The World Is Flat By Thomas L. Friedman

The State University of New York (2014) provides and clear and accurate description of globalization:

Globalization has been a process underway for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. From the Roman Empire, to caravans on the Spice Road, to the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the process of connecting the globe in an interdependent web has been underway for a long time. Today, it seems that this process has been quickly accelerated. Since the end of World War II and the rebuilding effort that followed it, global development has increased at an intense rate fueled by transnational corporations, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. These multilateral organizations have transformed our global economy and reshaped our society.

Pankaj Ghemawat believes we do not live in a globally flat world. In his work Why the World isn’t Flat he speaks of how this greatly wide spread globalization is more of an idea than the truth. Ghemawat claims that while globalization is a hot topic, it is talked about in more ways than it is actually used. According to the US library of Congress’s catalog, the rate of increase in the writings of globalization have been doubling about every 18 months since the 1990’s. While many more people are expressing their ideas of globalization we are not partaking in the actual actions of globalization nearly as much as these writings make it seem. Of course most of the ways we interact, as the writings suggest, are being done “we only interact in a way that is a fraction of what we could do”. A whooping 90 percent of all phone calls, web traffic, and investments are still only local interactions and plenty of the over seas transactions are still done with domestic companies that simply have operations in foreign nations. Since they are domestic all benefits from that operation will eventually, if not instantly, return home. It is said that “investment knows no boundaries” but if these investments are done with locally based companies located in an international location the geographical ground will not reek the benefits. While technological advances have made global interaction come with ease, it is a huge step to believe increased communication will take away the effects that

Chapter Eight of Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat explains six “dirty secrets” when it comes to America’s standing as a competitive nation, six truths that reveal that America will not maintain its relative wealth if the world continues to flatten. The first of these “secrets” is what Friedman calls “the numbers gap”, referring to the declining number of Americans who are training to become scientists and engineers compared to citizens of other nations. Friedman posits that scientists and engineers are paramount to an economy that wishes to be flourish and be competitive. Before the world began to flatten, citizens of foreign nations would have to emigrate to America if they wished to be a scientist or an engineer, because their home country had no equivalent labs to those of America. Now, with the effects of flattening and the Internet, researchers can collaborate over the Internet, and globalization allows labs to have multiple, international locations.

In this chapter, Thomas Friedman looks at how cultures and societies will have to deal with and adapt to the changes that globalization brings to the way of doing business. It affects whole companies and individuals. He gives the perception of the world is flattening by comparing the Industrial Revolution to the IT Revolution that is happening right now. The flattening process was identified by Karl Marx and Frederich Engels in the Communist Manifesto, published in 1848. Marx’s writings about capitalism state “the inexorable march of technology and capital to remove all barriers, boundaries, frictions, and restraints to global commerce (Friedman 234).”

1. “But Friedman’s image of a flat earth is profoundly misleading – a view of the world from a seat in business class. Flatness is another way of describing the transnational search by companies for cheap labor, an image that misses the pervasiveness of global inequality and the fact that much of the developing world remains mired in poverty and misery. It also misses the importance of the global geopolitical hierarchy, which guarantees the provision of stability, property rights, and other international public goods. The rise of China and India is less about flatness than it is about dramatic upheavals in the mountains and valleys of the global geopolitical map”

Author Thomas L. Friedman commences his book, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, by recounting an excursion to Bangalore, India, as part of his travels with the Discovery Times channel. He describes being struck by the city’s rapid growth into an energetic hub of information technology. Right in the midst of weathered roads, continually worn by rickshaws and horse-drawn carts, Friedman observes “India’s Silicon Valley” (4); it was here that he stumbled upon a kind of profound realization. Comparing his discovery, rather audaciously, with that of Christopher Columbus, the author reveals to his wife, “Honey, I think the world is flat” (5).

