Winners Take All

Winners Take All

From the beginning of the reading we realize that Friedman is a realist rather than an idealist. He believed that to get the best out of the global economy, nations must adopt a one-size-fits-all "Golden Straitjacket". Individual nations must sacrifice some degree of economic sovereignty to global institutions in order to achieve this Western-style economic prosperity. The world is currently undergoing two struggles: the drive for prosperity and development, and the desire to retain identity and traditions. It is a system that has united the fates of peoples all over the world from Brazilian Indians to Thai bankers to multinational company executives. Globalization may be good for the Michael Jordan's and Paul Krugmans of the world, who can sell their services in a global market courtesy of satellite television and the Internet, but it is not beneficial for the journeyman basketball player and the academic gypsy. It corrodes social organization not just by challenging cultural and religious values but by allowing a winner-take-all society to generate historically unique inequalities.

Globalization is a spawn of a free market economy. Its defining measurement is speed. Friedman says the most frequently asked question in a globalize world is, "How fast is your modem?" Friedman thinks globalization is built around three balances, which overlap and affect one another. There is the traditional balance between nation-states, between nation states and global markets and between individuals and nation-states. The balance between nation-states still exists today.

When Nations adopt the one-size-fits-all "Golden Straightjacket", they realize the tighter you wear the jacket, the more gold it produces. Today's global market system, the real world and the Golden Straitjacket world were produced by large historical forces that have fundamentally reshaped how we communicate, how we invest and how we see the world. It is most costly to resist these changes.

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