I disagree with you transio. Here's why: Ever get a virus on your PC? Know somebody who has? Maybe some people who've had been infected numerous times? Are you running anti-virus software?

If you answered yes to any of those, then you know why a single unified world economy/culture is a bad thing. Diversity brings resiliance, lack of diversity means shared vulnerabilities. Since 95% or so of the world's PCs run MS Windows, that means that 95% of world's PCs all have the same weaknesses and the last 5+ years of weekly, if not daily, virus attacks that collectively waste hundreds of billions of dollars of productivity is a pretty strong argument for diversification.

This theory isn't only applicable to silicon and electrons. You see it in nature every day where there are multiple species that overlap, but rarely duplicate their niches. It is a time-proven, even evolutionary, method for life to survive, even great disasters.

So, while modern tribalism may seem archaic, the solution you propose is the equivalent of "putting all your eggs in one basket." Sure, you can then watch that basket VERY closely, but all it takes for one serious "infection" (economic, biological, climatic, memetic, whatever) to get past the watchers and we could see our entire civilization laid to waste.

Don't mistake this position for an argument in favor of pointless warfare, but you can take it for a tacit acceptance that some deaths, even some truely senseless ones, are necessary to maintain the balance and robustness of our society in the long term.

PS. I think you'll find you are in agreement with the Sarge more than you may realize.