There’s something about New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman that draws me into his work. Whether he writes about the Middle East or environmentalism, Friedman always attracts me to his columns with his common sense, middle-of-the-road viewpoints. Friedman himself knows that he takes a lot of heat for making too much sense with his cute metaphors and sobering opinions that both delights and upsets readers throughout the political spectrum.
Many of those trademark “NYT Friedmanisms” can be found in Friedman’s latest book, That Used To Be Us: How America Fell Behind In The World It Invented and How We Can Come Back. With a title like that, critics are probably piling on this very second caterwauling that Friedman and co-author Michael Mandelbaum are pining away for America’s glory days mixed with a “Dr. Phil-like manual “on how citizens and politicians can improve the nation.
I find it amusing that the cynics point out Friedman’s metaphors and how he dines with intellectuals, optimists, inventors, terrorism experts, US and Middle East leaders and assorted mavens to come to his conclusions. I part with the cynics on Friedman’s honesty. The writer is truly passionate about what he covers. I believe Friedman wants to make this a better world and he is doing it with his word processor for years. Is that so wrong?
In That Used To Be Us, Friedman and Mandelbaum’s main premise focuses mainly on the nuts and bolts on how to improve the U.S. economy by identifying four major issues that affect it. I’ll use the acronym GIDE to describe the authors’ main points in the book: Globalization, Information Technology, Deficits and Energy Consumption.
In the many years after free trade agreements were passed, the walls have been torn down between the U.S. and the rest of the world. Never before has the U.S. seen countries like China and India become an economic force to be reckoned with. Where the U.S. was once a leader in manufacturing and education, these nations have surpassed the U.S., Friedman and Mandelbaum argue. Information technology has put China and India on a level playing field, along with places most of the U.S. citizens couldn’t find on a map such as Bangladore. With high-speed Internet, Blackberries, iPhones, iPods, iPads and Droids, people from the around the globe are now able to create competitive businesses, schools and information hubs.
Friedman and Mandelbaum vigorously argue that deficits matter for the health of the U.S. economy. The authors hold both U.S. political parties accountable for Washington’s out-of-control spending. Presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton receive praise for their deficit-cutting measures while President George W. Bush is admonished for engaging in two wars while cutting taxes and passing a prescription drug program for seniors. Critics will argue that Friedman wrongly cites President Reagan for tackling deficits, but they would be proven wrong since Reagan raised taxes through what “The Gipper ” termed “revenue enhancements” in order to tackle the nation’s shortfalls. An interesting point is brought up in the book about how the U.S. is indebted to China who has the ability to strike against Taiwan, a protected democratic U.S. country. Whoops! But that is what has been wrong with being indebted to other nations.
Energy consumption is something near and dear to Friedman in previous books including Hot, Flat and Crowded. In That Used To Be Us, both Friedman and Mandelbaum update this viewpoint by showing that the U.S. can become a green country without killing jobs — as far-right conservative U.S. politicians, citizens and business people argue. In fact, they feel that an America dedicated to green energy solutions can create jobs. That idea is a tough sell in this environment when even a Democratic president scrubbed clean air regulations in order to compromise with a Republican majority Congress that feels those rules would threaten jobs and corporate interests. It’s also a hard sell in the age of “Drill here, drill now” ideology whose members feel that domestic oil drilling is the solution to the United States’ energy problems.
Friedman and Mandelbaum take another unpopular viewpoint with immigration. In the age of states like Arizona, Alabama and Georgia which are finding ways to pass anti-immigration measures, the authors write that immigration has always been good for the nation. In their research, they show that the U.S. needs to attract highly educated and trained immigrants to make it a prosperous nation.
There are sobering chapters including in the book which deal with today’s job market. In their findings, the authors say that employees and entrepreneurs have to be unique, creative and innovative in order to compete in this globalized environment. U.S. workers can longer be average. How can U.S. workers overcome being average? Friedman and Mandelbaum insist that the U.S. needs to make investments in education.
Speaking of investments, the authors also write that the U.S. needs to be dedicated to improving its infrastructure. Do not get Friedman and Mandelbaum wrong: they’re certainly not advocating big government spending. Part of their main premise is urging common sense deficit reduction.
That Used To Be Us offers up solutions to the pressing problems it points out. Its conclusion comes up with a big solution: the creation of a third political party that appeals to the sensible center. The authors feel that a party devoid of special interests will make decisions that benefit society instead of the lobbyists who wine and dine America’s elected officials.
Friedman and Mandelbaum offer up hope that third party candidates like H. Ross Perot made significant inroads towards their vision of a centrist political candidate. But, there’s no mention of the scenario from 1980 when John Anderson, an Illinois Republican, launched an independent bid in a year when the U.S. could have used the sensible center. A former governor from California got their votes and won the presidency that year. Even with obstacles in getting third party candidates on all 50 states’ ballots, Friedman and Mandelbaum remain optimistic.
That Used To Be Us tells the readers what they ought to hear; not what they want to hear and that is what makes this book refreshing for cynics and non-cynics alike.