• In The World Is Flat Thomas Friedman talks about ten flatteners:
i) 11/9/89 (The Fall of the Berlin Wall and, by extension, Soviet Bloc Countries)
ii) 8/9/95 (The New Age of Connectivity: When the Web Went Around and Netscape Went Public)
iii) work flow software
iv) uploading
v) outsourcing
vi) offshoring
vii) supply-chaining
viii) insourcing
ix) in-forming
x) the steroids (Digital, Mobile, Personal, and Virtual)
• Friedman talks about these ten flatteners in conjunction with the triple convergence:
a) a movement from a vertical means of creating value to a more horizontal one
b) understanding how the new technology-laden playing field for business meshes with new ways of doing business
c) the emergence of China, India and the former Soviet Union as players on the global scene
• Document the effect of two of these items in the world today. You may reiterate Friedman's examples, but it would be better to research examples of your own.
• Discuss the effect of these two items in terms of their future impact on the American middle class worker or the American student.
• Finally, in your conclusion examine how Friedman's creed of technological determinism and subsequent hypercapitalism is at odds with the growing wage and income gap that has been the result of globalization. Speculate how these two aspects of globalization might be reconciled.
• 2200 to 2500 words
Section 1
Read pages 3-126
In 400-600 words discuss two of the flatteners that Friedman mentions. What kind of examples does he give? Can you provide other examples?
Section 2
Read pages 126-200
In 400-600 words discuss two of the flatteners that Friedman mentions. What kind of examples does he give? Can you provide other examples?
Section 3
Read pages 201-300
In 400-600 words describe what is the "Triple Convergence" and how it makes it difficult to sort out the competing interests of a new political era.
Section 4
Read pages 301-390
In 400-600 words discuss Friedman's idea of "America's secret sauce—a mix of institutions, laws, and cultural norms that produce a level of trust, innovation and collaboration" and how technology and the subsequent hyperactive form of globalization it has spawned affects this "secret sauce."
Offshore
"Citigroup to Cut 17, 000 Jobs and Move 9500" from The New York Times [April 12, 2007] by Eric Dash. Citigroup announced today that it would eliminate or reassign more than 26,500 jobs as part of a sweeping overhaul to cut costs and streamline the bank’s sprawling global operations.
Uploading
You Tube Videos Pull in Real Money from The New York Times [Dec. 10, 2008] by Brian Stelter