Thomas Friedman, "Average Is Over": When Speed and Flexibility Are Slavery

Will wonders never cease! I agree with the premise of Thomas Friedman's New York Times op-ed, "Average Is Over" (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/opinion/friedman-average-is-over.html?ref=opinion), in which he declares:

"In the past, workers with average skills, doing an average job, could earn an average lifestyle. But, today, average is officially over. Being average just won’t earn you what it used to. It can’t when so many more employers have so much more access to so much more above average cheap foreign labor, cheap robotics, cheap software, cheap automation and cheap genius."

Indeed, I have been saying that "average is over" since the inception of this blog. In June 2009 I wrote (http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.com/2009/06/investing-then-and-now-compugen.html):

"[O]ne exceptional scientist is worth more than an entire mediocre R&D army."

But let's not get carried away. When I say I agree with Friedman's premise, that doesn't mean I agree with the rest of his twaddle. Friedman writes:

"Consider this paragraph from Sunday’s terrific article in The Times by Charles Duhigg and Keith Bradsher about why Apple does so much of its manufacturing in China: 'Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly-line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the [Chinese] plant near midnight. A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day. ‘The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,’ the executive said. ‘There’s no American plant that can match that.''"

It doesn't occur to Friedman that rousing 8,000 workers from company "dormitories" and marching them off to a 12-hour shift after swallowing a biscuit and tea just might amount to slavery.

Observing that persons in the US with higher educations are less likely to be unemployed, Friedman's concludes that in order to buttress employment, "nothing would be more important than passing some kind of G.I. Bill for the 21st century that ensures that every American has access to post-high school education."

This is where I will wax politically incorrect. I don't believe that a college degree in and of itself creates value. Value is to be found in the individual, not in the degree, which is no more than a piece of paper which can easily be degraded. In fact, were every American to be awarded a B.A. degree, to a large extent there would be that much more mediocrity associated with college education.

Friedman tells us that "everyone needs to find their extra — their unique value contribution that makes them stand out in whatever is their field of employment." Sorry, Tom, but not everyone can stand out in our brave new world, particularly those who are roused and marched off to 12-hour factory shifts after being given a biscuit and tea.