After reading The World is Flat for my freshman seminar class, I never thought that I would ever read another one of his books. His explanations were often unnecessarily long and drawn out, and I had little interest in economics. To me the book had been somewhat interesting in terms of what was going on with globalization, but I felt as though it could have been condensed into a much smaller, more comprehensible version for those who are not familiar with economic linguistics. But, much to my surprise, just two days ago, picked up I just started reading Friedman's new book Hot, Flat and Crowded, and have gotten through about the first fifty pages. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since.
It clearly states the ugly, raw truth. The truth about America, and the truth about globalization, overpopulation and over consumption, that no one, clearly, has been wanting to face. One of the points that he makes is, is that America has been number one, now, for so long, that has become like a spoiled, rotten child. This child, after winning the chess game of WWII, has gradually lost the work morality that it once had, thinking, now, that things are going to continually be handed to them because they are the best. Or so it thinks.
So as other countries speed ahead in technological, political, and green advances, we are getting left in the dust. But what is to be, perhaps, of the most concern, we have lost something extremely important to our countries internal infrastructure and inner workings. We have lost the most the political will of American politicians and their ability to focus on the longer-term tasks at hand. Again, this is perhaps another good reason for comparing America to a small child. The key players of government, are easily persuaded and molded by lobbyists to meet their own needs, just as a toddler might put his hand in a tub of hot water when coaxed by a simple suggestion and sweet words. Often, in this way, the lobbyists are successful in creating an "artificial economy" which, on its own, is able to influence supply and demand. Such an example would be in the auto industry, and the demand for larger vechiles by "artificially" creating low gas prices through government funds, and in turn creating greater demand for larger, more gas guzzling cars. Thus, it has created the problem with the gradually rising gas prices, and made for grumbling consumers. Why? Because most Americans drive bigger cars, because greedy car and oil and gas companies wanted to make more money and lobbied to keep gas prices low. The problem could have been avoided entirely had we allowed for the gas prices to naturally rise, or by adding a gas tax, such as the "Patriot" $1 gas tax after 9/11 which would have allowed for us to move towards our independence from the energy and resources supplied to us by the Middle East.
But, again, America is still that toddler, unable to focus on anything but short-term goals. We were moving in the right direction after the 1970's oil Embargo, setting into place a lower fuel economy to meet within the span of ten years, which we met without a problem. Even funding was being put forth for solar and wind research already during this time in the United States. However, as the gas prices again started to fall in the mid 1980's, the average fuel economy on a car went back up, and less and less was being done to make progress in terms of looking for alternative energy sources. I argue that, had we continued on this path, perhaps we would be at pace, if not ahead of Europe and Japan in terms of green sources of energy, and maybe even our economy would still be flourishing as well.
But the U.S. has been afraid to move forward in terms of tackling environmental and energy resource problems. Afraid, that regulations and taxes would somehow ruin the economy and somehow take away from"the American way of life". But if this was true, then why, may I ask, has Europe been so prosperous while the rest of the world is having to cope with a the current economic crisis? They went green. Not only has their dependency on the Middle East been lessened, there has also been a creation of thousands of new jobs, which has, in turn led to a stronger economy. Isn't this what the US has been looking for? A solution to our economic problem? Well, here it is.
The questions still remains, though, will America continue to act like a spoiled, paranoid child, or will it mature, taking up the responsibility as a greatly needed, green role model? And if, and when it does, will it be on time, or will it be too late? For, the window to start making changes, changes that will matter, is closing, and closing quickly. Environmentalists predict that if, by 2012, no immediate action has been made, especially in terms of CO2 emissions, the Earth will be stuck irreversibly in a grey cloud of smog and heat.
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