Productivity in NA hasn't made the workers richer. That's for damn sure. **** productivity.
One thing that sucks about globalization is that in certain industries you have to compete more with everybody else in every other country instead of just the company across town. But even then many employers in NA squeeze every ounce of production value out of people to maximize the dollars they're paying people. It's pretty sick sometimes.
Then you add technology where everything has sped up more and more. Stress and depression is ensured. Then people sit at home and isolate themselves but get their social needs met with social media & texting replaced phone calls which replaced face to face...our culture is crazy.