The World is Flat

January 1st, 2005

Ok, before we get into an intelligent design debate, I’m not talking about any of that. I’m talking about a book by Thomas Friedman.

In his book Friedman mentions that “the world is flat,” not because of biblical beliefs but because of technology.

With the current state of technology and oursourcing, the trend is now towards emigrating rather than immigrating.

Thanks to globalization we now have cheaper labor, cheaper products & services, and offshore poker sites; but is this causing the west to lose its stronghold on the economy?

Currently China is graduating twice the amount of bachelors degrees as the US, and India regularly graduates 1 million more degrees than the US. Not only that, the number of technology & engineering degrees in the US is declining.

over 70% of Japanese 7th graders can pass our high school equivalency exam.

Our students no longer have any motivation; and they will eventually be the downfall of America. That’s right, your kids (and mine someday) are going to crush our economy with their math grades.

As Friedman puts it “In China today, Bill Gates is Britney Spears. In America today, Britney Spears is Britney Spears…” And that’s a BIG problem.

At what point in this rapid globalization process should companies stop looking out for the global economy as a whole, and start protecting their own interests? How can we fix this?

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