The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century

In Chapters 8 and 9, Friedman highlights the ways in which America is failing to prepare for a flat world.

Chapter 8 focuses on the “quiet crisis” brewing in education. In short, the United States is falling behind its past education standards while the rest of the world is catching up. Friedman believes that three things are necessary to compete in a flat world: (1) Internet infrastructure that is fast and efficient, (2) the right education and skills, and (3) the right governance (public policy, research support, etc.). According to Friedman, America needs to fill gaps in these areas before the failings become a more pressing crisis.

Referring to these gaps as “dirty little secrets,” he lays them out one by one. First, the current cohort of workers in the field of science and engineering will soon retire, and there are not enough younger workers to take their places. In the past, replacements came either from educating Americans or bringing in immigrants. Both these replacement pools are now lagging, according to Friedman. Fewer American college students are majoring in the sciences compared to their counterparts in other countries, both in absolute numbers and in the percentage of total graduates. This is an urgent issue because it takes 10 to 20 years to increase the number of college graduates in a particular field.