WESTERNIZING THE THIRD WORLD

The last 200 years, roughly from the publication of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations in 1776 to the present, have witnessed a remarkable, systemic drive for the globalization of Western capitalism. The intellectual origin of this drive has been mainstream economics which has capitalised technology, labour, environment and other productive resources; in practice, these resources have been harnessed by aggressive capitalists [originally called adventurers, forerunnes of today's multinational corporations (MNCs)] in a worldwide search for profits. This drive has enriched the West but not the vast majority of humanity.