Globalization and You

This thread is in regard to an interview I watched last night, featuring the author Thomas Friedman. He was speaking at a University to the old and young alike, about a book he wrote titled “The World is Flat.” Now before anyone asks, I have not read the book. If anyone would like to read the synopsis that I read after watching the interview, here is the link,

www.wikisummaries.org...

For those of you who would not like to read the synopsis, the book is basically about the cause and effects of globalization worldwide and locally in America.

One key argument I have with Friedman, is with this statement,

. For the first time in history, we see that talent has become more important than geography in determining a person’s opportunity in life

This is an outright lie.

He himself offers this statistic,

For example, in India only 2% of the entire population are involved in the high-tech and manufacturing for export sectors

That's only 24 Million people and jobs!!

The high-tech industry might require a level of training, but, I would argue, not talent. Also, the manufacturing industry definitely does not require talent, I have worked in factories before, and usually they have the bottom of the barrel. (not saying you are the bottom of the barrel if you work in a factory, just that you could be and still have your job) I know that some of the outsourcing has been in talent based jobs, like accountants, doctors, scientist etc. but the vast majority, are manufacturing jobs in India and china, and other countries.

The jobs have been moved away from America, not to find the talent, but to find people who will work for substantially less money.

This is understandable, I myself would rather pay someone 10 cents an hour than 10 dollars an hour, however, is this ethical? I would also rather have a mansion and 1,500 acres of land, but is that ethical? So the rich found a way the screw everyone, and profit many times more than they were before. Is that ethical?

I think this is a concerted effort to drain American citizens of their livelihood and opportunity, while at the same time exploiting people in 2nd and 3rd world countries. Does anyone think that this is all for the greater good, and that America/Americans will eventually bounce back and innovate? Or that those in the 2nd/3rd world deserve to be exploited or that these jobs are actually improving their way of life?

Agree/Disagree? I would like to hear everyone’s thoughts on the matter.

I think Friedman's point is valid.

In the past, regardless of how much entrepreneurial talent one had they would probably be stranded in their socio economic class of birth if they didn't live in a developed country.

Now, a person in Indonesia can become a billionaire.

In the past, this status generally was limited to America and Europe.

Geography will always play a role, but people all over the world now have access to a global market.

I've been involved in alot of IT recruiting during my career

We looked strong and hard for good programmers but found none locally
We ended up hiring in India where we easily found good talent

These days the good programmers all have jobs, depending on location of course, another city may have better results

But these days many programmers suck and alot of them rely so heavily on programming help forums
And reuse other people's code

I'm painting a worse picture than it actually is though but India has got talent

In India people aren't playing xbox all day, they are doing 2 things
Studying and spending time with family

reply to post by ModernAcademia

Like I said, there are certain things that do require talent, doctors, IT people, etc. but the majority of jobs sent over seas are manufacturing. There are many more manufacturing jobs than there are IT jobs.

And your point about studying and spending time with family, good point.