“The World is 10 years old”. This is one of the opening quotes in Thomas Friedman’s book, The Lexus and the Olive Tree. He says it was born when the Berlin wall fell. As soon as the Cold War Era ended, we began a new, prosperous era of globalization. The world is now 26 years old (16 years since Friedman wrote the book) and this era of globalization is more evident than ever. With every day that passes in this somewhat new era, the world shrinks. The 7 billion people that reside on planet earth are more closely connected and intertwined than ever before. Globalization takes all the world’s economies and merges them together, not allowing any action to be taken without a consequence. In his book, Friedman argues that the world is undergoing …show more content…
He develops a metaphor for the system that must be used in order to be successful with globalization. He calls it the Golden Straight Jacket. He first eludes to the previous eras of globalization in which there was more than one system of government and economics that were be using around the globe. But he says that in this era the Golden Straight Jacket must be worn by every country in order to be successful and that is free-market capitalism. Now I feel that for some countries this represents the Lexus as they must innovate to catch up with this system. However for other countries such as the United States and Great Britain, this system has been implemented throughout their histories and is more representative of the Olive Tree. Friedman says that the Golden Straight Jacket keeps the economy competitive, which in counter to arguments made my Mandela and others, means that even though this era of globalization can leave people behind quicker than ever, it can help people financially catch up just as quick. Capitalism provides equality of opportunity in contrast to equality of reward. The world is a competitive place and they like to rank nations to show who the best is and who needs to improve. Freidman does this with another metaphor. He compares countries to a computer processing system. He names the operating system DOSCapital …show more content…
So that must mean that the US has a large role to play in globalization. Freidman explains this role in the four section of his book. He explains that the US is ahead in globalization because of ration exuberance (more assets than liabilities), geographic position, military power, culture, linguistics, economics and finance. I agree with all of these points and I feel that the US is without doubt the best suited country and most powerful country in this globalized system. Probably my argument that Freidman makes in his book is the five gas stations theory (379-380). In this he compares how getting gas in five different circumstances relates to the world on a broad scale. He compares the Japanese where everything is done for you but at a high price, the Western European where the workers do the bare minimum yet still a high price, the third world country where the gas is cheap but you get no service and all the money goes back to a rich owner making millions, the communist system in which all the gas is sold on the black market so that the workers can make more money and finally the American system where gas is cheap but you there are no workers to service your needs. He says that everyone in the world needs to learn the American way of pumping your own gas. I think that this is one of the clearest metaphors in the whole book and I also think that it is America’s role
Globalization allows important processes to occur and be maintained more efficiently and important ideas to become reality in an environment where they otherwise may not be. There is a certain irony involved in this however that must be mentioned. For example, globalization is going to allow the world to work together to hopefully solve our apocalyptic environmental predicament in a best case scenario. Of course however, this predicament is a result of globalization(1, Conclusion). Still, it allows the human race to push forward, which at this point we must recognize as a necessity of our species in a time where progress of the human race is growing rapidly. In my opinion this is a progress is written in our DNA, and globalization has allowed us to accomplish truly incredible things(2, Conclusion).
American culture was built on the idea of progress. Our society has focused on creating new technology, advancing the current systems, and these forces thrust the world towards globality, a world where countries are increasingly interconnected. To be clear, globalization isn’t a new phenomenon, but the technological advances of the postmodern era accelerated the path to globality, a world in which our current ideas of national borders are significantly different, much more fluid. Economics is just one facet of globalization, but unmistakable in the chosen image. Economic globalization refers to the complex system that our
We can see the effects of globalization in three major periods of time. The first starts in 1492 and goes all the way to 1800. This was a time where countries become more global with the rest of the world. Globalization 2.0 was from the 1800 to roughly 2000. This was a time of companies developing the global marketplace. Globalization 3.0 is a period of time we are in today. It will level the world and will be a period of individuals and small groups globalizing. “This era is not going to be
It has become increasing undeniable that the process of globalization is present, and a strong force in the international market. “Globalization”, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is defined as, “ the development of an increasingly global economy especially by free trade, free flow of capital, and the tapping of cheaper foreign labor markets”. Before the start of the 1990’s, the United States had little competition in the international marketplace, and was as strong as ever. Globalization has opened the international market to cheap land and labor outside the United States. Corporations and businesses have outsourced many jobs from the United States labor markets, at the expense of United States labor. One of the biggest questions facing America today is if it is ready for Globalization. I believe that we are not ready for a variety of reasons, but there are a few that stand out in my mind. The top factors concerning the U.S. are ineffective nature of Congress, U.S. national debt, and overseas outsourcing.
