[freneticfox]

While the average quality of life in the western world is still currently higher than the global average, there have been recent data points in the US that globalization has drug certain subsets of the US down to 3rd-world levels of life quality[1][2]. Globalization is desirable on many levels and happening, and it is already beginning to pull down on the bottom end of western society (and similarly, pull upwards on the bottom end of non-western societies).

What we're getting is globalization (which essentially causes equalization across geographic/national boundaries) without wealth redistribution (within national legal boundaries), which means that while the global average scales are slowly equalizing, there will continue to be a vast split between the rich and poor everywhere.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDowell_County,_West_Virginia... [2] https://www.sanders.senate.gov/life-in-mcdowell-county - "Men in McDowell County have the same life expectancy as men in Namibia"