Does the tide of globalization lifted all boats?

The tide of globalization automatically lifts all boats. Many
authorities have told this to us, and claim that we don't have to
worry. This statement may be true in the long run, but for now it
seems to be a fairy tale. It doesn't reflect today's reality.
Globalization nowadays is an extremely divisive force lor the American
population. The latest available data from the U.S. Census Bureau
published in August 2007 sent a very clear message: this is the first
boom period in American history where the upper classes go up while
significant parts of the middle class go downhill.

Although median household income, adjusted for inflation, has not
reached the prerecession high of 1999, income inequality is at an all-
time high. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the share of income
going to the 5 percent of households with the highest income has never
been greater. They earned more than 50 percent of the national pretax
income in 2006. This should come as no surprise: many businesspeople
love today's globalization more than their own spouses. What they have
told us about great opportunities and win-win situations is true, but
it's true mostly for them. They are now living in the "shining city on
a hill," to which Ronald Reagan once hoped to lead the entire nation.

But a large segment of the population has become bogged down along the
way. For many Americans, their country has become a shady place down
in the valley. About 16 percent of the U.S. population, or 47 million
people, lack health insurance. Nine million people have been added to
the ranks of the uninsured during the past seven years. It is
important to know that about two-thirds of those Americans who became
uninsured last year were members of middle class households with
pretax incomes of $75,000 or more.

This phenomenon is all the more surprising when we consider that the
United States in mid-2007 was in the fifth year of an economic boom,
which raises some important questions: what has really happened in
this country? Where do these new uninsured people come from? Why have
their lives developed in this adverse direction? The answer is
disturbing: they are mostly members of the middle class working for
international companies. Their corporate leaders have cut back
employer-provided coverage over the last decade-to. improve the
competitiveness of the company. This is precisely the paradox of
globalization: while the competitiveness of American companies is on
the rise, the standard of living of the average family is shrinking.
Truth number one: globalization connects people. Truth number two: on
the same day, and in the same country, it divides society. Economic
growth and social decline are no longer mutually exclusive.