Response to The World is Flat #2

The Hunger

As we went around the dinner table, informing each other about our day’s events, we finally got to my mom and she told us about an email she received from a fellow co-worker. My mom started off by telling us that she had an important meeting she was preparing for that would take three days. She sent out emails to those that were to attend and wrote out what they needed to do to prepare for the meeting. My mom then received a reply from one person who said she would be unable to fulfill her duties at the meeting because she was “going to be sick on those three days”. This situation is a prime example of what Friedman talks about in his book The World Is Flat more specifically Dirty Little Secret #3: The Ambition Gap.

It has become more apparent that we are a “leisure-time society” as time and technology has progressed (Page 359). With the creation of technology that makes life easier, a wave of laziness has swept across our nation and has grown progressively worse with every generation. The older generation thinks the next is lazier than they were. We have all heard the stories told by parents and grandparents: ‘I used to walk to school uphill both ways in 12 feet of snow’ or ‘when I was your age I had to change the television channel by hand, we didn’t have any remotes.’ This is just a simple extension of what Friedman refers to in Dirty Little Secret #3. Due to our innovations in technology, our country as a whole has become lazy.

The trouble is that ambition and laziness, “start as early as high school if not sooner” (Page 356). The situation that the book refers to is the epitome of what most schools deal with today. There are those who say more work is needed and those that say too much work is assigned. I believe there is a balance that is to be maintained. Yes, there should be some room for fun and outside recreation, but being young and wanting to have fun is no excuse for not doing work. There have been numerous cases of this at my school, but the parents take it one step farther. At my school they are known as Plano moms. They try to live vicariously through their children going as far as doing homework and projects for their children. I was taking honors physics and we were assigned to build a bridge that would hold over 200 pounds out of just computer paper and Elemers Glue. I completed the assignment as instructed, and when the day came to break the bridge I volunteered and my bridge held 256 pounds and I received a 99. Then the teacher asked if anyone else wanted to go, nobody raised their hand. Since we were running out of time my teacher did not push the issue. While walking out the door I heard something that shook me to the core, a girl who had not gone was telling her friend why she did not volunteer. She very proudly stated that she had not broken her bridge because her mom was not there to see it, and since her mom had built the bridge the only courteous thing to do was to wait for her. Like Mr. Davidson wrote to Friedman, the parents who are overly involved in their children’s lives, “ are merely setting low expectations” for them (Page 357). By setting these low standards, and accepting them, we have, “in an academic sense lost our hunger. We’re complacent and headed for trouble” (Page 357). By doing everything for their children parents are severely inhibiting their ambition level and setting them up for failure. And because the people in India and other countries are more ambitious and less lazy than Americans, companies are increasingly outsourcing jobs to them.

Friedman quotes CEO’s of major companies as saying, “ The dirty little secret is that not only is [outsourcing] cheaper and efficient but the quality and productivity [boost] is huge” (Page 354). One worker in India will do the equivalent work of two or three Europeans without the six-week vacation (Page 354). Though this might not seem fair in people’s eyes here in America, if they are willing to do it and try their best, then why should we tell them no? I can see the beneficial part of outsourcing. I see it as giving others an opportunity to have a job that is better than any one they might have ever had. Yes, it does take some jobs from Americans; however, in the end there are many benefits that result from the innovations that are spurred by outsourcing. Without it, new technology or innovation might not be possible.

In the future, I believe that the world will be a very scary place if the ambition levels in America don’t change. Other countries will take over because they are hungrier than America. The laziness that has spread across the nation is a major problem that needs to be fixed because it directly affects ambition. People complain about jobs being taken by outsourcing and illegal aliens, but when asked if they would complete the same job for the same amount of pay, whether it be cleaning a bathroom or answering a phone call, everyone says no. People have no room to complain if they are not willing to put their money where their mouth is and do the job. In order to get away from this problem people need to take charge, work hard, and be ambitious. They need to get hungry.