The World is Flat (Summary)

"The global economic playing field is being leveled." No other statement summarizes Thomas Friedman's book, The World is Flat, A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century, better in my opinion. Thomas Friedman's book is formed around specific dates as listed in Friedman's list of ten forces that flattened the world.

(11-9-89) The first force that Friedman lists is the fall of the Berlin Wall. Friedman suggests that the event not only symbolized the end of the Cold war, it allowed people from other side of the wall to join the economic mainstream.

(8-9-95) The second force Friedman writes about is the introduction of Netscape to the world.  The introduction Netscape and the web made the Internet accessible to everyone, not only computer scientists.

The third force is the development of work flow software.  This development allowed for computers to communicate with each other without human assistance.

Friedman mentions that the first three factors helped build a “crude foundation of a whole new global platform for collaboration.” The developments that followed were the bricks that were built on top of this foundation.

Uploading - Making collaboration possible
Outsourcing - Gave companies the ability to be split into components for the most cost effective functioning
Offshoring - Manufacturer's version of outsourcing.
Supply-chaining - Companies using technology to streamline item sales, distribution, and shipping
Insourcing - Performing services other that the main service that a company provides, for an outside company. (Radio Shack - Sales/Repairs/Cell Phone Liaison)
In-forming - The development of search engines such as Google made information available to everyone
"The Steroids" - Personal electronic devices such as smart phones, I-devices, instant messaging....

All these factors collectively, are Friedman's ten forces that flattened the world.

The impact that globalization will have on today's college students is apparent ex. the shrinking job market.  The college degree will be more valuable in terms of the job market as well.  With outsourcing continuing to gain steam, the lower class jobs will take the biggest hit. The middle class will have to fight tooth and nail for their jobs, and the upper class will reap the benefits of cheap labor due to outsourcing.