Small and Smaller

Falling transportation and telecommunications costs have taken the world from a "size large" to a "size small," according to New York Times Foreign Affairs Columnist Thomas Friedman. But the most recent globalization phenomenon, he argues, has shrunk the world to a "size tiny." The worldwide proliferation of personal computers and the bandwidth and common software applications that connect them have allowed for the creation of what Friedman calls global work-flow platforms. "These work-flow platforms," Friedman says, "can chop up any service job...and then, thanks to scanning and digitization, outsource each function to teams of skilled knowledge workers around the globe, based on which team can do each function with the highest skill at the lowest price." The globalization of both manufacturing and services are giving China and India huge new stakes in the success of the global economic system. Friedman suggests that aligning the interests of the two biggest countries in the world with those of the US might one day be remembered as watershed events. -YaleGlobal