I too have read “The World is Flat”.  It is interesting and well-written, an easy and enjoyable read.   

I have only one criticism.  It ignores the coming economic "discontinuity”.  The world it envisages will never eventuate.   

The book promotes a “business as usual” world-view, well, a “business as-it-could-become-usual” world-view which is essentially more and faster and better of the same business model currently being used by global corporations.  I understand that to be a false world-view. 

Global business is predicated on cheap energy.  The current form of globalisation is dependent on cheap energy for the factories to produce the goods (both cheap electricity for the machines and cheap wages for the employees), and cheap fuel for the vehicles to transport the products around the world (airplanes, ships, and trucks).  Even service businesses such as tourism are predicated on cheap energy, without which the number of tourists able to purchase airfares and coach fares would be few.

Unfortunately, the future is not one of abundant cheap energy. 

I don’t know how much you know about the imminent decline in the supply of energy, but in case you’re not as familiar with it as I think you should be, you being a person of influence in our society, let me make a few comments of explanation.

The world is about to experience an economic “discontinuity” as the global rate of extraction of petroleum starts to decline from its current static maximum of approximately 85 million barrels a day (otherwise known as “peak oil”), with the consequence that the price of all fuels derived from petroleum with rise irrevocably exponentially.  That decline is expected to begin within the next handful of years.  Additional discoveries of petroleum and the development of other sources of energy, such as wind, solar, tidal, geothermal, and nuclear, will not be sufficient to offset the decline in the supply of petroleum.  As that decline proceeds, the current structure of globalised businesses will have to change if they are to survive.  I suspect they will not look like Friedman’s expectations.

“The World is Flat” makes no acknowledgment of that future.  Friedman’s world-view assumes abundant cheap energy.  It makes no mention of the significant adjustments which those businesses will have to make, adjustments which may make Friedman’s optimistic predictions impossible.

The news today is of Ford closing four vehicle assembly plants and of United grounding its fleet of 737s with the consequent layoffs of many hundreds of employees.  The talk on Fox this morning was of regional airports in the US having to close down in the not-too-distant future.  Why?  Only one reason – the rising price of aviation fuel and petrol and diesel.  As the weeks will go by, such restructuring and down-sizing will be repeated as the “discontinuity” bites harder.

This is not an off-the-wall conspiracy theory.  “Peak oil” is a proven fact.  The rate of extraction of oil in the United States peaked in 1970.  Then the US extracted 9 billion barrels a year from its fields, and was self-sufficient.  Now the US is extracting a little more than 2 billion barrels a year from three times as many wells, and having to import 65% of its consumption.  19 of the 23 countries classed as major producers of petroleum have peaked.  For example, the North Sea fields peaked in 1999 and are now extracting 60% less petroleum than they did only 9 years ago. The expectation is that Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Iraq are about to peak if they haven’t already, which is to say that the world’s rate of extraction of petroleum is expected to peak soon.  The Association for the Study of Peak Oil says that the peak will be sometime this year.  Some other groups are more sanguine, and forecast dates like 2013 for the peak.  All forecasts say that the peak is almost upon us.  We will have to adjust the way we do business and live our lives.     

So I suggest that before you decide to continue promoting world-views such as that espoused by Friedman, I suggest that you investigate the matter of “peak oil” and factor that reality into your world-view.