Miguel Afonso Caetano<p>"In summary, the first globalization saw the rise of the West, the second the rise of Asia; the first led to an increase of between-country inequalities, the second to their decline. Both globalizations tended to increase inequalities within nations. The unevenness of countries’ growth rates during Globalization I installed most of the Western populations at the top of the global income pyramid. It is rarely recognized just how highly placed even the poor deciles of the rich countries were in the global income distribution. Economist Paul Collier, in his Future of Capitalism, writes wistfully of the time when English workers were on top of the world. But for them to feel high, somebody else had to feel low.</p><p>The second globalization drove some of the Western middle classes from these perches and produced a great reshuffling of incomes as they were overtaken by a rising Asia. This relatively imperceptible decline occurred together with the Western middle classes’ far more perceptible one with respect to their own national elites. It caused political dissatisfaction that found its reflection in the rise of populist leaders and parties.</p><p>Finally, we should note that the convergence of worldwide incomes did not extend to Africa, which continued on its path of relative decline. If that is not changed — and the likelihood of such change seems low — the relative decline of Africa will, in the decades to come, overturn the forces currently pushing global inequality downward and usher in a new era of rising global inequality."</p><p><a href="https://jacobin.com/2025/03/what-comes-after-globalization/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">jacobin.com/2025/03/what-comes</span><span class="invisible">-after-globalization/</span></a></p><p><a href="https://tldr.nettime.org/tags/Globalization" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Globalization</span></a> <a href="https://tldr.nettime.org/tags/Neoliberalism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Neoliberalism</span></a> <a href="https://tldr.nettime.org/tags/Inequality" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Inequality</span></a> <a href="https://tldr.nettime.org/tags/Poverty" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Poverty</span></a></p>