Compassionate Flatism

This was one of the more interesting chapters for me. I think it was more interesting because of the practical nature of it, either that or I agreed with all five of the key elements Friedman outlined. He made some good points about compassionate flatism and why it was necessary. Many Americans are beginning to realize that their jobs and/or careers no longer afford them a guaranteed lifetime employment. People need to become lifetime employable. In order for that to happen, workers must be flexible and be willing to change. But also, society needs to be flexible and willing to offer safety nets to help ensure workers make smooth and positive transitions between jobs. I think that individuals have had it stressed upon them that they need to be flexible and be willing to make career changes, but we as a society have not been very helpful. This is why I feel that the most important key element from Friedman’s 8^th chapter is “Muscles”.

The ideas that Friedman gives in this key element are very important. He states that benefits need to be portable and opportunities must be given for a lifetime of learning. If we as a society are going to adapt to a “flat” world and become lifetime employable as Friedman states, then this key element is crucial in my mind. It is not fair to expect workers to be willing to make career changes if we won’t allow them to transfer their pension and health care. These are two extremely important benefits that Americans work hard for. These benefits help to ensure a standard of living for Americans that should be a given, not a luxury. If these benefits are not easily transferable, then the workforce is going to be less likely to learn new skills in hopes of changing jobs, because their mindset will be on staying in their current job at all cost in order to retain benefits. If people aren’t willing to learn and adapt, then they are not going to be very lifetime employable. In order to encourage and support workers being flexible with their careers, we must provide workers with the ability to take these important benefits with them.

The next most important key element I see could either be “Good Fat” or “Leadership”. This was a tough decision and I see these two being very close to each other in ranking. I decided to put the “Good Fat” category slightly ahead of the “Leadership” one because of the relationship to the first key element of “Muscles”. I felt that “Muscles” was the most important key element to help create compassionate flatism because it provided people with opportunities. The key element of “Good Fat” helps to provide a safety net for workers who lose their jobs or level of salary. I feel this is important because it will help to relieve a level of stress on the workers while they are learning a new job. This lowered stress will allow the worker to be able to better concentrate on learning, and not on worrying about financial constraints. The suggestion that Friedman gave about the wage insurance is especially important with helping to support workers in transition.

Leadership is also an important key element, and I ranked it next. It is very scary that many of our political leaders do not even know about the flattening of the world. Most politicians talk about saving jobs and preventing them from moving overseas, or needing to create more manufacturing jobs. These are I’m sure what the public wants to hear, but isn’t what they need to hear. We should have leaders that understand how the world is changing and be able to explain it in a way the Americans will understand. They also need to be willing and able to put supports like the two above categories in place. If Americans feel that they are going to have assistance and support with preparing for these changes, they are going to have a more secure feeling and better accept the future of employment and being employable. We also need to stress for the continued innovation in the fields of science and engineering.

I also feel that “Parenting” is an important key element and place it 4th in order. I think that parents and society have given children a sense of entitlement. Things are much easier then they were a generation ago. Technological advancements and a fairly strong economy over the past 10-15 years have caused things to be a little easier and more plentiful. Children today have a little bit more than their parents did, and have had to work a little bit less than their parents did while they were growing up. This trend has caused children to become expectant of things, which in turn has caused a sense of entitlement among many. I don’t feel that parents wanted this to happen, I think that parents just wanted to make life a little easier for their children and this was the nasty unexpected side-effect. Children need to learn that there is no guarantee in life, and nothing should be taken for granted. They need to know that hard work must precede all good things. They must also know that anything is possible, if you put your mind to it and work hard enough. These are life lessons that all individuals must learn and we need to teach them to our children.

The last category is always tough. It almost de-values it by putting it in last place. I in no way want to make this key element seem like it is not important. I do feel that the other key elements are slightly more important to helping individuals become life-long employable. While reading chapter 8 of Friedman’s book, this was the key element that didn’t seem to connect as much with me. I think that many of the examples that Friedman used for this key element showed corporations doing community service and being self-regulating. Whereas I feel that social activism is important and may make working in a flat world a little easier, I don’t think it is a major contributor to making individuals lifetime employable.

So obviously all five of these key elements described by Friedman are important, there is no doubt about that. I did however find that some were slightly more important and outlined those reasons above. The key elements were ranked in order as follows:

1. Muscle

2. Good Fat

3. Leadership

4. Parenting

5. Social Activism

I have placed them in the following order of importance because of the perceived impact I see with helping one to be employable for life in a world that being employed for life no longer exists.