After reading Thomas Friedman's "It's a Flat World, After All", The first thought that crossed my mind was that he was missing the point.  Yes, India, China, and other countries have had a boost in their presence on the world stage due to the technology boom of the 90's.  Yes, they have the population and the motivation to become world leaders in technology, communication and the information age.  But we are not in competition with them.

We need to think of the world as a cooperative.  The great minds from all over the world are now able to communicate with each other instantly.  The top companies from India, China, Russia, the US and more can share their success and failures.  I am not saying that this should be the end of capitalism.  We will still have multiple choices and the economy will decide which way we choose to continue.  But we must use all of the resources at our disposal.  And those resources are in other countries.

Mr Friedman does make a good point that we need to change our education system and improve the outlook at the local level.  We will not be able to work with the best in the world if we are not also the best.  We must teach all of our students how to use the tools available to us.  We must encourage creativity.  We must encourage teamwork.  And we must encourage technology.  If this is not done in the near future, then we will not be a world power any more.