Week Eight Blog Entry: Global Inequality

We should care about global inequality because it affects our everyday lives. The countries around the world are increasingly intertwined. The most popular toy in the world, Barbie, exemplifies this connectedness. A product of the global commodity chain, Barbie’s origins span around the whole world. She begins in the United States, where she is designed, and she continues on to make stops in Saudi Arabia, China, and Japan for molding, shaping, manufacturing, dressing, marketing and advertising.

Because of this connectedness, the stratification system can affect such things as the prices of products we buy, how we use natural resources, and how much pollution our country emits. It affects our attitudes towards people from other countries, and can even contribute to hatred and warfare.

Technology is one of the most important tools in everyday modern life. It is the basis for much of the innovation and economic growth we see. But because of global stratification – technology innovators, technology adopters, and technologically disconnected – either you have it or you don’t, which further polarizes the rich and the poor countries, and traps the poor in a vicious circle.

Additionally, when we try to fix global problems, such as poverty and hunger, we should look at the countries who benefit from the world being organized in this way. Perhaps here lies the answer to why the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. In understanding this, perhaps we will be better equipped to help poverty-stricken countries break the cycle.