During the last decade of the twentieth century, the word ‘globalization’ has become an increasingly prominent feature of political, social, and economic discussion in academic and policymaking circles, as well as in the media. The processes and outcomes of globalization drew attention and debates that had one thing in common. The research shows that nearly everyone agrees that globalization is a trend that is changing the face of the world, and as a result the world society lives in a more ‘globalized’ world. Nearly two and a half decades passed since 1990s, and studies have been conducted to examine the causes and consequences of globalization. Moreover, nearly every person experiences some type of globalization and can testify firsthand the effects it has on their life, society, and the state. The analysis of the effects that globalization dynamics have on the world society indicates that globalization has a significant positive impact via spreading opportunities and wealth across nations, stimulating innovation and productivity, enhancing the economic development of poorer countries, and helping to improve living standards.

In Chapter Two of Thomas Friedman’s book, The World is Flat, Friedman describes ten events and occurrences that have contributed to the world being flat. According to Friedman, a “flattened” world is one where all people and countries have the same opportunities; mainly, that other countries have the resources to challenge America. One of these flatteners is called work flow software, which is technology that has allowed work to become more efficient and productive. This technology utilizes the digital format of documents to make the transfer of the documents easier, as well as allowing more people access to the document. In Danville, work flow software has made a very large impact. In the Danville Area School District, high school students are each given their own Chromebook at no cost, while middle school

In Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat he presents his idea of the globalization of the world in all areas; from economic to communication with other countries. Friedman is a journalist from the New York Times and most of his work focuses on economic and technological innovations and advancements, and furthermore how they are associated to history. The ideas he presents in this book are both plausible and convincing. The main focus is whether the world is “flat“. The answer to this question depends on the readers’ political, economical, and technological opinions. Friedman does however present evidence in many situations where the globalization of the world is clearly evident. This essay will explore these different

Author Thomas L. Friedman analyses the technological advances that are creating a level economic playing field with previously disadvantaged countries rising in knowledge and wealth rivaling that of the United States and other world powers in the world. Telephone and computer technology, previously a stronghold only of developed countries, is now easily accessible and has been accessed and mastered by countries such as China and India, making these nations competitive. Friedman perceives the flattening effect as so insightful as to be compared in scope to the Industrial Revolution.

In view of Thomas Friedman’s work “It’s a flat world, after all”, the entire planet is turning into a global village due to a rapid growth of information technology. There are 10 major contributors, which were also named “flateners” by Friedman, that made the playing field level. Undoubtedly, current sophistication in technology has provided us great access to internet, a virtual platform where people are capable of communicating, sharing knowledge, or performing online activities. Globalization appears to have collapsed the concerns of space and time by outsourcing cheap labor from another continent to undertake the same task but with equal or better performance. To some extent, Friedman has brought about an

“Globalization is not just one impact of the new technologies that are reshaping the economies of the third millennium” (Thurow 19-31). When speaking of globalization, most people will not have a complete understanding as of what it actually means or what aspects of the world it affects. Globalization promotes free trade and creates jobs. The capital markets attract investors, resort cheap labor, and leads to job losses in some areas of higher wage. While all of this is happening, the world economy is being effected: economically, culturally, socially, and politically.

“Globalization is today's reality. Like it or not, the move to a world economy is a fact of life. At some point in the 1990s the process achieved critical mass and people started to sit up and take notice. Many were apprehensive.

In today’s world, with a few notable exceptions, nearly everyone in every region of the world has access to the same products, information and services. A long-distance relationship is no longer so distant, since each party involved in the relationship can communicate through Skype, Facebook or through any of the vast amount of social media available. A person in Easter Island, one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world, can go to the other side of the world and travel to Canada. An economic crisis in Argentina could affect the economic landscape in Brazil. A person in Chile or Peru can buy an Abercrombie and Fitch t-shirt because this transnational corporation decided to expand its market to developing countries, or as you might prefer, to emerging economies in South America. Although many of these examples might be trivial, these are the consequences of globalization.