The moustached-man at the Times, five years behind as usual, drops a witty title and a pretty decent summation of what's really going on with Globalization: It's a Flat World, After All.
...the dynamic force in Globalization 3.0 -- the thing that gives it its unique character -- is individuals and small groups globalizing. Individuals must, and can, now ask: where do I fit into the global competition and opportunities of the day, and how can I, on my own, collaborate with others globally?
...
When the world is flat, you can innovate without having to emigrate. This is going to get interesting. We are about to see creative destruction on steroids.
The piece is worth reading if you're new to the idea that the American economy is in enormous peril becuase we're really no smarter than anyone else and the labor market for intelectual products (engineering, analysis, digital culture) is truly being globalized. Friedman still isn't hip to open source, and doesn't seem to understand that this shift in how the world works is going to substantially change the role of nation-states going forward, but he's got the basic points right. Give him another 5 years and I'm sure he'll catch on to the rest.
He also has some very good advice for national poliitcs:
Meeting the challenges of flatism requires as comprehensive, energetic and focused a response as did meeting the challenge of Communism. It requires a president who can summon the nation to work harder, get smarter, attract more young women and men to science and engineering and build the broadband infrastructure, portable pensions and health care that will help every American become more employable in an age in which no one can guarantee you lifetime employment.
And some stern advice for parents:
We need to get going immediately. It takes 15 years to train a good engineer, because, ladies and gentlemen, this really is rocket science. So parents, throw away the Game Boy, turn off the television and get your kids to work. There is no sugar-coating this: in a flat world, every individual is going to have to run a little faster if he or she wants to advance his or her standard of living.
The problem here is that Americans already work too hard for too little. If we want to maintain, let alone advance, our standard of living in the 21st Century, we need to work on strengthening our local economies.
I'm fine to play on the global market, but not everyone can do it, nor will everyone ever be able to. For those who can't, having a vibrant local economy with lots of opportunities for small business, craft production, and livable wages for service-sector work is the only viable alternative. For those of us who can compete globally, our task is to get as much value as we can for our time, and driving as much of that as possible back into our own communities.
Simply urging the USA to bear down and grind out more engineers isn't a real solution for the 21st Century. It's a beginning, but for this country to pull though we're going to have to dig a little deeper. We need to start looking beyond material acumulation as a prime metric for "standard of living." We need to start looking at developing a way of life and a set of values that create more enjoyment while consuming less energy. We need to figure out how to live better and work smarter, not just harder.
