I'm skeptical about the creation of a worldwide government. Unless there is an "other" that Earth can define itself against, such as another colonized planet or some extraterrestrials or something, I don't imagine enough unity to come together under a single legal system and form of governance. Rather, it seems to me that the consolidation of interests is forming on very limited geographical bases, i.e. the EU, NAFTA, Gulf Cooperation Council.

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No man is an island...
Each man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in Mankind.
And therefore, never send to know
For whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.
—John Donne

I'd imagine we're all going to screwed up until the point it gets so bad the silent generation demands change. Just like in england a couple of hundred ago.

The few who land the remaining middle class/skilled jobs will live a romaneque lifestyle while the remaining 80% of population will live a relatively prosperous yet humanly desperate existence. So yeah, you're going to end up being the house servant for some I banker. Cept you won't be a real house servant cause you'll be outsourced by some company and have to live off the wages of a 'good old days' live in servant who had board and food for free.

there has been plenty of evidence that this is not in fact the case. it has had negative impacts on some developing countries. For example, Europe subsidizes primiary produce, and then sells it to African nations - this had negative impacts on those countries desperately trying to establish their own industries.

Of course the other thing is the amount of human trafficking that is involved in bringing us our cheap goods.

Are you aware that most chocolate you eat is produced by slave labour?

Unless you buy fair trade products.

Yes, but let's look at the alternative. Europe doesn't sell the produce to Africa, and the Africans starve en masse. This would probably also have a negative impact on those countries trying to establish their own industries....

Matt

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De duobus malis, minus est semper eligendum

I think trade should be free and unfettered between every nation. People don't even know why there are still sanctions on Cuba. We now have a generation of people who are just like, "well that's how it's always been about how we deal with Cuba", which isn't a very strong case to make. We might have differences in values with other nations, but we shouldn't be punishng their people because of it. We're much more likely to have more allies around the world if we traded with these countries we have problems with instead of holding grudges which make children starve. So Globalism is good, and I think capitalism is fine too, but the moral values that we should all have regarding workers rights and slave labor and all that are up to us to enforce or change. It's not the policy, it's the people who must change toward each other.

I'm thinking countries like Gabon, Benin, Senegal etc which produce plenty of fresh vegetables. I'm thinking canning factories that can process food grown locally, creating local employment, and from which the processed food is then transported to the cities in the home country.

But these can't compete with subsidised hothouse grown vegetables that are then old to people in these same cities (in Africa), and so the local factory (which created employment) closes down, the local producers can't sell their food, and so the farmers, and factory workers, leave their homes and migrate to slums around the city in search for work, where unemploymnet, crime and prostitution is rife, and from there often try to migrate (illegally) to Europe.

This is a side effect of globalisation we don't hear about.

Cote D'ivoire produces much of the word's chocolate, and a very high percentage of workers are trafficked in from Mali, and then 'employed' with no wages.

Also - something we don't hear about.

If we want to look honestly at globalisation we need to think about these situations as well.