The gap between the rich and poor nations of the world is increasing. The figures used most frequently are those from the UNDP 1999 Development Report, which found that over the past ten years, the number of people earning $1 a day or less has remained static at 1.2 billion while the number earning less than $2 a day has increased from 2.55 billion to 2.8 billion people. The gap in incomes between the 20% of the richest countries in the world and the 20% of the poorest countries has grown from 30 to 1 in 1960 to 82 to 1 in 1995.
By the late 1990s the richest one fifth of the world’s population had:
• 86% of world GDP (Gross Domestic Product) — the bottom fifth just 1%.
• 82% of world export markets — the bottom fifth just 1%.
• 68% of foreign direct investment — the bottom fifth just 1%.
• 74% of world telephone lines, today’s basic means of communication — the bottom fifth just 1.5%.
Critics of globalisation say that rising inequality is the inevitable result of market forces. Given free reign, market forces give the rich the power to add further to their wealth. Hence, large corporations invest in poor countries only because they can make greater profits from low wage levels or because they can get access to their natural resources.
What is the role of the Internet and communications technology in globalisation?
Although the internet started off as a communal medium for sharing information, principally among academics, it is increasingly becoming the tool of transnational