Module 6

 Simply put free-trade is the ability for companies from different countries to do business with each-other without the friction of governmental regulations, taxes, or tariff's. It is quite clear that Friedman is 100% pro free-trade and gives great examples of why I should be too. The biggest debate on going in America concerning free-trade is the “visible” mass amounts of jobs that are being outsourced to foreign countries for cheap labor. As Americans, we are angered to see jobs lost to other countries so that the “American” outsourcing company can get its labor done cheap. However, the part that goes unnoticed is the small companies hiring in the 10's and 20's. For every job that is outsourced, there are more jobs being created. It's important to note that these once poor individuals of the nations receiving the outsourcing are now buying American made products. Also the price of these products, thanks to the same outsourcing, off-shoring and free-trade, are cheaper then they have ever been. Its a win-win situation. Friedman is right! If free-trade, offshoring, and outsourcing, is so damaging to America's economy, then employment rates would be much higher then 4.5%. I am a logical man, and I admit I didn't hear too much of the protectionist/anti-outsourcing school's side of things, however Friedman's reasoning sounds logical to me. Therefore, I too see great advantages for both America and the world as a whole if free-trade is the norm. However, Americans have some serious waking up to do if we are going to be able to compete in the world of tomorrow.

American has had the luxury of being the biggest economic power in the world for the last half century. We were the innovators of most things, and we were at the top because we really had no competition. After time, we Americans began to take this for granted and became stagnate and lazy. Friedman notes that it's not entirely good to be mediocre in a vertical company, however before globalization 3.0, it was possible to survive in that situation. Whereas today you'd get eating up alive, due to the high amount of highly skilled competition in the world; and it's the America's middle-class that will be hit the hardest.

It is going to require a lot of changes and self-ambition, for the middle class to survive! Friedman breaks down the “New Middlers” into 8 categories by skills. They are:

First the “Great Collaborators and Orchestrators.” These are the guys that can run a supply chain, at a local level on a global process.

The 2^nd are “The synthesizers.” These are the guys that are remarkable at creating one job from two or more skills.

The 3^rd are “The Explainers.” These are the people that can see the complexity of “The Synthesizers,” but can explain it with ease.

Fourth are “The Great Leveragers.” These guys can leverage every possible bit of productivity out of new technology.

The 5^th are “The Great Adapors,” the Swiss Army Knives, a jack of all trades kind of guy that's very savvy in a variety of info systems as well as politics and business.

The 6^th are “The Green People.” In a world where fossil fuels are becoming more expensive, less abundant, and bad for the environment it is important to have S&E people constantly trying to discover renewable energy sources.

The 7^th are “The Passionate Personalizers.” These people put there own little personalized special touched that can not be duplicated or outsourced.

Eighth are “The Math Lovers!” This is simple enough. They are people who love math; and in this day and age of digitized everything, they are becoming as important as air.

Finally are “The Great Localizers.” These are the people that have a great understanding of the global platform and uses it's tools to offer localized demands.

Now that Friedman has outlined the “New Middlers,” I notice one important constant in which they each share, education! And not just any education, the right education. In chapter nine, Friedman talks about how Americans were inspirited by JFK's speech of landing a man on the moon. Americans went crazy with science trying to out do the Russians. He talks about how Americans need that same kind of leadership and inspiration that JFK provided, and how Bush has failed at it. Not only in inspiration, but also the fact congress cut funding for scientific and engineering education during Bush's terms; the exact opposite of what should have happened! President Bush was a joke, with alterior motives. The last thing Bush wanted was smart people developing renewable energy resources, he is in the oil business!!!! No further explanation needed!!!!

However, America does have a great leader today! This book was written before Obama and Friedman says nothing about him. Well, I'm going to! I admit that Pres. Obama isn't the best president in the history of America, but I see in his speeches and actions that he understands the importance of education, as well as the flattening of the world.

Back in '06 while Bush was in office, I applied for a Pell Grant and was denied. I once again tried after the Obama and behold, I am here taking this class in my last semester before graduation! Thanks Obama! Now if America will just realize that he inherited Bush made problems, he probably wouldn't seem like such a bad person.

Finally, CQ + PQ > IQ means that the Curiosity Quotient plus the Passionate Quotient is greater then the Intelligence Quotient. I believe this statement to be true. A high IQ person doesn't know everything, and if they don't know a certain subject they might not be interested in learning it. Opposite are the curios and passionate. Curious people want to learn, passionate people will never give-up; put the two together and you'll have someone who will WANT to fix or innovate anything, even if the going gets tough. A high IQ person might or might not, you just don't know. Even greater, is a group of CQ/PQ people collaborating on the world's platform together. When this happens the laws of synergy start to take affect. One plus one is not two, its three! Yes, I buy into the CQ+PQ>IQ formula!!!!