Skip to main content

The World is Flat - or is it?

Thomas Friedman wrote the book, "The World is Flat" and being a famous journalist and writer, he gets attention. He may get a few critiques, but mostly he gets praise. After all, would a book with more criticism than praise make money for the publisher?

I think the world is round. I tell you why. What goes around comes around. The saying that "every dog has its days" is as true as when it was originated. The only issue is that we will not know when. Usually it is a very long time, and most of us will not be around to see it happened.

Think about manufacturing. The industrial revolution started in England and factories were built. Now where is the manufacturing capital of the world? China. Before that, it was the United States of America with all the big factories after England. Then these were exported to Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and so on. Now, many of them are going to China. Is that the end? If the world is flat, it will have an end point. There is no end point.

Have you heard of some call centres being relocated back to the United States, because of the inability of consumers to understand the language? Outsourcing was due to cost, though management will have you believe otherwise. Unfortunately, management has too many things to worry, and so even if that cost escalated, it does not know fast enough to react. By that time, different players will be in place, and so the whole CYCLE goes again. New vision, new plan, and new location. But who cares?

The world is not flat. It is a cycle of "haven't we seen this before?"

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Thankful

Being thankful in any situation is a positive attitude. It brings peace to the mind and rest the heart. The result is a healthy body and a smiling face. Today go about and spread the story of being thankful

A Blog that Integrates

As I experiment with blogspot which is part of iGoogle, I am beginning to feel its power to integrate. The article on Natural Cure, is posted directly from Google Docs (Beta) in which the original resides. This is the first time I attempted this action, and it works seamlessly. I can now easily write an article in word document, store it in Google Docs (Beta), and then publish it to my blog. If you go to the Links on the left and click on the "Pictorial Journey" you are immediately taken to Picasa, which is also part of iGoogle. In this photo storage, you are able to see what I have put in as public photos. You can also have private photos which are not shared. I have not tried video, as it takes time to edit for something that is worth sharing. Google has purchased YouTube for a few billion dollars, and this means you can integrate video as well. I am sure it can be linked to e-Bay which you buy and sell your stuffs and many more. I have to keep this experiment going to opti...

Equity and Equanimity

This article is for readers who are invested in the equity market, or who are thinking of making some money out of it. Money is the mean to an end not an end in itself. This ought to be the guiding principle in investing. I have seen a few cycles of bull and bear market. In the early 90s, there was a super-bull run, whereby the joke was to paste the stock market page on a wall, and then you throw a dart at it. Then you go to the stock market and buy that stock. You will make money. Wasn't that easy? Indeed, few people were seriously working. Most were punting and some did make a killing by getting out early, before it crashed. Many people were hurt, and some swore never to buy into equity again. The equity market can be indeed a casino during a bull run, where you buy in the morning and sell the next day or so. You do not even have to fork out any money. This is because the brokerage provides a transaction plus a number of days, usually three (T+3) before you settle your purchase. ...