The World Is Not Flat

The World is (unfortunately) NOT FLAT

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Is_Flat

In 2005, Thomas Friedman of the New York Times wrote a huge book - “The World is Flat”.  The basic premise is that with technology we can communicate with anyone anywhere in real-time.  Fiber optics connects our world at the speed of light.  

He used examples such as outsourcing medical x-rays, accounting, etc. from the United States to India.  A rural South Dakota hospital need not have a radiologist on staff (or on staff 24/7) as images can be sent to India and be read by a qualified radiologist there within minutes and the results sent back within minutes.

An Accountant doing auditing can get all the materials ready, start the analysis and pass it on to CPAs in India (or other parts of the world) to be finished and the finished report in back in the accountant’s in-box in the morning.

BUT … the world is NO LONGER FLAT (my opinion).  We are no longer the global economy that Friedman championed.  All of a sudden we are independent nations interested in our own wellbeing.

“NATIONALISM” has returned.

Let’s see.

Great Britain has decreed that they don’t want to be part of the European Union anymore.  (The term is: Brexit - Britain Exits the EU).  

In the United States, the 2016 election was won by Donald Trump with the campaign of “MAGA” Make America Great Again.  

India seems to be building buffers around its state.  Politically, gains by nationalism/populism groups are on the rise be it in Europe, Africa, and Asia.  

The touted “Arabian Spring” that seemed to favor more international cooperation died back.  

China wants to stop the democratic aspects of Hong Kong and seems to be pushing a nationalism agency politically.

It seems like the 2016 election (at least to a pretty uninformed American (me) inspired others.  There were reports of Russia meddling with our election - seemingly to get politicians who were friendly to Russia.  

The New York Times gave this 5G report:

In a report entitled: “China’s Dominance of 5G Networks Puts U.S. Economic Future at Stake”. Attorney General, Barr Warns that Chinese companies are winning the fight for the next generation of telecom networks, posing both an economic and national security threat.

“Mr. Barr noted that two Chinese telecom giants, Huawei and ZTE, account for about 40 percent of the global 5G infrastructure market, which is expected to serve as the backbone for trillions of dollars’ worth of economic and industrial activity in an increasingly digital global economy. 5G networks promise substantially faster network speeds and prospects for new commercial applications in multiple industries like transportation and health care.”

TikTok is owned by ByteDance - a Chinese company.  Some surmise that TikTok and Huawei are too closely aligned with the Chinese government and could actually promote spying and sabotaging world technology platforms. 

So the flat world of Friedman has split back into national factions again.  

Has suspicions of other countries grown so much?  Is there an escalation of finger-pointing? American’s told the Chinese to close their Houston Texas Embassy because of espionage (especially for the development of COVID-19 vaccines).  Last Friday, China ordered the American Embassy in Chengdu to close.  

*****

So, sorry Tom Friedman - your flat world is dissolving and border walls are being built - figuratively and literally!!!

So, how does this affect you?  Exports of American farm products to China may dry up; imports of Chinese products may dry up (including medicines).  

The American President has called COVID-19 a “Chinese pandemic” - that isn’t going to win friends in Beijing.

Will this change after the November 2020 election in the United States?  Possibly and possibly not.  (I suppose it depends on the outcomes).

Why can’t we get along?

Hugs!!

Karen