"The World Is Flat" Thomas Friedman

jmacdaddio · Heavy Crude Joined: May 14, 2005 Posts: 213

This book contains the usual Friedman gee-whiz globalization drivel. Crap like "a French manager at a Mexican factory took his Brazilian wife to a Thai restaurant in London on their first date" pops up too often.

Mixed in with the drivel is some good analysis of India and China. India is becoming the outsourcing center for the world - they will gladly take pieces of your operations off your hands. China is becoming the off-shoring center for the world - they will gladly manufacture whatever you want.

I'm about 1/3 of the way through. So far it's worth the effort, but I know the dedicated doomers here won't like it.

honeylocust · Tar Sands Joined: Jul 15, 2005 Posts: 34

I heard the beginning of an NPR interview on CAFTA. A professor of economics/poly sci was promoting it. I thought, hey buddy, how about the university outsource teaching courses via internet to India and fire you. My tuition will be cheaper. Twisted Evil

Globalization is clearly a massive error in many circumstances, besides which it shall be destroyed post peak. Thomas Friedman is an excellent manifestation of consensus trance insanity. Evil or Very Mad

I_Like_Plants · Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2005 1:49 am Post subject:

I've heard it's an enormous load of twaddle.

jaws · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Apr 24, 2005 Posts: 1257

pstarr · Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2005 1:16 am Post subject:

friedman is schmuck
_________________
director

ree rah rip ram. sunofabitch godamn. hidey didey christ almighty. rah rah crap wav

eastbay · Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2005 2:17 am Post subject:

I saw/heard a few minutes of him as he discussed him book on CSPAN last night at around 3am after I got home from work... I had a serious negative gut reaction to his ding-dong nonsense and was sent scurrying around in a mad scrabble to find my wife's air sickness medication.

Joking here... I never take medication for such things...

JB2 · Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2005 11:49 am Post subject:

I can't post my own review of this book since I am unable to digest more than a few paragraphs of Friedman-speak at a time. Here's a good review I found online - with a bonus mention of peak oil:

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18154#fnr4

jmacdaddio · Heavy Crude Joined: May 14, 2005 Posts: 213

I finished this book while on holiday. I'll do the best I can to mention highlights so people here can avoid reading it. While some parts were hard to stomach, Friedman does acknowledge a few problems facing America:

1. US education is in a crisis. We are not producing enough innovators to keep our edge, and foreign talent is losing economic incentive to come here even if they can get past the long visa waits post-Sept. 11.

2. US busniness is focusing on hitting quarterly results at the expense of long-term development.

3. He devotes a chapter to the problem of energy, but doesn't acknowledege PO. Also he doesn't seem to realize that lower manufacturing costs is only part of the China equation: low-wage, low-regulation countries need cheap transport fuel to send their cheaply made products overseas to midwestern Wal-Marts.

Be wary if your job function or industry is something that can be easily done anywhere on the planet. If you are inflexible in your career plans you will find yourself without a job sooner or later. We are in an age of commoditization where price is the driver and not features or quality. China is determined to become a superpower and in less than a generation they will no longer be content to make our cheap junk - they have plans to become world leaders in science, technology, engineering, etc. Bush and friends aren't helping the US prepare for the long haul: education and the ability to attract talent are critical for success rather than putting up walls and choosing bombs over classrooms.