The World is Flat? - no it's tilted!

[Locrian]

I am so sick of hearing about "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman. Everyone I work with (Fortune 50 Company) is **raving** about this insightful piece of crap. I've waded through this book (600+ pages of CEO speak) and it sure seems like so many of the typical business meetings I've been to.

I've found this gem though: The World is Flat? by Ronald Aronica and Mtetwa Ramdoo

http://www.marketingblurb.com/PressReleases/release1697.php

New York, NY (PRWEB) October 3, 2006 -- If you read Thomas Friedman's book, and were awed, you should read Ronald Aronica and Mtetwa Ramdoo's concise monograph, "The World is Flat?: A Critical Analysis of Thomas L. Friedman's New York Times Bestseller." Business analysts, Aronica and Ramdoo, bring clarity to many of Friedman's stories and misconceptions, and go on to explore nine key issues Friedman largely disregards or treats too lightly, including the hollowing out of America's debt-ridden middle class. In his New York Times bestseller, Friedman asserts that the international economic playing field is now more level than it has ever been. As popular as it may be, Aronica and Ramdoo assert that by what it leaves out, Friedman's book is dangerous.

"Globalization is the greatest reorganization of the world since the Industrial Revolution." Aronica and Ramdoo assert that, "The world isn't flat as a result of globalization, it's tilted in favor of unfettered global corporations that exploit cheap labor in China, Indian and beyond. Today's global corporations go to the ends of the earth to employ factory workers for 20 cents an hour and PhDs in science and technology for $20,000 a year."



More on the book and a great video preview /overview here:

http://www.mkpress.com/Flat/


I especially liked the video at the end with Harry G. Frankfurt author of On Bullshit:
"Bullshitting, as he notes, is not exactly lying, and bullshit remains bullshit whether it's true or false. The difference lies in the bullshitter's complete disregard for whether what he's saying corresponds to facts in the physical world: he "does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are."

[Sequoia]

1. I sure wasn't interesed in it. Looked very boring to me.

Thanks.

[Flarney]

2. Thank you! I bought the book...

My girlfriend was "blown away" by Tom Friedman's "brilliance" when he was the keynote speaker at her company's annual conference earlier this year...I've been breaking him down for her ever since, and this book looks like the nail in the coffin I was looking for... Thanks for the heads up.

[Locrian]

6. what passes for intelligence

It's just amazing to me what passes for "in depth" intelligence in the business community. I mean the mid level VPs etc at my company eat this shit with a spoon. It's all about who knows who and the illusion of being in control. They are absolutely clueless as to why we cannot actually MAKE anything anymore.

I actually had one say to me that "globalism, job in-security etc is great because w/o them we wouldn't have this" - an he held up a f**cking cell phone.

[On the Road]

3. I Received "The World is Flat" as a Christmas Gift Last Year

It's actually a very interesting book. It's also important to understand where it's right and what's happening in the global economy. Our Democratic leaders in particular have to incorporate this kind of understanding into our policies. It is a two-edged sword. All of his critics may be correct, but it is also correct that economic isolation will not be good for the working person. As Bill Clinton said bout NAFTA: "We have to make it better." Too bad he did not follow through.

Friedman's passionate defense of government social programs was surprising, wasn't it? He is very blunt about stating that anyone who is a pure free-marketer is not only callous but a fool. Unfortunately under a Republican administration, what happens is that they cream-skim the parts that favcr their interests and ignore the rest.

A good counterbalance to "The World is Flat" is "One World, Ready or Not" by William Greider. He is a progressive economic journalist, and he understands the two-edged nature of the economy.

[Dr.Phool]

4. I just watched the video.

Sounds like a must read.

K&R

[moblsv]

5. read it

I may not agree with everything he says, and I don't, but I do agree with parts. (ir)Regardless, it does give you a good understanding of the issues involved and insight into some commonly held arguments.

[Locrian]

7. read which one?

Which one did you read? The "World is Flat" or "The World is Flat?"

WOF is 600 pages of "duh". It's "bullshit" in that it isn't false, it just meaningless assertions etc strung together. That's what amazes me the most: that it's taken as a brilliant analysis.

I guess if you pump sunshine up enough CEO's ass's you make a ton of $$

[Kelly Rupert]

8. Friedman may go too far at times, but his book is necessary.

Friedman will admit outright that the American manufacturing class is going to be eviscerated and that global corporations go to find cheap labor. His thesis is that as technology breaks down natural borders, the world is going to globalize whether we like it or not, and as such our choices are to either embrace it and learn to adapt to it, or wall ourselves off like North Korea.

He does not propose globalization simply because it is a "good idea" that is good for people. He proposes recognition that globalization will occur, and that we had goddamn better be on the ship when it sails.

[Locrian]

9. It's what Friedman doesn't say

But it IGNORES a lot of issues - like the consequences and political aspect. Again, its not that it's false, it's bullshit.

Review says it better than I can: http://nypress.com/print.cfm?content_id=12841
"On an ideological level, Friedman's new book is the worst, most boring kind of middlebrow horseshit. If its literary peculiarities could somehow be removed from the equation, The World Is Flat would appear as no more than an unusually long pamphlet replete with the kind of plug-filled, free-trader leg-humping that passes for thought in this country. It is a tale of a man who walks 10 feet in front of his house armed with a late-model Blackberry and comes back home five minutes later to gush to his wife that hospitals now use the internet to outsource the reading of CAT scans. Man flies on planes, observes the wonders of capitalism, says we're not in Kansas anymore. (He actually says we're not in Kansas anymore.) That's the whole plot right there. If the underlying message is all that interests you, read no further, because that's all there is."

Read THIS book:
The World is Flat? by Ronald Aronica and Mtetwa Ramdoo
http://www.marketingblurb.com/PressReleases/release1697.php

or better yet watch this video
http://www.mkpress.com/Flat/

[moblsv]

13. ok

I put the book on my reading list

[Flarney]

10. but but but...

"as technology breaks down natural borders, the world is going to globalize whether we like it or not"

I don't think technology has broken down natural borders. "Free-trade" legislation has broken down our protective "borders" of tariffs that we had in place to protect domestic industry. We protected our domestic industries and workers for 200 years in this country, and most of our trade partners do it to this day (see Japan and Germany, two of the most successful economies in the world).

As long as we let corporations lead this massive race to the bottom we, as a country, will continue to hemorrhage cash (approaching an annual trade deficit of 900 Billion) and devolve into a 3rd world country. I don't want to be on that "ship," wherever it's "sailing."

[Locrian]

11. exactly!

"As long as we let corporations lead this massive race to the bottom we, as a country, will continue to hemorrhage cash (approaching an annual trade deficit of 900 Billion) and devolve into a 3rd world country. I don't want to be on that "ship," wherever it's "sailing.""

That's why Friedmans book is dangerous. It leaves all this out. And the brain dead business leaders however eat his crap with a spoon.

Its not flat - its a race to the bottom. When did that become good? Why cant we go the OTHER direction? Who decided that a reversion to feudalism is better than elevation of humanity: liberty /equality/brotherhood?

But no. Gee whiz wireless is ssooooo kewl. And all the "untouchables" in their SUVs wasting their lives in pursuit of more shinny toys. That's what we aspire to?

[Locrian]

12. exactly!

dam double post - sorry.

[alcibiades_mystery]

14. Friedman's an idiot

I know that's harsh, and people mthink he's smart even if he's wrong, but it ain't the case. He doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about, and events have proven him wrong time and again. If he's good at anything, it's self-promotion, and convincing people that his completely invalid and incorrect view of things should be listened to. I give him no more credibility than I give a lunatic raving on a street corner.