That's the thing about history. It depends on where you're standing. From where I'm standing, globalization has been a net positive, but then again, it's been a pretty good run for heterosexual males of European descent. Critics of globalization point out that billions haven't benefited much, if at all, from all this economic prosperity, and that the polarization of wealth is growing, both within and across nations. And those criticisms are valid, and they are troubling. But they aren't new. Disparities between those who have more and those who have less have existed pretty much from the moment agriculture enabled us to accumulate a surplus.