"What Friedman seems to miss in all of this is that saying “average is over” (as in his most recent column) or arguing that those who will succeed in the global economy are those who are willing to “sacrifice more” (as in The Lexus and the Olive Tree) is merely another way of stating that labor conditions are worsening for a distressingly large number of people. Even while marveling at the wonders of corporate globalization, he has made the critics’ point for them.

The only remaining debate, then, is about solutions. I appreciate Friedman’s call in his column for expanded public support for higher education—something that would be helpful, if insufficient, in shoring up what remains of an American middle class. But until we’re willing to address the imbalance of power between working people and those transnational corporations that are free to roam the globe in search of tea-and-biscuit sweatshops, we will live in a world in which exploitation is the average."

to read Mark Engler's article published in: Dissent Magazine Jan 27, 2012, click on

http://dissentmagazine.org/atw.php?id=663