1. How was Karl Marx a visionary? (235)
• The shrinking and flattening of the world is part of the same historical trend that Marx highlighted in his writing on capitalism – the inexorable march of technology and capital to remove all barriers, boundaries, frictions, and restraints to global commerce.
• He was one of the first to glimpse the possibility of the world as a global market, uncomplicated by national boundaries.
• He detailed the forces that were flattening the world during the rise of the Industrial Revolution and foreshadowed the way these same forces would keep flattening the world right up to the present.
2. What are some of the frictions in moving toward a global market that some would argue are worth saving and what is the biggest source of this friction? (237)
• Institutions, habits, cultures, and traditions that people cherish precisely because they reflect nonmarket values like social cohesion, religious faith, and national pride.
• The biggest source of friction has always been the nation-state, with its clearly defined boundaries and laws. Nation-states traditionally provided the walls, ceilings, and floors that organized so much of our lives.
3. What are some examples of both sides being exploiters and being exploited in the India vs. Indiana story? (241-242)
• Indian engineers – exploited when their government educated them in some of the best technical institutes in the world inside India, but then that same Indian government pursued a solicit economic policy that could not provide those engineers with work in India, so that those who ...