Thomas Friedman's metaphor of the electronic herd captures representations of the new elite emerging in the global free market economy fueled by technological innovation. They are constructed as dynamic, mobile, and technologically sophisticated. They fluidly traverse the world of non-places and occupy corporate towers. They are surrounded personal communication technologies. And yet, even in these idealized abstractions, uncertainties and anxieties seep through. Narratives of success are sprinkled with narrative hints of failure. The exhilaration associated with accelerated social, economic, and technological change mixes with anxiety. There are more losers than winners in casino capitalism. The landscape of risk is ever present. The modern nomads who circumnavigate the globe often long for the warmth of place. They must make do with a signifier of affection: a photograph, a hair broach, a faxed note, a memento. Although power and mobility are celebrated, the social tableaux of adverts suggest that capital creates a less than perfect world even for its winners.

Finally, we must keep in mind the great disparity in wealth that disappears in these ads. But these conditions disappear from view. The elite is insulated from the non-elite. They travel through the space of non-places. If persons in developing countries are shown, they are abstracted from conditions of poverty or presented as beneficiaries of investment capital. Meanwhile, the growing disparity in wealth between management and labor and rich and poor worlds is given both increased statistical weight by even the most conservative organization, such as the World Bank, and ethnographic evidence of Third World workers and poor. Furthermore, this growing disparity supported by neo-liberalism economic practices heightens the disparities already linked to race, gender, and class.

The latest global numbers on income poverty, based on international poverty lines of $1/day, taken to indicate absolute poverty, and $2/day in 1985 purchasing power parity (PPP) dollars, were first calculated for 1985. They are updated every three years, as updating them requires data on consumption/income and prices, which are available infrequently and with a lag of three-four years. The most recent figures are for 1993. The share of people living on under $1/day (in 1985 PPP dollars) over the developing world’s population declined slightly from 30.1 percent to 29.4 percent. But the number of people living on under $1/day rose from 1.2 billion in 1987 to 1.3 billion in 1993. In 1993, 3 billion people worldwide lived on less than $2 per day. (World Bank statistics)

By 1999, the wealth of the world's 475 billionaires was greater than the combined incomes of the poorest half of humanity." (Anderson and Cavanagh, 2000, p.53)

In 1960, the world's 20 richest countries had 30 times more income than the poorest 20%. Now, that wealth gap has grown to 74 times.

Light modernity let one partner out of the cage. 'Solid' modernity was an era of mutual engagement. 'Fluid' modernity is the epoch of disengagement, elusiveness, facile escape and hopeless chase. In 'liquid' modernity, it is the most elusive, those free to move without notice, who rule. (Bauman, 2000: p.120)