In this article, if I did not took a globalisation course last semester, I probably would be lost and I would have a hard time to understand from where the author take his “Ethos”, how does he prove his credibility throughout the text when he is only giving his opinions and points of view? Friedman here, only use the pronoun “I” and “call them the Electronic Herd(…)which I call the Supermarkets”(393) Indeed, here we only have his point of view of how he is calling those global market. Nevertheless, due to history that I mostly learn in school, I know that
In Thomas L. Friedman’s “Globalization: The Super-Story”, he examines the features of globalization from various aspects and how it helps people better understand 9/11 events. He claims that globalization is the new improved system formed in place of the old “cold war system”(102), and through the patterns of which, people observe today’s world in an integrated way. Simple short phrases, organized structure, colloquial language, and punctuation are techniques Friedman uses to create a reader-friendly, convincing essay. To begin with, Friedman uses simple short phrases to emphasize his points. He starts with an enthusiastic term “big believer” (102), which establishes the colloquial
The definition is excellent in describing the system that is present today. Friedman pointed out that markets around the globe become intertwined into one web of connectivity, where one company in North America can easily interact and do business with an individual in Asia, and create profits. However, the inter-connectivity I believe in has more to it. Going beyond what Friedman stated, I argue that the globalization of world markets not only helps the existing large financial centers of the world, but also smaller, and often times, newer markets. While I do not agree with the outsourcing of jobs, the factories moved to lower wage countries is a benefit to people working, and living there. It offers employment, and a life to the workers that they would have never had if the factories were never sent there. It helps the poorer nations in developing an economy, and become part of the global market. Friedman said that Supermarkets can destroy nations (473), but its power could also aid the poorer nations to grow and even maybe, join the global
People can no communicate, create, and transfer information within a split of the second. Friedman mentions "Globalization 1.0 and 2.0 were driven primarily by European and American individuals and businesses" (Friedman, 631.) What he means is business, and individual are interacting and integrating between one another in the Western and European world, but since; Globalization 3.0 is approaching at a rapid pace. Friedman stated (because it is flattening and shrinking the world, Globalization 3.0 is going to be more and more driven not only by individual but also by a much more diverse--- none-Western, nonwhite---group of individual" (Friedman, 631.) Even though India was the reason he came to the conclusion the world is flat, but during that time, China, Japan, and many other country are doing the same thing. This new era will be power by global market which is striving on competition, and those who can't catch up will be left behind.
Contemporary globalization is an exceptionally multifaceted phenomenon and can be defined as "an intensification of cross-national cultural, economic, political, social and technological interactions that lead to the establishment of transnational structures and the global integration of cultural, economic, environmental, political and social processes on global, supranational, national, regional and local levels" (Huynen, Martens & Hilderink, 2005). The very nature of the American society has experienced insightful and compound changes due to globalization that has brought with it both new opportunities and risks. Similarly, the impacts of globalization
‘Globalization: What’s new? What’s not? (And so what)’, portrays the speed in which globalism has increased through many different factors; economically, military, environmentally and socially. This is an idealist analytic approach, not set in stone. This leads on to
That this was also the decade in which globalization came into full swing is more than a minor inconvenience for its advocates” (Rodrick). If globalization is supposed to present an advantage to developing countries, why have there been so many setbacks? Indeed, both sides will have its winners and losers regardless of which side of the development coin they live on, but for the most part globalization has lifted millions out of poverty, improved the standard of living, and increased life expectancy rates all while keeping developed nations relatively competitive to their developing counterparts. Globalization’s value is that it seeks to create an economic equilibrium in the world, where parties are free from barriers and can benefit from one another through a more efficient allocation of resources. This allows all participating nations to contribute to an integrated economy and where all nations willing to embrace globalization have the potential to benefit. Regardless, the path to successful integration to the global economy has not always been easy. There is contention towards globalization as some argue that it is detrimental to developed nations, while many developing countries that were forced to hastily open up their markets and integrate failed. However, if implemented properly, globalization has proven that it can benefit all parties involved and that the potential gains outweigh the losses.
Globalization means economic,social,culture and communications integration become integrated with each countries. All of the president very concerned about the benefit which globalization bring to them especially economic globalization.However,it will cause a loss that can not be overlooked if we are indiscriminate.
Globalization through Friedman’s definition is a factor, a framework and/or lens through which we look at the world and events, and decide what is important and what is not. Differentiating the cold war system and the globalization system, Friedman gives the origin of the new system and how it came to be. Its predecessor, the cold war system existed since the end of WWII. Friedman defines the world in this era to be divided, chopped up and defined by a symbol, the Berlin Wall. Friedman states that whether you were a country or a company, your threats and opportunities came from where you were divided (392). At this time there were two super
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).”
First, we can look at how Steger defines globalization to gain a better understanding of what globalization actually is. In his book “Globalization: A Very Short Introduction,” Manfred B. Steger states, “Globalization refers to the expansion and intensification of social relations and consciousness across world-time and world-space” (Steger 2003, 15). To break his definition down further, expansion and intensification of how people react with each other means that more challenges in social interaction with each other