The first issue that Friedman discusses is new technologies. New technologies can be a problem because some new technologies are replacing jobs that humans usually do. For example when new machines are made for factories, they replace the factory workers jobs. Or online shopping is replacing retailer’s jobs. Also the internet has made trading stocks online possible, thus taking the jobs of brokers. Some sites that are taking brokers jobs are sites like etrade.com, scottrade.com, or schwab.com that have trades for as low as five dollars. On these sights you just log on, have your credit card or debit card ready and start trading from various different types of stocks from large company stocks to slam company stocks. Back in the early 2000s, my father actually lost his job due to online trading.
Have you ever called a customer service for an American company, and got an Indian man on the phone who you could not understand what he was saying. This is a result of off shoring or outsourcing. Friedman discusses off shoring or outsourcing as an additional obstacle for people entering the business world because so many companies are making their customer service, human resources, accounting, and telemarketing sectors located in different countries. By doing this many people are losing their jobs and there are fewer jobs available to workers who seek employment in those fields. However the companies that participate in outsourcing save a substantial amount of money because that pay their employees in the other countries less than they would in the U.S. Also, Friedman says that outsourcing creates jobs for people in countries that have high poverty levels.
The third issue that Friedman discusses is education. This can cause problems because most jobs require some sort of college degree or higher. College now can be very expensive, and will only get more expensive. For example, Marist College alone is about 40,000 dollars per year. With the price of this school being so high makes it very tough for me to pay for it, given that I am paying for it by myself. A lot of families cannot afford such high tuitions so it is very difficult for them so send their children away to college. One solution for them is to have their children take on a heavy load of loans which will, in turn, leave them in debt right out of college. And if they cannot get a college degree then it will be much harder to get a job in the business world or many other fields of work.
In the views of Thomas Friedman, through the fact that new technologies being invented, companies use outsourcing and off shoring, and companies requiring college degrees it is harder for me, along with most students, to enter my career of finance in the business sector. I worry more for future generations because there will be so many more technological advances will take away from human jobs, more companies will outsource, college will become much more expensive, and there will be many more issues to overcome. As time goes on more and more obstacles will come up, but as a society we will come up with ways to cope with those obstacles.
Overall I found that the book The World is Flat was very intriguing. It brought up very knowledgeable information about “the ten forces that flatten the world.” Thomas Freidman goes into great detail in each of the ten flattening forces throughout the whole book. I would recommend this book to anyone that is considering entering the business world or any other work field.
