Sometimes Tom Friedman Is Terrible

This is classic Tom Friedman. He runs around the world interviewing people and then he distills what he has heard into the message that he wants to deliver. In this case his message is that we can pursue a progressive agenda without increasing spending or raising taxes. All we have to do is cut non-essential government spending and spend the savings on the progressive agenda. America should do what the mayor of Chicago is doing. Friedman made no attempt to learn more about how the folks in Chicago feel about the mayor's reforms. Nor did he attempt to determine how they are really working. It was enough for him to use his notes from the interview to make the points that he wanted to make.

Let's grant him his catchy phrase that we should assume the Tea Party's plea against tax increases and smaller government, and somehow manage to invest in the future. What is his progressive agenda? Well he learned from his interview that the GOP is correct about the reasons for high unemployment. He was told that some CEO's complained that they want to hire new workers, but they can't find employees with the necessary skills. Our unemployment problem is not due to inadequate demand. It is because we do not have the right labor force. Either they are not properly educated or they would rather collect unemployment than take low paying jobs. That doesn't sound very progressive but his secret weapon for maintaining his progressive image is his concern for a better education. He never talks about how to pay for it, but he knows from his globe trotting, that they are better educated in China and India and that our only way to compete on a "flat earth" that assumes hyper-globalization, is to reform the education system. The education system is our problem. We can ignore trade policy and all other considerations and focus on educational reform. And by the way, what did the mayor of Chicago do to reform education. Well he extended the school day. It was successful because parents approved the reform. We don't know whether it will turn out the workers that businesses can't find, but at least it extends the use of the schools as a day care center. This is typical Friedman drivel that has made him the highest paid journalist in America and enables him to demand $75,000 for speaking engagements where he can repeat everything that he wrote in "The Earth Is Flat".

My last point is that Friedman wants us to cut non-essential spending, and to invest the savings in the future, but he has been one of the strongest advocates for US military intervention in the mid-east. He campaigned for the invasion of Iraq and I have never heard him complain about the cost of our unproductive military ventures in the mid-east. Imagine what we could do to improve education if the trillions that were wasted in the mid-east were spent on education.