Facinating Topic

Last night on the Charlie Rose show, he interviewed Thomas Friedman about his new book, "The world is flat, a brief history of the twenty-first century."

It is a picture of the world to come.
How "globalization" works and how it works for peace, equality, you, me, and my laptop computer.

The World is getting "flat".

In brief:
My Dell computer was manufactured all over the world. Not, as in the old days, in a single factory, by one company.
Many of the parts are produced in Asia, specifically, China.

"So what?" you may ask, "they have been making things for a long time".
Yes.
But here's the twist...
Some parts are made in Taiwan, that 'rouge' Chinese country, and some are made in China, 'the main land'.

Michael Dell has "outsourced" the parts to make inexpensive machines. When I looked on the web to see how my order was coming along, I thought it was being put together somewhere in Alabama or Mississippi. That's where my calls are routed when I need tech support.
In reality, my computer was being shipped back and forth through out the south Pacific before it was loaded on a plane to Tennesse. (remember, 'there are no "i"s in Tennessee)

[Sidebar:
We complain when we call for help and get someone in India, whom we can bearly understand.
It was penny pinching consumer who drives this bus. There is a reason Wal Mart is the Biggest company on the planet. (And it isn't because of the great service...)
It's because we Americans, the richest people on the planet in the entire History of the World, are cheep.

The most polititians aren't brave enough to admit this in their speaches as to why Bubba's job was shipped out. Bubba's wife is shopping Wal Mart.]

China just passed a "law" allowing it to use military force if neccessary, to bring Taiwan back into the fold, if it declares independance.

China goes to war with Taiwan.
Both countries become very undesireable for companies such as Dell, were my computer order can't wait for a small war.
Mr. Dell would find new suppliers.
In another country.
And China would lose all that $$$.

The old guys in the government may want the war. (ie Presidents, Chairmen, and Prime Ministers)
But their children, who are running and working in the manufacturing plants, and there are alot of them, would pressure them to reconsider their folly...

And thus, outsourcing, for MANY reasons, is good for peace.

He also talks about how the world is becoming a level playing field, and if the United States wants to remain a player, WE need to promote smart kids. Educated kids. Creative kids.
Cus right now, the best educated engineers in the world are from India.
And with the internet and internet phone service, and just in time production, those world's smartest don't have to come to the U.S. of America to find work or the U.S. market.
He can sit at home, in his pajamas, selling her book, or writing his software code, in India...

Wake Up America!!