to acknowledge the strong perception that poverty and inequality is rising as per the globalization critics. Among the nations, the globalization policies have resulted in the increase of inequality and poverty between nations (http://www.ifg.org/ store.htm). It will be a different debate to say if this perception is held by some limited economies. Both opinion makers in who support this argument of disparity and who are against it have statistics to prove their theories. This has resulted in a point scoring based on numeric facts and has provided more convincing arguments in support of protest and debates on globalization (Ravallion, 2003, 739-753). It has been observed by some that the number of extremely poor people living in developing countries has declined since 1990 (Bhalla, 2002). A mild increase in numbers of people living in extreme poverty has been observer by some others and by publications in World Bank (Chen & Ravallion, 2001, pp. 283-300). Some studies claim that poverty has risen considerably in the developing countries due to globalization (Mander et.al, 2001). Similar disagreements exist on the status of inequality as some has observed a rising trend in the income inequality of the world (Galbraith, (2002), pp. 178) while other say that it is experiencing a falling trend (Bhalla, 2002).

This essay will explore the two opinions in detail and it sources. It will also explore the notions being utilized as both opinion makers are often interpreting these differently. It will be reviewing the methods used to obtain the factual data in case of disagreements and agreements on the measuring of an idea and check the credibility of sources. It is necessary to review extensive viewpoints to ascertain the actual progress of poverty alleviation and inequality in the period of globalization. The impact of globalization is far reaching and this article will be looking at the current studies and discussing if sufficient effort have been made to address the overall effect on poverty and inequality.

Discussion

Ambiguity of Interpretation

Before moving forward, it will be better to clarify the definition of concepts which are to be evaluated so that we have a firm understanding on our conclusions. Usually the domain experts are very clear on the definitions of concepts but the same practice seemed to be lacking in the work of globalization.

'Poverty' is usually well understood as the concept of 'absolute levels of living', as the number of people who cannot fulfill their certain basic needs. 'Inequality' is relative to 'disparities in levels of living' or simply the excess amount held by ...