There’s has been so much talk over the last few years about globalization and it’s impact on the world economy. We read about how companies are finding cost savings and new markets by utilizing countries half-way around the world. Pundits talk about the pros and cons of this new development. I’m not going to delve into that debate right now.

Tonight over dinner I heard an anecdotal story that resonated a bit. Two-hundred years ago, selling in a global market was impossible. The struggle was to produce a product and sell it within the same state or within the same region of the country. If you lived in New Orleans and made a product you had to find a way to load this product onto a boat and ship it up the Mississippi to your customers. More than likely, you had a product that spoiled and the trip would take weeks. Also, you might have needed to purchase raw materials or equipment from the other side of the country.

Another scenario to help paint this picture is the reality of migrant workers a couple of generations back. As little as 50 years ago, it was common for poor families in this country to send their youth off to a distant state to work in agriculture. Money would be returned to support the family. I know this is true because my grandmother experienced this first-hand as a child.

Does this sound familiar? Selling to far off lands? Using resources from other countries? Taking advantage of cheap outside labor? Migrant workers sending money back home?

I wonder if the realities of globalization are really that different than our ancestors dealt with two-hundred years ago. I wonder if their world was just as flat as today, just smaller.