Meanwhile, second-tier cities from Detroit to Nagoya to Bangalore are locked in potentially devastating competition for jobs, people, and investment.
And in the so-called developing world, millions upon millions of people whose culture and traditions are being ripped apart by globalization lack the education, skills, or mobility to connect to the world economy. They are stuck in places that are falling further and further behind.
Spiky globalization is also wreaking havoc on emerging economies. In China, talent is concentrated in a few centers such as Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing, each of which is a virtual world rising above vast, impoverished rural areas.
According to detailed polling by the Gallup Organization, average household incomes in urban China are more than triple those in the countryside and have grown more than three times as fast since 1999.
Image: The Shanghai skyline. | Photograph: China Photos/Getty Images
Also read: The curious genius of Twitter
Advertisement
