Last night, after a heroic effort to find groceries at the grossly under-stocked local Loblaws, I slaved away in the kitchen for a couple of hours and cooked up some “Popeye” lasagne. Indeed, “some” is an understatement: I made about 8 meals worth, and my freezer is duly stocked. I’m actually proud of myself for stretching $3.00 worth of x-lean ground beef into 8 portions… I did this by watering down the tomato sauce and mixing a can of lentils, two onions, a package of mushrooms, and some green pepper in with the meat. The “Popeye” nickname comes from the spinach and cottage cheese mixture that is spread between the layers; altogether, tasty, nutritious and convenient.
Convenient, except for the two hours I spent in the kitchen. Thus I took the opportunity to listen to several more chapters of Milton Friedman’s “The World is Flat” from the audio-book recording I’ve borrowed from the library. I think I’m about 1/3 of the way through it, but at the risk of sounding pompous… I’m not sure I want to continue with it because I’m almost certain it will be more of the same. While the “flat” world concept (to over-simplify, this is just a catchy term that encompasses globalization and its offshoots, effects, and socio-economic perspectives) was probably novel in 2004 when the book was first released, in 2008 it seems dated. Technology is changing rapidly, to be sure—but all this gushing over open-source software, China as the elephant in the room, outsourcing, off-shoring, in-sourcing, and the shift to tertiary economies in both developed and developing nations is old news. Often, I found myself wanting to reply to the over-enthused narrator: “Tell me something I don’t know”.
To be fair, I’ve been fed this information for 4 years at school… force-fed and then required to regurgitate on tests and exams; but it never ceases to amaze me how businesspeople insist on making even the most elementary market concepts seem so complicated. I mean, if you want to look smart, you should have gone into aerospace engineering or something. Take a PhD in mathematics… but don’t stand on your virtual podium and “name-drop” like it’s going out of style. Gag.
Oh, that brings me to my second quibble with Friedman: Enough with the self-aggrandizement. Every second sentence he mentions some CEO or Wall Street hotshot he knows personally, and talks about flying hither and thither as if he had unlimited jet fuel, time, and cash at his disposal. Even if he did… it is not polite to brag about it; does this not imply something quite unflattering about his character and the intent of his book?
When Friedman discussed the economic advantages of outsourcing basic tax return preparation, phone support, and transcription of medical dictation to India, I immediately thought of how much money the Canadian government could save if it outsourced its mountains of clerical work to a more cost-efficient workforce overseas: quite absurd, but interesting to ponder. Then I found myself vaguely disturbed by the fact that when I call my bank, credit card company or utility, I am probably not even speaking with an employee of said bank or utility.
Finally, it is impossible to forget the elephant in the room… no, not China this time; I am referring to the notion that the West gets rich at the expense of the rest of the world. Isn’t communism great, because it keeps poor countries poor and enslaves them to the capitalists? Isn’t it great to outsource our low-skilled jobs and manufacturing, because then citizens of less-developed nations can labour at unsatisfying and perhaps dangerous jobs—overworked, underpaid, and under-represented—while we sit in our cushy office chairs and take our lunch breaks religiously, secure in the arms of a giant and powerful union? After all, this world order allows us to shop at stores like Wal-Mart, where we can afford to buy truckloads of cheap crap that we really don’t need. And this, THIS is supposed to be wealth, the good life? As it prances glibly along the path of modern progress, “The World is Flat” fails to hide a sad truth: our society is consumer-driven, materialistic, greedy, power-hungry, and proud.
My, I did not intend to end this on such a depressing note. Something more uplifting will follow tomorrow.
