Negotiable and contestable
James Fallows points to a discussion of the popular book by the cringe-inducing Tom Friedman (my adjective, not his), by UCLA economist Edward Leamer, which can be downloaded here.
Very interesting and entertaining discussion of the myriad things that it might mean for the world to be “flat”, and how nearly all of them are either wrong or nonsensical (or both!).
I found his discussion toward the end (read the whole thing) about negotiable vs. contestable jobs/business relationships to be very interesting. In short, your typical job is a negotiable relationship (your employer did not, for example, say to the whole world: “I want someone who can teach these course and do this research, submit bids and I’ll take the best deal”). But that’s what happens in a contestable relation, as when you buy some standardized product from someone anywhere in the world with whom you have no lasting relationship. To some extent, what once involved negotiable relationships has now moved into the sphere of contestable ones, which is what I thought was the point of Friedman’s book.
My favorite discussion of Friedman relates to reports on a visit to China, described here.
I should also say that I really liked his earlier books, From Beirut to Jerusalem (although I really wonder about a few of his quotes) and, to a lesser extent, the Lexus and the Olive Tree, although he was already starting the downward cycle that has led him to the state where he’s the self-parodying father of the “Friedman unit“
Powered by ScribeFire.