Could it be that the problem has been wrongly perceived? The combination of many countries have shown that extremist groups are no match for the various countries. Many countries are striving for more of a modernized society and this contributes to societal values of the country. This will take a long time, but is already taking away from the extremists that undermine societal values. That doesn’t mean countries will be falling behind. Countries in the Middle East in particular have been losing when it comes to globalization. The United States have to find ways to help the countries that are falling behind and come up with a strategy to make it less difficult to increase production.
The flat world that is referred to by Friedman described globalization, as innovated It was brought upon him after hearing an Indian software executive explain how the world's economic standards is being leveled. Nowadays an individual or company anywhere can be competitive nationally or globally. China and India are talked about a large amount in Friedman's story because they are the two big countries benefiting the most from the flat world. The Indian case is less intensive and still in action, though it has been increasingly rising throughout the years. But Friedman understands that China and India represent not just threats to the developed world, but also great opportunities. After all, the changes he is describing have the net effect of adding hundreds of millions of consumers. That is an opportunity that many companies and people can’t take for granted and have to take at the face value of what is being given to them. People in advanced countries have to find ways to move up the chain, to have special skills that create superior products for which they can charge extra. UPS is a great example of this because delivering goods didn’t have a great value, but in today’s day and age it has a high customer base.
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The ultimate example is a detailed report on the computer company Dell's construction of Friedman's latest laptop. Journalists are notorious for interviewing their typewriters, but this must be the longest example of the genre: a typewriter's complete biography.Throughout the book the metaphor of a flat Earth is reproduced again and again. What was not a particularly useful image to begin with is flogged to death until only the bones remain. At the same time, Friedman's laptop may need the 'I' key replacing, such is the hammering it must have absorbed from the author's use of the personal pronoun. In the course of the book we learn much about Friedman's family, friends and eating habits, culminating in a paean to his school journalism teacher.
It would not matter so much if there were any value in his argument. There isn't. He roves the world interviewing the likes of Bill Gates, and concludes that high technology is changing everything. That's like studying the UK labour market by only talking to Premier league footballers. The problem is that Friedman is attempting to write a book on international economic without knowing much about it. He does talk to a couple of economists, but he soon gets carried away and there is a full-blown crisis. 'Our kids will be increasingly competing head-to-head with Chinese, Indian and Asian kids,' writes Friedman. Actually, they won't, but Friedman then loses it completely. 'What can happen is a decline in our standard of living, if more Americans are not empowered and educated to participate in a world where all the knowledge centres are being connected.' This is a statement of such vacuity as to be meaningless.
Although at times it may seem like the world got flat almost overnight, that’s not exactly the case. According to Friedman, globalization has so far gone through three distinct phases. With each phase of globalization, the world became just a tiny bit flatter. But today, with the explosion of new technologies, the flattening process is in overdrive. Friedman explains that the first phase of globalization took place from 1492 to 1800, during which European countries opened up trade with each other, and with the New World. This first phase was largely driven by military expansion, and success depended on the amount of raw manpower and horsepower countries could employ. The second phase was from 1800 to 2000, where multinational corporations drove global integration. The dominant technologies were railways and autos. And the defining technology of our era is a worldwide network of fiber-optic cable, capable of transmitting reams of electronic data from one end of the globe to the other in seconds.
It’s clear that the flattening of the world is creating profound challenges, as well as opportunities, for those of us in North America. It’s a watershed moment in our history. “If this moment has any parallel in modern history,” writes Friedman, “it is the height of the Cold War around 1957 when the Soviet Union leapt ahead of America in the space race by putting up the Sputnik satellite.” Of course, the main challenge at that time came from those who wanted to put up fences and walls. The main challenge we face today comes from the fact that all the walls are being taken down and many other people can now compete with us much more directly. The main threat we faced at that time was from those practicing extreme Communism, namely Russia and China. The main threat today is from those practicing extreme capitalism, namely China and India.
In Friedman’s view, meeting the challenges of a flat world requires just as energetic and focused a response as did meeting the challenge of Communism a generation ago. In other words, it requires political leaders who can summon the nation to work harder, get smarter, attract more young people to science and engineering, and build the broadband infrastructure, portable pensions and health care that will help every citizen become more employable in an age in which no one can guarantee lifetime employment. Admittedly, the challenges of competing in a flat world are markedly different than those formerly presented by the threat of Communism. For starters, today’s challenges don’t exactly involve nuclear missiles aimed at our cities. It is more of a quiet crisis this time around, but in Friedman’s estimation, that doesn’t make it any less real, or less pressing. As he makes the rounds on the American talk show circuit, and in other forums, Friedman has made it his personal mission to draw the nation’s attention to this threat.Of course, in order to deal effectively with the quiet crisis, we must first understand its roots. Friedman believes the crisis is a product of three gaps currently plaguing North American society. The first is an ”ambition gap.” Compared with the young, energetic Indians and Chinese, too many people in the West have simply gotten lazy. Or, as David Rothkopf, a former official in the Clinton Commerce Department, explained to Friedman: “The real entitlement we need to get rid of is our sense of entitlement.”
Friedman argues we have a serious “numbers gap.” We are not producing enough engineers and scientists. The United States and Canada used to make up for that by importing them from India and China, but in a flat world, where people can now stay home and compete with us, and also in our post-9/11 world with all its security concerns, we can no longer rely on immigration to cover the gap. And finally, Friedman argues we are experiencing an education gap. “There’s a dirty little secret that no CEO wants to tell you,” he says. “Companies are not just outsourcing to China and India to save on salaries and benefits. They are doing it because they can often get better-skilled and more productive people than their North American workers.”
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