the world is flat

Everybody, and particularly every Westerner under the age of 30, and every school teacher, should read Tom Friedman's book, The World is Flat. We have a "flat" world because of satellite communications, fiber optic cable, and high-speed Internet access. You can have an X-ray taken today and it will be read by a radiologist in India or Australia tonight. Your doctor will have a report on his or her desk tomorrow morning. You buy a gizmo at Wal-Mart, and before you walk out the door their computers are telling their sweatshop in China to make another one and ship it over.

Buying Christmas gifts over the Internet is an example of how the flat world works, right here at home. I just bought a camera (not a gift, but a replacement for myself). Thanks to UPS's tracking system I know it left New Jersey yesterday and rolled into Jacksonville this morning. It rolled out this afternoon and I fully expect it on my doorstep tomorrow. I never spoke with a human being about it. They never saw the flash of green money or even heard the clickety click of a credit card in their machine by the cash register. There is no cash register.

I can tell you the time of day it was logged in and out by UPS but I can't tell you what the sales clerk looked like, because there was no sales clerk. That's one less sales clerking job that might have been taken by some kid trying to make money for school. I saved money on the camera and didn't have to drive around our plagued, traffic-choked roads trying to find a better price.

If you are the kind of kid who's still in school but just shuffling along, getting no education to speak of and no job skills, it's time to look at the big world around you. Don't think you can get out of school and get by with a minimum-wage job. They haven't learned to flip hamburgers and sell them through the Internet, yet, but it's only a matter of time.