The World Is Flat, By Thomas L. Friedman

Jared Diamond is a world renowned scientist, author, Pulitzer Prize winner, and currently a geography professor at UCLA. Of his six books published, we will be looking at the last chapter of his fourth book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. In this book Diamond utilizes the comparative method to find resemblance in past societal collapses with our current society. In the chapter entitled, "The World as Polder: What Does it Mean to Us Today," Diamond points out that there are indeed many parallels between past and present societies and that our modern day society is currently on a path of self destruction , through examples such as globalization and the interdependency of each country.

In Friedman’s “It’s a Flat World, After All”, Friedman in a trip Bangalore, India accidentally “encountered the flattening of the world”. The following paper will analyze “It’s a Flat World, After All” and the flattening of the world. To conclude the paper I will summarize my thoughts on the flattening of the world.

Technology has made the world a smaller place. Recent innovations in jets, satellites, and computers have made communication across the globe faster. People are now able to travel to any destination they want in less than a day, so why can’t businesses travel as well? Globalization intends to answer that question. New technology has increased worldwide trade and investment by allowing more companies to trade at a faster rate. Thomas Friedman considers globalization to be “farther, faster, cheaper, and deeper than ever before” (9). Multinational corporations that have entered globalization can now trade their business wherever labor is the cheapest.

In the late 20th century, technology began advancing so quickly that entire world economies underwent extraordinary transformations in very little time. It used to be only a handful of powerful people and corporations interacting in global trade and commerce, but technology has made it so “countries like India are now able to compete for global knowledge,” giving leaders and companies the ability to work with more nations than ever before (Friedman 7). The internet has given men and women the power to connect, communicate and provide information to people across the planet in an instant. It has given people the opportunity to seek knowledge, educate themselves and single-handily play a role in the world economy. This is called

Over the past decades, Globalization had made the world a much smaller place. In the passage While I was Sleeping by Thomas L Freidman and The Rise of the Rest by Fareed Zakaria, there is a connection between the two passage. Thomas L. Freidman use the metaphor "the world is flat" which mean there are many competition in the world now. Fareed Zakaria address the U.S power is diminishing because the rest of the world is catching up. Along with the diminishing power, America is also outsourcing jobs to other nations where labor are cheap, and abundant of natural resource are available for use, but it is taking jobs away from many American.

Globalization is a phenomenon that has been impacting our world since as early as 114 BCE. Globalization refers to the assimilation of different economies, trade, and communication. Its origins can be traced back to the establishment of the Silk Road; an ancient trade route extending across from China to the Mediterranean Sea. Globalization, throughout history has had a positive effect in developing economies and creating trade. However, in light of recent events, many economists and leaders are describing it as a barrier to a utopian society. As civil servant and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Kofi Annan once said, “Globalization is a fact of life. But I believe we have underestimated its fragility” (Annan 1999). In many parts of the world, globalization

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

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).”

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

This is related to technology and outsourcing as a by product of this new technology. The personal computer allowed more and more people to engineer their own life digitally. They could now send pictures, media, data, messages, and even market new products due to a little thing we call the internet. Over the years it has developed in ways that would have been unimaginable in the past. All due to thin tubes of glass that transmit electrical signals efficiently and speedily. Because of their thinness many are able to being clumped together allowing more information to be sent in bulk. These cables came to be known as fiber optic cables. Outsourcing, the practice of sending work to other non local companies to be finished, edited, or for other various reasons, was made possible due of the internet and new technologies such as these fiber optic cables. It also allowed more communication between foreign countries, such as India ;which was a very significant outsourcing center in the world due to cheap labor and their advancing capital Dubai. Not only did American countries benefit from outsourcing , but India did as well. Outsourcing provided more jobs for young Indians and helped boost the economy, making it more possible for them to support and provide for their families. Therefore globalization of this kind does unite countries, including developing countries,

Thomas Friedman mentions that world is growing flatter. When he says that world is flat, he means that world is becoming more economically fair and levelling opportunities and wealth among all the nations. With easy access to information and availability of opportunities irrespective of one’s locations is providing for people from many different countries with an equal chance to succeed economically.

The phrase: "the world is flat" can be interpreted in many ways. Basically what Friedman means by "flat" is "linked." The falling of trade and political barriers and technical advances have made it possible to do business, instantaneously with billions of other people around the world. It has allowed for parts of the world, which had previously been cut off, like China and India, to successfully compete in the world market. Thus, the playing field is being leveled, and no one nation has an advantage. Friedman could also refer to a "flat world" in a metaphorical sense. In a spherical earth you cannot see around the world and cannot recognize the opportunities far from where you live. If the world were flat you could see it all. There

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 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.

The concept of globalization has become a prevalent phenomenon in the past two decades because of the changes it has brought and the adoption of its strategies by multinational corporations or companies. The economic changes of globalization include the strengthening of economic inter-dependence, internationalization of production, and enhanced mobility of transnational corporations. On the other hand, trade liberalization, privatization, and deregulation are the ideological changes emanating from this concept.