The next time you face an angry crowd of anti-globalization protesters, tell them this:
Since the fall of communism the world has become a better place to live in. There has been rapid economic convergence and shrinking inequality. The proportion of people living below the poverty line of $1.25 a day shrank from 53 percent in 1981 to only 25 percent in 2005.
If they ask you what is your source? You may reply Hans-Werner Sinn, a professor of economics and public finance at the University of Munich, whose essay on the subject was printed in the Toronto Star on September 25.
More than 50 percent of the world’s population, he says, is now considered middle class, with living standards above the average of the developed countries’ poverty line, i.e., $8.2 per day at 1996 prices.
Let us assume that Professor Sinn is not a paid agent of super-capitalists and is reliable. Isn’t that good news? Haven’t we always said “Woe unto a country without a middle class!” A middle class is a moderating force, a class of people who have something to defend, who have a stake in stability and the rule of law. The weakening of the middle class by the inflation in Germany in the early 1920s prepared the ground for the Nazis.
But if, in the developing world, things have improved so much, why don’t so many of its inhabitants stay home instead of creating problems for us?
Ah, you say, because now that they are middle class, they have at last the initiative to go west, or north, which they wanted to do all along, before they were middle class.
Somehow, that doesn’t quite sound like a satisfactory answer.
Surely a better answer would be that the gap between the developing world and the developed world, even if it’s shrinking, remains formidable.
Maybe we should all look forward to the time of truly mature globalism when there will be a collegial relationship between fellow members of the global middle class. A global regulatory agency will see to it that every middle class immigrant from the developing world is replaced by a fellow member from the developed world.
Fair exchange.
Eric Koch’s book, The Weimar Triangle, is available at Indigo-Chapters and in your local bookstore. 
Your faith in institutions is admirable.
In the leadup to the Pittsburgh Summit last week, there was a lot of anxiety about how much damage there would be done by the protesters, and the police did their usual tough thing, with barricades and rescinded permits and all that jazz. There was the usual cohort of self-described anarchists and trouble makers, and the usual reports of misuse of power by the police — and, interestingly, reports of people coming out of their houses and shooing the bad boys away! But the actual number of demonstrators was not as high as feared. I think a contributing factor is the ease with which people can now express themselves to the world: there are now so many ways to get your message out, without it costing a long trip, uncomfortable bedding and blisters on your feet.