We Know the World is Flat, But is it Getting Bigger ?

I enjoyed reading the book "the World is Flat" from Thomas Friedman a couple of years ago and for those who have no time to read, you can look at the video at the end of this post.

Everyday we have evidences that the world is more and more interconnected and what happened in previous recessions has nothing to do with the global economic crisis we observe today.

Every country is affected, developed and developing countries, yet more people are moving from extreme poverty to middle class. The consequences are very well described by the Maslow's hierarchy of needs : The basis of Maslow's theory of motivation is that human beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs, and that lower needs must be satisfied before higher needs can be addressed. At the bottom of the pyramid are physiological needs like food, then safety, love, and at the top self realization.

In theory, by allowing free trade, more wealth is created in the developing countries to expand the global market. Despite this logic, some people still think local jobs can be saved by having more protectionism and increasing importation taxes from foreign countries. I guess the answer is not that easy ?

Click here to see a Video about "The World Is Flat" or download from Apple’s iTunes U.