The global middle class
By Sammy Halabi
Issue date: 3/26/09 Section: Opinions
A recent report in The Economist highlighted a startlingly important change in the demographic order of the world. The middle class is growing, but not here in Canada. According to The Economist, this new bourgeois class has grown from "a third of the developing world's population in 1990 to over half today". Greater proportions of developing nations have emerged from extreme destitution and are poised to assert themselves on the world stage.
Keeping in tune with Fareed Zakaria's Post-American World, the emerging middle class is seeking a greater slice of the economic pie. The methods used to achieve this goal remain regulated by the current scheme of an American-dominated international economy, and are still inherently peaceful.
Contrary to Western media's hyperbolic and superlative reporting, the potential for large-scale meltdown and financial anarchy is not greatest in the developed world. The social and political fabric bound by democracy remains strong throughout North America and Western Europe. On the contrary, the real agents of socioeconomic change lie in the emerging middle class of the developing world.
This emerging group is completely unwilling to return to financial insolvency and seeks a permanent position in the competitive workforce. Falling demand in the Western world is driving the East into an economic crunch, and the middle class is bearing the brunt of this. As Western firms downsize and streamline their operations, overseas workers face the same uncertainties as domestic workers.
How the new middle class responds to this economic turbulence will be telling. Despite the media circus revolving around this issue, this global crunch is no Great Depression. The prospect of large numbers of the middle class turning towards radical ideologies, like fascism in the 1930s, is weak at best. The image of a wave of violent revolutions throughout the developing world is difficult to fathom. However, it is impossible to tell.
Keeping in tune with Fareed Zakaria's Post-American World, the emerging middle class is seeking a greater slice of the economic pie. The methods used to achieve this goal remain regulated by the current scheme of an American-dominated international economy, and are still inherently peaceful.
Contrary to Western media's hyperbolic and superlative reporting, the potential for large-scale meltdown and financial anarchy is not greatest in the developed world. The social and political fabric bound by democracy remains strong throughout North America and Western Europe. On the contrary, the real agents of socioeconomic change lie in the emerging middle class of the developing world.
This emerging group is completely unwilling to return to financial insolvency and seeks a permanent position in the competitive workforce. Falling demand in the Western world is driving the East into an economic crunch, and the middle class is bearing the brunt of this. As Western firms downsize and streamline their operations, overseas workers face the same uncertainties as domestic workers.
How the new middle class responds to this economic turbulence will be telling. Despite the media circus revolving around this issue, this global crunch is no Great Depression. The prospect of large numbers of the middle class turning towards radical ideologies, like fascism in the 1930s, is weak at best. The image of a wave of violent revolutions throughout the developing world is difficult to fathom. However, it is impossible to tell.
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