Globalization Perspectives.

We have two articles that seem to contradict each other, although one seems to be somewhat less biased, the main point that is shown when you combine the two is that there are strong advocates for globalization and those against.
As one encounters Martin Wolf's article, "Incensed about Inequality", one is exposed to a strong neo-liberal argument that comes off very strong and seems to have back up. This back up comes in the form of the World Bank's statistics that measure the levels of inequality, poverty, child labor, life expectancy, etc in the developing world. Through his article, Wolf takes these statistics to promote his central argument, which is that Globalization has not increased inequality but it has reduced it, just as it has reduced the incidence of poverty.
Wolf goes on in his article, rattling of statistics and acronyms like GDP, PPP, etc. and will sometimes have full paragraphs of comparing stats, although he does get his point across. Wolf believes that as the developing countries has reformed and integrated with the world market, faster they grow. He also discusses how the poverty levels drop along with infant mortality rates. There is also an increase in life expectancy and lower rates of child labor.
Wolf definitely shows you how globalization can be a good thing, but his article is soon questioned and rivaled by Robert Wade.
In Wade's article, "Is Globalization Reducing Poverty & Inequality?", He hits similar points as Wolf did, but with an anti-neoliberal spin. One can see how Wade is somewhat anti globalization and he presents his argument in the way of decimating Wolf's. Wade begins with the mentioning of how the neo-liberal argument relies on the use of the World Bank Statistics which have faults in their own. The margin of error present in the poverty stats from the World Bank begin with the fact that the poverty head count is very sensitive to international poverty lines, which means that a small percentage increase can skew the whole poverty line into a more impressive increase. The statistics are also relying on the reliability on household surveys. The stats also become impartial when you take China and India's PPP stats and try to compare them with GDP, in which there is an ad hoc price that seems to cause issues. Wade points out that the measurements have actually gone under new methodology but they are still compared to the stats with the old methodology making these stats at the least unreliable but in reality uncomparable.

Over all Wolf's argument seems fairly dismantled although Wade does state that it is "plausible and important that the proportion of the world's population in extreme poverty has probably fallen in the past two decades or so. Beyond this we cannot be confident." But Wade also states the whatever your views are on the spread of wealth and inequality, the "absolute income gaps are widening and will continue to do so."

-Aaron Price