“The World Is Flat”

Just borrowed this book from the library yesterday - when I requested the book, I was about the 128th person, so it took a while for me to wait my turn. When I picked up the book yesterday, I almost fainted, seeing how fat the book was.

Didn’t really know what to expect of the book since I requested for the sole reason that it has been #1 on the BusinessWeek Best-Seller List for the past 2 months. All I know is that the book is about globalization.

Started reading the book last night, and found this book to be as fascinating as the name of the book itself! Based on the author - Tom Friedman’s extensive travel into the East (India, China), he made the ultimate discovery that the world is flat! Why flat? Because the global playing field is being leveled. With today’s technology such as undersea fiber optics cables, countries such as India and China can now have an equal part in the global economy. The brings up the common question of whether outsourcing is good for US or not? Friedman’s conclusion is that AS A WHOLE, it is. Because as more work is outsourced to India, India’s overall income levels whould rise and what will they buy with their increased disposable income? American products.

Although there is no denying that certain groups of people will lose their jobs in this globalization process, Friedman brings up a very good point that the main reason those who are anti-outsourcing is wrong is that it is based on the assumption that everything that is going to be invented has been invented. The fact is it hasn’t. “As lower-end service and manufacturing jobs move out of developed countries into India, China and the former Soviet Empire, the global pie only grows larger - because more people have more income to spend - it also grows more complex, as more new jobs, and new specialties, are created.” This means that some ofthe knowledge workers in US may have to move horizontally into new knowledge jobs, but ultimately, everyone will be better off in this bigger market because “there is no limit to the number of idea-generated jobs in the world”.

I really like this quote from Marc Andreessen, the Netscape cofounder, said, “If you believe human wants and needs are infinite, then there are infinite industries to be created, infinite businesses to be started, and infinite jobs to be done, and the only limiting factor is human imagination. The world is flattening and rising at the same time.”

3 comments July 31st, 2005