Global Cities

November 6, 2008 9:17pm

A Global City is basically a city that plays a major part in the global economy, one whose decisions both influence the way the world at large progresses due to its size and integration into the world as a whole. Factors such as total population, total foreign-born population, status of mass transit, and the amount of business they do on whole are all considered. There’s even an organization that studies such things and comes up with general lists of which cities are the “most global” of them all. I like lists, so I studied them.

If you look at the Earth as a whole, say, as Captain Jean Luc Picard would were he evaluating Earth’s admission into the Federation (impossible, I know, but humor me), this is what you might see when analyzing the 10 largest Global Cities:

• Of the top 10 cities represented, 4 are in North America (3 of which are in the US), 4 in Asia, and 2 in Europe. Africa, South America and Oceania are not represented. Though, neither is Antarctica, which I think is the real tragedy.
• That means that of the people who hold the most power, 30% of that power is wielded by one single nation: the United States of America.

Up Next: Dear America, Thank You