The Future of the World Economy

From Fortune Magazine:

Think of the $58 trillion global economy, very roughly, as 32 Californias. (California today is about $1.8 trillion strong.) The U.S. accounts for eight of them; the European Union plus Switzerland and Norway, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand make up another 10½. Prosperous Asia -- that's Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore -- gives you another 3½ Golden States.

That already gets us to 22, meaning the rest of the world -- the BRICs, the whole Islamic world, including its oil-rich states, most of Southeast Asia, all of Latin America, and Africa -- is the equivalent of 10 Californias, with China accounting for about a third of that output.

Now let's divide the world another way: The population in the first group of wealthy countries is about 1.1 billion, or 16% of the world's total. The rest of the world is home to 84% of the planet.

This enormous disparity between the distribution of the world's population and its economic wealth has led to two distinct arguments.

First there is the case that global inequality is both wrong and dangerous. It's wrong because we diminish our humanity if we in the rich world allow billions to live stunted and miserable lives when they don't need to; it's dangerous because poverty and disease don't stay confined. When the movement of people, pathogens, and weapons is easier than it has ever been, the resentments, diseases, and grievances of the poor risk making everyone's life miserable.

The second argument is concerned less with morals and security and more with markets. The pragmatist looks at the world and sees 4 billion producers and consumers whose appetites and ingenuity have not been fully tapped -- sees, in other words, huge opportunities for economic growth and corporate earnings.

From: http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/21/news/international/global_forum_opportunity.fortune/index.htm