Page 388 - Essencials of Sociology

the Globalization of Capitalism 361

What happens when oil tankers wear
out? They go to Bangladesh, where
out from under them, looking for work and finding only jobs that pay lower wages—if they are turned into scrap. These
that—watching their savings go down the drain, postponing their retirement, and see- workers, an expendable part of the
ing their children disillusioned about the future. The photo above indicates some of the global economic system that we are
effects on the workers in the Least Industrialized Nations. all a part of, are exposed to PCBs,
asbestos, and other toxins. For this,
What about the wealthy? In these tough economic times, aren’t they being hurt, too? they earn $1 a day.
Some rich individuals do get on the wrong side of investments and lose their collective
shirts. In general, though, the wealthy do just fine in these challenging times.
How can I be so sure?, you probably wonder. Take a look at Figure 11.5 on the next page.
Each rectangle on the left of this figure represents a fifth of the U.S. population, about 62
million people. The rectangles of the inverted pyramid on the right show the percentage of the
nation’s income that goes to each fifth of the population. You can see that half of the entire
country’s income goes to the richest fifth of Americans. Only 3 percent goes to the poorest fifth.
This gap has been growing over the years, and it is now greater than it has been in gen-
erations. The transition to a postindustrial economy and the globalization of capitalism has
increased our income inequalities. The common folk saying that the rich are getting richer
and the poor are getting poorer is certainly an apt observation, well supported by social
research. What implications of this division of the nation’s wealth do you see for our future?
The Global Superclass global superclass the top mem-
bers of the capitalist class, who,
The overlapping memberships of the globe’s top multinational companies enfold their through their worldwide intercon-
leaders into a small circle that we can call the global superclass (Rothkopf 2008). This nections, make the major decisions
group is also called the transnational elite (Robinson 2012) and the transnational ruling that affect the world