Warren Bass' review of "The World is Flat" presents a balanced review of Thomas Friedman's work. I particularly agree with Bass' assertion that Friedman is never able to show that the flat-lining of the world economy is taking place right now on a large scale. While it seems that Friedman's book builds towards that central thesis, there remains no evidence to point to that.
Similarly, I thought Fareed Zakaria's review was also well-contrived. However, one of the points that Zakaria illustrates is one that I disagree with. Zakaria notes how Friedman believes that science education is deteriorating in this country, and that a solution is to encourage more students to study science and engineering.
Friedman never answers why it is a bad thing that immigrants are disproportionally represented in these fields. I think he also fails to look into why Americans are not studying science and engineering as much in the past. Only by understanding the root of the problem can a solution be generated; proposing a quick fix isn't going to get the job done.
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