Globalization, as defined by rich people like us, is a very nice thing... you are talking about the Internet, you are talking about cell phones, you are talking about computers. This doesn't affect two-thirds of the people of the world.

The Global Divide We Ignore

We tend to talk about globalization as though it's already happened everywhere, equally. But Carter's pointing at something we still get wrong: when we celebrate how connected the world has become, we're often describing our own world—the one with reliable electricity, affordable devices, and internet access. The other two-thirds of humanity wasn't suddenly lifted up by the same technology that transformed our lives.

This matters because it shapes what we assume people need and want. We export our solutions—apps, social media, digital payments—to places where the real problems are still basic: clean water, stable work, food security. And we congratulate ourselves for our generosity. It's easy to miss that "global" often means global-for-people-like-us, with the rest of the world either left behind or treated as a market to be tapped.

The tricky part is that this wasn't some conspiracy; it's just how advantages compound. Rich people had the money to build the infrastructure, so the infrastructure reflected rich-people problems first. But recognizing that gap is the first step toward actually asking what people in other parts of the world are trying to accomplish, rather than assuming they want what we want.