Friedman’s Arguments
Freidman gives us an example in Thailand of a couple that was once wealthy and after the Thai crash had decided to go into the sandwich selling business. The man remarked, “Communism fails, socialism fails, so now there is only capitalism. We don’t want to go back to the jungle we all want a better standard of living, so you have to make capitalism work, because you don’t have a choice. We have to improve ourselves and follow the world rules . . . Only the competitive survive (Friedman, 2000, p. 102).” This shows us the state of globalization, even though they know other forms do not work in their countries, they feel they have no choice but to follow along, or be left behind. The answer is free-market capitalism.
Friedman discusses the Golden Straitjacket as the defining political-economic garment of this globalization era. Fitting into the Golden Straitjacket can be complex as it is a one size fits all. Some countries do not put it on all the way; instead they try to go part of the way as in the case of India and Egypt. Some try to fit it to their own needs such as Germany, Japan and France. Then there are others as in the case of Iran and Saudi Arabia that believe they can bypass it altogether due to their own natural resources. There is a long list of “golden rules” that need to be followed or at least be seen as trying to move toward them. Some of these rules include turning over companies to the private sector as well as removing restrictions on foreign trade. Countries that have been used to controlling these factors do not want to give up their power over the people. They have been used to having pr ...