Comments

The "USA adaptive culture" positions the USA & perhaps ["western culture" - although Germany seems to be slowly imploding] to ebb and flow with the times.

Example - live/thrive in Vermont/Kauai/Beantown rather than CA Arnold World! Just vacated D.C. & NM for WA "because I could" [WJK] ... and it made radical sense finance/climate/culture/emotion/mentally/spirtually and otherwise ... drinking Evian to help prevent le Avian ...

Posted by Sean at October 1, 2005 10:04 AM

Considering the turbulent pace of the world,
Maybe things will happen much faster than we predicted...

The point: It's always good to be ready to face "every" dramatic changes

(Tom, I know you've been preaching this...but I would like to emphasize it again)

Posted by Chuck at October 1, 2005 12:05 PM

Thomas Friedman may be a bit histerical, but at least he perceives the world as many-faceted; we expect our opinion writers to be breathless and "this just in!" Thomas P.M. Barnett's (Pentagon's New Map) view of the world (us and them, civilized versus savages) seems simplistic by comparison. But neither of them can compare with Samuel P. Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations" theory for a balanced view of a complex world. This seems more like Prestowitz's book on Chinese capitalism than Friedman, don't you think?

Posted by Paul Croushore at October 1, 2005 3:37 PM

I once saw a satellite photo-composite of Earth, taken at night. Without question, the biggest light cluster came from the Washington-NY-Chicago triangle, followed by the Northern Germany-France-London triangle, followed by Japan.

Everything else was wee pinpricks of light in comparison.

Hey Tom, last week I was in a train station bookshop (WH Smith's) in Newcastle, Northern England, where they had your wee "Essential" books on sale. I bought the "Design" one. Nice read. I like the way the books can easily fit in your inside jacket pocket. As I had no briefcase with me that day, it's what made the sale.

Posted by hugh macleod at October 2, 2005 4:29 AM

Paul, I think Prestowitz is always over the top, so I automatically deep discount him. I expect much more from Friedman. This is deja vu all over again, perhaps: It reminds me of the days 20 years ago when serious people like Chalmers Johnson, Jim Fallows and Karl von Wolferen (sp?) labeled Japan as invincible and the U.S. as a bunch of Rubes. But when it comes to productive gymnadtics for the brain, I agree with your nod to Huntington.

Posted by tom peters at October 2, 2005 8:23 AM

The coorelation between light emissions and economics was driven home to me back in 2000. I used to drive the stretch between Austin and San Antonio often. I had made the drives twenty years ago. Development was sparse, so everything seems more distant. While the boom was still going, more of the roadside conveniance stores stayed open all night, so things didn't seem so empty and distant. Once the bust took hold, these places closed earlier and the lights went out. Distance grew. Fewer people had jobs.

Posted by David Locke at October 3, 2005 4:22 AM

Guys,
While outsourcing is here to stay, I believe that the more entrepreneurial and qualified professionals will continue to migrate from low wage countries to high wage countries. I did it myself :-)

Countries with higher wages should help these FOBs (Fresh off the boat - a term that I learnt from recent Indian immigrants to the US :-) to set up companies that use their knowledge and experiences and produce innovations.

That will decide which countries break through and which do not.. A case in point:
It takes 2 - 3 months for a foreigner to get all the permits to set up a company in Switzerland. (Canton hassles)
It takes between 6 months and 2.5 years for a foreigner to get the paperwork in the Netherlands. (Residence permit hassles)
It takes 3 months for a foreigner to set up a company in the US (H1B hassles)

Of course if it were a local setting up a company, it would take a couple of hours to a couple of weeks to set up everything...

That's my rant.. Make labour and business mobility easy for foreigners.. and the jobs and economic growth will follow!

Posted by Arun Sadhashivan at October 3, 2005 4:26 AM

David Locke: One Silicon Valley VC I know used this test on a company in the Valley he was thinking of financing: How many cars are there in the parking lot at 530A.M.?

Posted by tom peters at October 3, 2005 6:03 AM

And, how many of those same cars are still there at 9:00 p.m. the same day? I didn't find Friedman "alarmist" - he was pointing out some things that need to be at the top of our agendas here in the U.S. - just as you're doing your best, Tom, to raise awareness re the super flu. We, of course, don't want to be a bunch of "chicken littles" but we do need to be aware so we can plan for the "what ifs" (To the best of our abilities - the Universe is always throwing us curve balls we never expected.)

One thing I do love about the "flattening" is the ever-increasing diversity and availability of both knowledge and goods. Real-world example - my shopping at the Tailin market here in Albuqueque (owned by Asian family) where I go for Cuban coffee, spices from India, wine from France, great produce...and marvel at all the many other things that I have no idea how to use or cook with (but fun and educational to look!)...and am surrounded by English couples buying U.K. brands, "old hippies" Asian grandmothers, military types straight from the base, and many other "melting pot" citizens.

There is a tremendous amount of opportunity for ALL of us across the globe. It just looks different than U.S. global economic domination and we can't be complacent that we're somehow inherently better because we're in the U.S.

Posted by Mary Schmidt at October 3, 2005 10:40 AM

I don't find Friedman's points to be alarmist at all. They are the rough sketches of a different world economy that is coming in the next decade or so.

Tom P., these are from your slides.....apologies for the copy/pastes, but who is the Tommy to whom you refer??? (just havin' a little fun!)

60,000 new factories opened by foriegners in 2000-2003

The ultimate luxery item now made in China

German engineers face competition from China

200 new R&D labs in China every year

China's next export: Innovation

Level 5 (top) certification/Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute: 35 of 70 companies in world are from India

“The economic rise of Asia’s giants is the most important story of our age. It heralds the end, in the not too distant future, of as much as five centuries of domination by the Europeans and their colonial offshoots.”

“The world has arrived at a rare strategic inflection point where nearly half its population—living in China, India and Russia—have been integrated into the global market economy, many of them highly educated workers, who can do just about any job in the world. We’re talking about three billion people.”

THREE BILLION NEW CAPITALISTS

350,000 engineering grads per year
>50% F500 outsource software work to India
GE: 48% of software developed in India

Posted by Jeff at October 3, 2005 7:03 PM