This chapter discusses the impact of globalization on the accelerated growth of the middle class in recent years. It explores how China's growing middle class has affected the global middle class and the implications of living in a multi-polar world with more rivalries and contestation. It also emphasizes the opportunities for addressing global problems through collective action presented by the spread of the middle class worldwide.
Co-host Janet Bush talks with Homi Kharas. Kharas is a senior fellow in the Center for Sustainable Development at the Brookings Institution and also cofounder of World Data Lab. He studies policies and trends influencing developing countries, the emergence of the world's middle class, and global governance. He's collaborated with the McKinsey Global Institute on research into consumers in emerging markets and economic empowerment, and his latest book is The Rise of the Global Middle Class: How the Search for the Good Life Can Change The World.
In this podcast, he covers topics including the following:
- How the character of the world’s middle classes is changing
- How the middle classes shape our world
- What becoming middle class means for a household
- The role of the middle class in climate change
- How AI may affect the middle class
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