Friedman's book entitled The Lexus and the Olive Tree took a good look at globalization, and the difference between the times our country and others went through during the past few decades, to get to where we are, and the Cold War. It seems true to me that all dynamic systems involving the exchange of material and ideational "goods" that there must be winners and losers. Before I discuss whom Friedman puts into these two categories, it would be propitious to understand what Friedman means by this term "Globalization". In his words 1.
Globalization is driven by the idea of a free-market system, and as such, it is subject to or better yet, demands certain rules. Simply put, these are economic rules that require the user to open and privatize the economy to make it more competitive and attractive to other countries. Innovation is a major part of this. A good saying would be that "Innovation replaces Tradition."
Globalization to the advantage - 2010-09-16
Globalization
United StatesThat is the whole idea in a nutshell. This is where the title of the book comes in. Friedman has dedicated an entire chapter to an explanation of the title. These two symbols are metaphors: the olive tree is a representation of what identifies us, our customs, rituals, family, and what we look to hold onto because of the feelings, and sense of belonging that they provide. The Lexus represents the need or drive for improvement, modernization, and thriving in the system of globalization, which involves the global market, as well as the technology of computers.
With that said, we can now identify the winners and losers, in this system. After reading the book and having a chance to think about it, I believe Friedman sees all of those individuals, and countries that have grasped, made use of and profited from the...