Tom Friedman is wrong. Dangerously wrong. So wrong, in fact, that policymakers should make a new year's resolution to stop taking him seriously. And to aid this effort, The New York Times should just run him once a year on April Fool's Day.
His reckless warmongering during the run-up to the Iraq debacle has been well documented. We could always count on Mr. Friedman to stay the course in his blind fealty to Bush's war of choice. Friedman ultimately conceded in August that we must "disengage" from Iraq. But the damage is already done. In fact, according to reports, tonight the President will announce an escalation of the war.
Now, with the Democrats in control of Congress, Friedman will likely turn his attention to another issue he frequently screws up: economics. In his books, The Lexus and the Olive Tree and The Earth is Flat, Friedman worships at the altar of globalization, indifferent to the suffering of the world's working poor and America's shrinking middle class. (Not that you'd expect a guy who lives in a 11,000 square foot mansion in the Washington suburbs to care much about the working poor.)
In Lexus, Friedman suggests that "soon everyone will have a virtual seat on the New York Stock Exchange." But Syracuse University political scientist Mark Rupert's scathing critique of Friedman's book rebutted this ridiculous assertion with the facts: the divide between rich and poor is wider than at any time since the 1920s, with the wealthiest 10 percent of Americans owning 82 percent of all stocks.
Then there are Friedman's attacks on the standardized workweek. In a 2005 column, he berated the French for trying to protect their 35-hour workweek "in a world where Indian engineers are ready to work a 35-hour day."
So one can just imagine Friedman's reaction as Congress considers items on the Democrats' 100-hour agenda. After all, raising the minimum wage and government involvement in prescription drug price negotiations are anathema to the corporate scions whose opinions Friedman gleefully mimics in his books.
Tom Friedman makes his living writing opinions. But during the past three years, his opinions have helped contribute to the deaths of thousands. Let's not let his opinions jeopardize the economic security of millions of Americans as well.