Ghandi said it best

Today we live in a global system where the richest fifth consume 45% of all meat and fish, 58% of all energy used and 84% of all paper, has 74% of all telephone lines and owns 87% of all vehicles.
Globalisation has battered down international borders to the point of transnational companies exisiting beyond the scope of any one government.
Almost half of the world's six billion people now live on less than $2 a day, while 1.2 billion people live on less than $1 a day.

In addition, the gap between the richest 20% of the world's population and the poorest 20% has doubled in the past 40 years. The assets of the world's three richest billionaires exceed the gross national product of all 48 least developed countries and their 600 million people.



Under capitalism, a tiny minority own and control the economy. They run it, not to meet the needs of people or to maintain the environment, but to maximise their profits. The drive for bigger and bigger profits is the cause of the widening gulf between the rich and the poor. A majority of the world’s people live in dire poverty, while a tiny minority squander unprecedented wealth

There are no longer national identities..images are created by companies beyond the control of cultural divisions and the world exists electronically on an unprecedented level of instant interaction.
An investment decision made in London can spell unemployment for thousands in Indonesia, while a business decision taken in Tokyo can create thousands of new jobs for workers in north-east England.

While the world's economic output grew at an average 2.4% per year during the 1990s, global trade increased at well over twice that rate. The pattern is forecast to continue for the next 10 years too, with global trade growing at around 6.8% per year, more than double the projected growth in world output.



This increase in cross-border trade has been facilitated by international policy negotiations held under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the forum which has decided global trade rules since 1948.

The Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations, which was concluded in 1994, removed many barriers to 'free' trade, such as import tariffs and quotas. As a result, the volume of world trade has risen by over 50% in the space of just six years.

The globalisation of trade is the result not only of these new trade rules introduced by the world's governments. It is also dependent on two more concrete factors:


The development of communications technology, which allows orders to be relayed across the world in seconds

Cheaper transportation, which allows those orders to be fulfilled at greatly reduced cost. Sea freight unit costs have fallen by over 70 per cent during the past 20 years, while air freight costs have fallen by 3-4% year on year. (Though a third of global trade is just the international movement of goods between different parts of the same multinational.)
http://pilger.carlton.com/globalisation/economy

Multinational corporations can now set up factories in almost any country in the world, relying on increased levels of automation to take the place of the skilled workers who were formerly required to run the machines.
Robots are much more efficient than us you see.

War is capitalism with its gloves off, the logical result of a system driven by competition for control over resources and markets. It was not the madness of President George W. Bush that fuelled the war on Iraq, but US capitalists’ desperate drive to control the world’s oil.
The total expenditure on the war in iraq alone is probably enough to solve more than a substantial amount of the International inequality.

Advocates of globalisation argue that a rules-based system is needed to govern international trade. Many critics agree, but point out that the current rules serve the interests of multinational corporations, not the people of the world.

Fairer and more sustainable alternatives do not imply a return to the protectionism of previous eras. Nor should they be confused with the xenophobia of far right groups which adopt anti-globalisation rhetoric for purposes of their own. Whatever their eventual form, the alternative rules-based systems for globalisation must put the world's poorest people first.

Democracy under this system remains a charade. Where is the democracy when our government wages a war against the wishes of the majority of the people? When “regime change” and “liberation” mean bombing thousands of people and shooting peaceful demonstrators? Under capitalism, “democracy” at most means voting every three years or so for one or the other of the parties funded by corporations.
Using racism, nationalism, sexism and homophobia, the capitalist system aims to divide us.

Seven solutions put forward by John Pilger regarding the impact globalisation is having:
SEVEN SOLUTIONS

Put people first - WTO liberalisation agreements such as GATS and TRIPs must be reassessed on the basis of their impact on the poorest people, and the rules changed so that benefits from the global economy are shared fairly and evenly according to need.

Restore national control over development - Countries must be allowed to determine their own development paths, free from the ideological interference of the IMF and World Bank. Countries must be allowed to make performance requirements of multinationals investing in their territories.

End protectionism in the world's richest countries - The tariff barriers which block developing country exports to the markets of the rich world must be removed, and targeted support provided to workers in industrialised countries who are affected by the change. There needs to be fundamental reform of agricultural systems, with the aim of making food supply fairer to farmers in the Third World, as well as safer and more sustainable. In particular, European and US governments must end the agricultural subsidies which give their farmers an unfair advantage over producers in the developing world.

Give priority to the poor - The rules of globalisation should make more provision for the special needs of the world's poorest countries. The European Union's first step in promising duty-free access to exports from the 48 least developed countries should be extended to more countries and matched by all rich nations.

Make multinationals accountable - Companies have globalised, but the rules regulating their activities haven't. UN agreements contain sound rules on workers' rights, human rights, consumer protection, indigenous peoples and the environment. But there is no means for consistent enforcement of these standards. There should be a new international mechanism to regulate the activities of all multinationals across the world, with government enforcement supported by independent monitoring to ensure that they abide by it.

Build democratic space for genuine debate - All decisions at the IMF and World Bank are taken on the basis of 'one dollar one vote', which guarantees the world's richest countries an inbuilt majority. The WTO has acknowledged that it too has tended to marginalise the interests of the developing world. Without the democratic space to discuss alternatives to the free trade agenda, there will be little chance of making globalisation work in the interests of the poor.

Regulate capital markets - Financial markets must be regulated to ensure that the East Asian crisis of 1997-98 can never be repeated. In addition, mechanisms such as the Tobin Tax should be introduced: a small tax on all financial exchange transactions which would raise around $1 trillion each year for development purposes and reverse the current flow of finance from the developing to the developed world.

On his first visit to England in 1930, Mahatma Gandhi was asked: “What do you think of Western civilisation?”
He is said to have replied: “That would be a good idea”.
Sadly in my opinion it is one we have yet to bring to fruition.