The journalist Thomas L. Friedman was born in Minneapolis in 1953,
educated at Brandeis University and St, Anthony's College, Oxford. For his
first book, From Beirut to Jerusalem, he was awarded the National
Book Award in the US. He has also won two prestigious Pulitzer Prizes for
reporting for The New York Times. Living in Bethesda, Maryland, he is
today one of the most prominent supporters of globalization. His main
publication on the issue is the book The Lexus and the Olive Tree.
In its title, the contradictions of the age of globalization are symbolized.
The Lexus, a large, high-tech luxury car made by the "global player"
Toyota, is one aspect of this process; the olive tree as the product of
traditional farming and production methods is its complementary symbol. -
Thomas L. Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree.' Understanding
Globalization (New York: Anchor Books, 2000), 379-381.
I believe in the five gas stations theory of the world. That's right: I
believe you can reduce the world's economies today to basically five different
gas stations. First there is the Japanese gas station. Gas is $5 a gallon. Four
men in uniforms and white gloves, with lifetime employment contracts, wait on
you. They pump your gas. They change your oil. They wash your windows, and they
wave at you with a friendly smile as you drive away in peace. Second is the
American gas station. Gas costs only $1 a gallon. but you pump it yourself. You
wash your own windows. You fill your own tires. And when you drive around the
corner four homeless people try to steal your hubcaps. Third is the Western
European gas station. Gas there also costs $5 a gallon. There is only one man
on duty. He grudgingly pumps your gas and unsmilingly changes your oil, reminding
you all the time that his union contract says he only has to pump gas and
change oil. He doesn't do windows. He works only thirty-five hours a week, with
ninety minutes off each day for lunch, during which time the gas station is
closed. He also has six weeks' vacation every summer in the south of France.
Across the street, his two brothers and uncle, who have not worked in ten years
because their state unemployment insurance pays more than their last job, are
playing boccie ball. Fourth is the developing-country gas station. Fifteen
people work there and they are all cousins. When you drive in, no one pays any
attention to you because they all are busy talking to each other. Gas is only
35 cents a gallon because it is subsidized by the government, but only one of
the six gas pumps actually works. The others are broken and they are waiting
for the replacement parts to be flown in from Europe. The gas station is rather
run-down because the absentee owner lives in Zurich and takes all the profits
out of the country. The owner doesn't know that half his employees actually
sleep in the repair shop at night and use the car wash equipment to shower.
Most of the customers at the developing-country gas station either drive
the latest-model Mercedes or a motor scooter nothing in between. The place is
always busy, though, because so many people stop in to use the air pump to fill
their bicycle tires. Lastly there is the communist gas station. Gas there is
only 50 cents a gallon but there is none, because the four guys working there
have sold it all on the black market for $5 a gallon. Just one of the four guys
who is employed at the communist gas station is actually there. The other three
are working at second jobs in the underground economy and only come around once
a week to collect their paychecks.
What is going on in the world today, in the very broadest sense, is that
through the process of globalization everyone is being forced toward America's
gas station~ If you are not an American and don't know how to pump your own
gas, I suggest you learn. With the end of the Cold War, globalization is
globalizing Anglo-American-style capitalism and the Golden Straitjacket. It is
globalizing American culture and cultural icons. It is globalizing the best of
America and the worst of America. It is globalizing the American Revolution and
it is globalizing the American gas station.
But not everyone likes the American gas station and what it stands for,
and you can understand why. Embedded in the Japanese, Western European and communist
gas stations are social contracts very different from the American one, as well
as very different attitudes about how markets should operate and be controlled.
The Europeans and the Japanese believe in the state exercising power over the
people and over markets, while Americans tend to believe more in empowering the
people and letting markets be as free as possible to sort out who wins and who
loses.
Because the Japanese, Western Europeans and communists are uncomfortable
with totally unfettered markets and the unequal benefits and punishments they
distribute, their gas stations are designed to cushion such inequalities and
to equalize rewards. Their gas stations also pay more attention to the
distinctive traditions and value preferences of their communities. The Western
Europeans do this by employing fewer people, but paying them higher wages and
collecting higher taxes to generously support the unemployed and
to underwrite a goody bag of other welfare-state handouts. The Japanese
do it by paying people a little less but guarantee
mg them a lifetime employment, and then protecting those lifetime jobs
and benefits by restricting foreign competitors from entering the Japanese
market. The American gas station, by contrast, is a much more efficient place
to drive through: the customer is the king; the gas station has no social
function; its only purpose
is to provide the most gas at the cheapest price. If that can be done
with no employees at all - well, all the better. A flexible labor market will find
them work somewhere else. Too cruel, you say? Maybe so. But, ready or not, this
is the model that the rest of the world is increasingly being pressured to
emulate.
Gallon (n.): a unit for measuring liquids, equal to
eight pints; in the US it is 3.79 litres - lifetime employment contract: a written statement by the state
or a company granting you a job for life - hubcap (n.): a round metal cover for the centre of a wheel
on a vehicle - grudgingly (adv.): showing a feeling of dislike - union
contract: official agreement with an organization representing workers -state
unemployment insurance: money you get from the state when you are out of
work - boccie ball: a game similar to lawn bowling played on a long
narrow usually dirt court - subsidize (v.): the government pays part of
the cost of a company -absentee owner: the owner is somewhere else - embedded
(adi.): to be put firmly and deeply into something - unfettered (adj.): not restricted by laws or rules - cushion
(v.): to protect someone from an unpleasant situation -reward (n.):
something that you get because you have done something good or helpful or have
worked hard - equalize rewards: give the same reward to everybody - underwrite
(v.): here: supports. sth. with money -goody bag: something which is
full of pleasant and desirable things - labor market: the people looking
for work and the jobs that are available at that time - emulate (v.): do
something or behave in the same way as someone else. especially because you
admire them
Golden Straitjacket: a central metaphor
used by Friedman for the condition most economically advanced states are in.
The usual image is that of a golden cage (straitjacket: AE; BE: straightjacket:
1. a special piece of clothing that prevents someone from moving their arms,
used to control someone who is being violent or, in the past, someone who was
mentally ill. 2. something such as a law or set of ideas that puts very strict
or unfair limits on someone)