[Dialogue] Thomas Friedman article

Karl Hess khess at apk.net
Fri Jul 22 19:55:01 EDT 2005


Friedman seems to me to be an apostle of neoliberal economics, which 
has been so devastating to poor countries, as Joe Stiglitz has 
described quite eloquently in his book,  "Globalization and its 
Discontents"

Here is a review of one of his books from the New York Times. This is 
from the review of Longitudes and Attitudes, NYT 9/2/02.

>For years, Friedman's big idea has been free enterprise in its new 
>form of globalization: ''the inexorable integration of markets, 
>transportation systems and communication systems to a degree never 
>witnessed before,'' which he believed would solve most of the 
>world's ills. Not that ''the maximum of intercourse between 
>nations'' was a new notion, or a bad one. Long before we had heard 
>of the Web, Richard Cobden put it splendidly in 1850 when he said 
>that ''the progress of freedom depends more upon the maintenance of 
>peace, the spread of commerce and the diffusion of education, than 
>upon the labors of cabinets and foreign offices.''
>
>Part of the trouble is that, like many well-meaning Americans, 
>Friedman doesn't quite see that his country has a very distinctive 
>take on ''the spread of commerce.'' The business of America is 
>business, and what American business has always believed in isn't 
>free trade but free investment, a very different thing. In any case, 
>and quite apart from the fact that there seems some time to go 
>before the whole House of Islam is converted to consumerism and the 
>American way, it isn't necessarily true that the expansion of 
>American markets must always bring sweetness and light.
>
>In his last book, ''The Lexus and the Olive Tree,'' Friedman 
>advanced what he called his Golden Arches Theory of Conflict 
>Prevention: no two countries would ever go to war with one another 
>if they both had McDonald's restaurants on their soil. It was bad 
>luck that the British edition of this book appeared just as United 
>States Air Force missiles rained down on Belgrade, a city whose many 
>misfortunes unquestionably included the presence of America's 
>nastiest culinary export. Friedman honestly if ruefully admitted 
>that Belgrade was the exception to his rule, but this was a warning 
>against grandiose theories, golden or otherwise.

Not the kind of ideology I've heard from ICA folks in the past.  I 
remember when I used to hear talk about empowering the 80%.

Karl


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