East Asian countries have managed globalization on their own and have controlled the terms in on which they entered the global economy; this has allowed them to reap the economic benefits of capitalism while sharing them equitably to reduce poverty (Stiglitz 218-219). It is predicted that “In the next eight years almost one billion people across Asia will take a Great Leap Forward into a new middle class” (Meredith and Hoppough). Due to the takeover of capitalism and the end of communism, China has welcomed foreign direct investment which has “helped drive China’s gross domestic product to a more than tenfold increase since 1978” (Meredith and Hoppough). The combination of modern factories built by foreign investors and infrastructures such as roads built by the Chinese government “drove China’s exports from $970 million to $974 billion in three decades” (Meredith and Hoppough). India has been growing more than seven percent annually for the last decade and increased its purchase power thanks to globalization and increasing foreign investment in the technology and auto industries (Meredith and …show more content…
The health benefits of globalization was also recognized by Stiglitz, and he states that “Globalization can yield immense benefits. Elsewhere in the developing world, globalization of knowledge has brought improved health, with life spans increasing at a rapid pace” (219-220). Rosling argues that globalization has allowed for “emerging economies” such as China and other Asian countries to compete with high income countries when it comes to health and education, and these benefits are directly a result of capitalizing on exports and closing the technology gap (Stiglitz 219). Although Epstein’s argument that “the only way you get hard work out of people is to give them a return on their investment” is a concise summary of why communism failed to produce lucrative economies, when it comes to global economic inequality I believe this argument to be the least convincing because it is oversimplifying the various variables that cause global inequality such as the volatile nature of foreign investments and tax burdens. Instead, this sentiment places the brunt of the success from economic investments on laborers despite the fact