In the middle-income and wealthier countries the negative effects of globalization are swamped by the effects of skill improvement, which reduces the pool of unskilled workers and so increases the relative demand for their services. International inequality will change only slowly under any realistic scenario. But the scenario of convergence and inclusion could start to reduce the immense differences that now exist. This would begin to reverse the large gap that has emerged over the past century, as workers in industrial countries reaped the benefits of economic takeoff, but those in Sub-Saharan Africa did not. Governments have to work with the legacies of past policies and development structures.
Workers have to live with the opportunities at hand.
But for both governments and workers, that is just the starting point. Both are agents of change. Good choices by governments, in the domestic and the international realms, can lead to advances in the living standards of all groups of workers in the world and help bring back into the fold those who are unable to keep up or adjust on their own. If international conditions are favorable and governments do their part to create the right environment, workers will be able to make the job choices, negotiate the conditions of work, and make the schooling decisions for their children that will improve the welfare of all groups of workers. That could begin to reverse the long-run trend of widening international inequality between workers that has been so marked a feature of the past century, and bring new hope and opportunities to millions currently trapped in poverty.