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Title: The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization by Thomas L. Friedman ISBN: 0-385-49934-5 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 02 May, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.62 (317 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Everything fell apart
Comment: I read the Lexus and the Olive Tree for a final paper on globalization for my Latin American Economies class. This book was very one-sided i.e. the side that supported American style capitalism as the savior of the world and rejecting, in my opinion, the superior European and Japanese versions. With the U.S. economy on the ropes and the collapse of Enron, a company Thomas Friedman praised over and over as the model corporation in a globalized world, Friedman picture now seems very suspect. His shut-up and put-up prescription for the rest of the world and his lack of a nuance understanding of capitalism really put me off. And worst of all he supports his theories with arguments with a mixture of Eco 101 and god ole American "common-sense." Despite its shortcomings this book is important to read not because it reveals great truths about globalization but because it reveals how globalization is perceived in the media. After reading this book read: One World Ready or Not
Rating: 4
Summary: "No one is in charge!"
Comment: Those fearing this book is a treatise in economics, take heart. Lexus isn't about numbers or the arcane world of international banking - it's about attitude. If your attitude is open to global thinking, untrammelled by tradition or restrictive cultural ideas, you will surely succeed in improving your lifestyle. If you hold too tightly to traditional ideals, you will just as surely fail. Either way, you'd best buy, read, and understand this book. Friedman's analysis conveys the thinking of too many people. You cannot afford to ignore it.
With evangelical fervour, Friedman explains how the end of the Cold War unleashed American capitalism around the globe. While "free market" capitalism had been a weapon in those years of missile diplomacy, the breakup of the Soviet Union left the American economic model without a major opponent. The collapse of the Berlin Wall, coinciding with the rise of the high speed digital communications, led to a new era of global finance. Once, "the sun never set on the British Empire." Now the Internet allows investment activity continuously and without hindrance. The market is never closed as international financial transactions occur constantly, and at light speed. And the market is open to anyone wishing to participate.
Friedman argues that the American model of capitalism is the ideal version. Government must play a minimal role. Labour unions are to be quelled. No favours are to be shown to any not meeting the new performance standards. The "wounded" firm must be killed off to allow the successful to continue. There will be disruptions in peoples' lives, but emerging new businesses will pick up any slack. The reward will be growth and enhanced living standards. The system is so well established now, according to Friedman, that it can, is and will be exported successfully around the planet. Anyone it touches need only accept it without question.
Global acceptance, of course, is the rub. The world isn't [yet] American. Scattered around our planet are numerous cultures who either haven't seen the light or resist its premise. These are the peoples who cling to their "olive trees" in defiance of Americanization. Friedman recognizes their concern over losing what they feel is valuable. He should, his interviewees have told him so often enough. He doesn't want them subjugated to an American ideal, he wants them to buy into the system voluntarily. Many want what the new economic system offers, he stresses. They simply have to learn how to adjust their values enough to bring America's financial methods into their own culture. How are they to achieve this feat? Replace restrictive or unresponsive governments. How this is to be achieved in the face of the pace of globalization is left unexplained.
Friedman's eagerness is contagious. It seems cruel to refute a man who presents his case with such honesty and in such a readable style. He carries you along with finesse and you have no feeling of being duped by someone so forthright. He wants everybody to accept his assertions because he sincerely believes those who do will benefit from the new economics. He addresses every objection, meeting each head-on with convincing arguments. He admits, for example, that not everyone has access to the digital communications making globalization possible. Easily solved, he says. One cell 'phone per village is a good start. Even the environmental concerns are [briefly] touched - conservationists adopting capitalist tactics will save the rain forest. I'm not making this up! He means what he says.
What he fails to recognize is that high speed communication, instantaneous finance and rapid economic growth carries an exacting price. Consumption at the American pace over the whole planet means production to meet the demand. That level of production is reflected in the inroads being made on the world's resources. The pace of growth is faster than "environmentalists" can cope with. Environmental issues are brought to view only when it's too late. If people sit back, allowing unfettered capitalism to buy off their future, there won't be a world left for enjoyment of that enhanced lifestyle. Friedman rejoices in the assertion that "no one is in charge" because it means no fetters to American capitalist ideals. That lack of control may sound the knell of the ideal. Capitalism, as a philosopher once noted, carries the seeds of its own destruction. Sprouts from those seeds may be found in Mark Hertsgaard's "Earth Odyssey." Read Friedman, then immediately take up Hertsgaard. Only then can you realistically assess your own attitude.
Rating: 3
Summary: An Opinion of Globalization for Beginners
Comment: As a high school student who does not know very much about globalization or surrounding topics, this was a good book to introduce this subject to me. Friedman explains globalization very well, referring to it as the new system for global communications and interaction.
At times the book seemed very one-sided though; Friedman only discusses the advantages to globalization and never goes into what may be happening on the flip-side due to the progression of globalization. Also, the style that the book was written in makes it seem as if it is all personal opinion. There are no real, cited credible sources dealing with the subject matter, other than interviews, and therefore I am wary to absorb completely all the information he presents us, since I do not have any prior background knowledge to compare his opinions to.
This book was easy to read and overall enjoyable. I enjoyed some of the humor that Friedman incorporated into his writing, as it kept the book going when the topic alone may not have sufficed. I am glad that I read this book because I gained a new perspective on what has been going on in the world during the past decade, and learned a lot also.
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Title: Longitudes and Attitudes : The World in the Age of Terrorism by THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN ISBN: 1400031257 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 12 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: From Beirut to Jerusalem (Updated with a New Chapter) by Thomas L. Friedman ISBN: 0385413726 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 15 July, 1990 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Globalization and Its Discontents by Joseph E. Stiglitz ISBN: 0393324397 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: April, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS AND THE REMAKING OF WORLD ORDER by Samuel P. Huntington ISBN: 0684844419 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 28 January, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Jihad vs. McWorld: How Globalism and Tribalism Are Reshaping the World by Benjamin Barber ISBN: 0345383044 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 30 July, 1996 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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