The Global Pancake
Charles Crane reviews Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat.
A certain reading experience can be expected from Thomas Friedman’s latest book. Friedman is The New York Times foreign affairs columnist who gained recognition for his books The Lexus and the Olive Tree and From Beirut to Jerusalem, in which he championed globalisation and the effects of international economic modernisation. Readers of his latest work can expect to be regaled by a conversational writing style that is both approachable and anecdotal. Alongside this are several inventive terms, such as ‘überstandard’, a firmly Americanised view of the global stage, and what can only be described as an ideological drive, if not propaganda. Fresh from its acclaim as the 2005 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs ‘Business Book of the Year’ – sharing a short list with Freakonomics and The Search – The World is Flat does not disappoint, at least for the most part.
By saying that the world is flat, Friedman is not contradicting basic scientific fact. He is not trying to say that Columbus was wrong, but rather that, through ever-evolving technological improvements culminating in the near-instantaneous transfer of data across the globe, the world is becoming a more interconnected and equitable place in which to live, and the playing field is being levelled on a global scale. In other words, the world is being ‘flattened’.
Friedman’s research … is taken primarily from the air-conditioned boardrooms of various corporations, the golf courses popular with CEOs, and the corridors of power.
Friedman argues that this ‘flattening’ has taken place in three distinct phases. ‘Globalization 1.0’, which lasted from 1492 until 1800, was an age of discovery that featured the expansion of countries through empires and the opening of trade routes with the other side of the world. In ‘Globalization 2.0’, which began in 2000, companies expanded across borders to create global economic empires in the industrial age. This phase was characterised by the ability to move data, labour and technology, with the rise of trains, aeroplanes, cars, computers and phones. The final phase, ‘Globalization 3.0’, featured a rise in technologies that placed us virtually next door to people thousands of kilometres away, and gave the individual the chance to evolve and carve out a global niche of his or her own.
Particularly of interest to Friedman is the concept of outsourcing. Looking at the explosion of this phenomenon in both India and China, The World is Flat explains how nearly all kinds of work can be moved offshore, in order to save significantly on costs. This includes anything from tax accounting work to restaurant reservations, and even McDonald’s drive-through ordering functions. This is certainly a valid argument, albeit an unoriginal one. All that someone has to do is go down to a local retail outlet and note the endless merchandise that is made in China. However, outsourcing is clearly important in our more interconnected world; Friedman hails it, and the benefits it brings to developing countries, as definitive proof of the success of the free market and of globalisation.
This idealised view sits at the heart of The World is Flat. Friedman’s research, rather than being drawn from interviews with people supposedly helped by the phenomenon of globalisation, is taken primarily from the air-conditioned boardrooms of various corporations, the golf courses popular with CEOs, and the corridors of power that the author seems to frequent. Small wonder, then, that Friedman sees globalisation as the saviour of society.
The author ignores some of the most significant negative effects of globalisation, including the environmental rape and exploitation of developing nations’ resources by the developed world. Nor does he adequately deal with the issue of the offshore relocation of labour from local workers, which leaves domestic workers unemployed. Although certain countries like India and China are benefiting as a whole from increased direct foreign investment, one could argue that the world is less flat than ever before, and that the income gap has widened between nations and individuals. While people in the developing world are being given opportunities to raise their standard of living, the need for foreign investment may become a dependence that will restrain growth potential.
Despite these flaws, Friedman’s book reaches many valid conclusions, and his writing style is exceptionally likeable and engaging. It is certainly worth perusing on a quiet Sunday.
