I've read some interesting books over the past few months, Oryx and Crake, A Girl Named Zippy, The Devil in the White City and of course, the newest exploits of a Mr. H. Potter. The latest book to catch my attention is The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. The book is an observation of ten big factors that have changed the face of doing business in the twenty-first century. The book centers on how the Internet and other recent technologies have leveled the business playing field allowing China and India to compete with Americans and Europeans in unprecedented ways.

 

Ultimately, I think Friedman has an optimistic view of where Americans can go with this "flattening". Social values will drive changes in working conditions at home and abroad and creativity and freedom will triumph. However, for many Americans the flattening will be difficult. We can already see how many manufacturing jobs have gone overseas. I think we were all caught off guard by all the other jobs that went with those including most customer relation services and a great deal of programming and software development opportunities. The book highlights many other areas Americans have lost to outsourcing. The boat has sailed (literally) to China and elsewhere and more American jobs will follow as businesses tighten up to compete. Even education has been affected by outsourcing. Parents can now have their children tutored on-line via Indian tutors with interactive software for a cheaper price than using a local tutor.

 

So what does Friedman recommend as we watch our livelihoods moving abroad? He maintains that the only advantage we have is our creativity and innovation. We need to be the people that still think of the new ideas and invent the new technologies. We have always triumphed as a country in ingenuity. However, Friedman waves several red flags that we need to think over. For one, our country has fewer students majoring in science and mathematics than other countries (typically the fields that develop new ideas) . As a nation, our scores in math and science are lower than many other countries. Bill Gates already says he has a hard time finding qualified Americans to work for him. Another red flag is our young Americans' work ethic. Many are far more interested in playing than applying their brains.

 

As parents and educators, we need to make sure our children view learning as their most important job and that contributing to the success of our country is more important than playing the latest version of "Grand Theft Auto". We have to do our part to make sure our children are staying on top of the learning curve in all academics, especially in math, science, and technology. We don't want our future getting left behind.