Customer Rating:  
Summary: He has no point
Comment: The world is flat? What do you meant the world is flat? I tried reading some of this book. All I could get out of it is that genius no longer excels, while dufuses abound all over cyberspace. Crap. I have seen the dufuses, the spammers, the porn sites, the trashy material. But I've also seen top notch intellectual material, and know that it is to be found if you know where to look.
And the book was boring. It soon dawned on me that the author is not talking about "flat earth" theories, such as what Mark Levin aka "the Great One" calls "flat earth, no growth, enviro-Marxism", or the ruling theory of biological evolution which dismisses intelligent design, or any other refuted tradition that dies hard. No, Thomas L Friedman (and he's no Milton) has in mind something more in line with what the Bible refers to as the mountains being leveled.
And I could not make out any sensible meaning out of what the author is saying. I could not read on. He writes essentially gibberish peppered with the obvious. Others praise him for recognizing globalism, others blame him for motivating it. People apparently think a "flat earth" with "level playing fields" is a fast-paced competitive market environment. I don't think Bush could have said something that stupid. I guess genius isn't allowed to sell, but the rich are still getting richer? The class warfare game is still bing played like it always has been, and will be by the Marxists? I guess "flat earth" is the latest Marxist aphorism? Now the author thinks we should have a go at being China. I heard Mark Levin comment about that.
Oh, I get it. These Marxists lack originality, and even when they occasionally have that, it doesn't impress.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Leveling of the Playing Field
Comment: Friedman has taken the different trends towards globalization and connected the dots to form a coherent view of a flat world. Flat is a metaphor indicating that the playing field has become leveled. He describes the events leading to the creation of such a flat playing field. And how countries like China and India used this to their advantage.
As many assumed, Globalization did not stop with the dot com bust in 2000. In fact, it strengthened because of that. The dot com boom resulted in an over investment in fiber optics resulting in excessive bandwidth which benefited India. This enabled outsourcing of work from US and Europe to India. He uses comparisons on how, earlier in the last century, US was the second buyer of India's brains resulting in the drain of top professionals. Now, India became a second buyer of the excess telecom capacity to set up an outsourcing industry. India also gained a foothold by doing lot of Y2K work. That work required an army of tedious and skilled programmers. A shortage of programming resources for that task in the West, coupled with an unmovable deadline, led to a global search for such resources.
Work that can be easily digitized and transferred to lower wage locations is fungible. Non-fungible jobs cannot be outsourced. Some jobs are anchored like barber, plumber etc. David Ricardo the English Economist developed the free trade theory of comparative advantage. Low end jobs in one country are high end jobs in another country, which will be done by more motivated people and would be more productive.
After Deng Xiaoping laid the foundation for building China as a manufacturer to the world, the entry into WTO in 2001 was a watershed event. With containerization of shipping, the costs of transportation have fallen to a very low value. The geography does not matter much. Proximity to US was a big advantage Mexico had before. Now it has vanished. China has replaced Mexico as the second biggest importer into US. Canada is the biggest. Virgin of Guadalupe is the patron saint of Mexico. Of late, these statues are being made in China. Egyptians use colored lanterns called fawanis to carry candles inside them during the Ramadan. Now these lanterns have started coming from China.
While India has an advantage of a democracy, large number of college graduates, and an English speaking workforce, China has a low cost labor economy needed for an efficient manufacturing base. For example, Dalian in China is an outsourcing area for Japanese engineering firms. Japanese occupation of China during the early part of the last century left many Chinese able to speak and work using Japanese.
Friedman talks about the success of Walmart's business model. Unlike other retailers, Walmart buys directly from the manufacturers, as opposed to the wholesalers. They have their own distribution centers for distribution to the individual stores. Manufacturers do not have the necessary logistics to distribute the goods to every store. By cutting on the wholesalers, and investing in its own logistics and a real time computerized inventory system, it cut costs. The suppliers can directly access Walmart's sytems to get a picture of the inventory and the forecasted demand. This created more efficiencies in the supply chain where the suppliers are all over the flat world and so are the consumers.
Finally, Friedman quotes from Bill Gates "I would like to be born as a Genius in China than an average person in Poughkeepsie". Friedman's mother told him in his childhood to finish his dinner as people in China and India are hungry. Now he tells his daughters to finish their home work as people in India and China are hungry for their jobs.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent information but less than fun to read.
Comment: The book is excellent. Friedman describes the way globalization started and where we are now. He has obviously done his homework on the subject.
The only (minor) complaint I have is that there were times when I felt like I was being beaten over the head with anecdotal evidence. Enough! I get it! Let's move on!
Customer Rating:
Summary: It Is Your Responsibility as a Human Being to Read this Book and Make a Difference in The World
Comment: Thomas Friedman brilliantly shows how the forces of globalization have connected the world in ways never possible before. The walls, ceilings, and even floors that once separated people, societies, and countries have been flattened out. Now, a single individual has more power than any other time in history.
We must make use of all these new possibilities to succeed in a world that is more competitive and more challenging than ever before.
You have to establish a competitive advantage that differentiates you from the rest of this world. If you don't, you can't survive.
This next 50 years are the most crucial time in the history of our time. We have the opportunity to end poverty, diseases, wars, ignorance, greed, and hunger.
If we don't succeed in creating a NEW world where people live in harmony with nature and with each other, we don't have a chance as a species.
It is your responsibility as a human being to be accountable for yourself and your world.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Simplifies the complex, much to its undoing
Comment: Over a thousand reviews posted for a single book are bound to reflect a variety of opinions. But few books can elicit the repetitive and inconsistent nods present here. Most of these reviews fall into two groups: the first classifies this book as well-written and highly informative; the second classifies it as too verbose and oversimplified. I have to say, both groups are right.
They are right because I found myself reflecting both sentiments as I read the book.
The first four chapters of the book recount the rise of globalization and the forces behind it. This accounts for about the first third of the book's pages, and I found its packaging of the complex forces behind globalization to be highly informative and easy to understand.
The remaining two thirds of the book attempts to use the first third to put the world's actors into context. More specifically, it attempts to describe how globalization is affecting individuals, the companies they work in, and the countries they live in. Then it outlines what the author sees as necessary changes for keeping them all competitive. It was in this part where the author's simplified approach to globalization undermined his purpose. Recognizing this effect, the author likely felt he needed to buttress his proposals with more support. Unfortunately, his effort to do so droned on without adding much substance. Here is where the book's packaging fell apart.
And hence, this is why the reviewers here feel the way they do. For those who liked the author's proposed solutions, the momentum of the first part of the book likely carried them through to the end. For those who didn't, their enthusiasm likely waned and they quickly lost interest.
Which will you be? I don't know. Take the time to read the first four chapters, but don't feel guilty if you set the book aside long before you reach the end.
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