Analysis Of Thomas L. Freidman's The World Is Flat

“By making college unaffordable and student loans unbearable, we risk deterring our best and brightest from pursuing higher education and securing a good-paying job.” -Mark Pocan
How important is a college education? Throughout Thomas L. Freidman’s book, The World is Flat, Freidman supports that it is important for more Americans to get a college education. If America is able to produce jobs and educate people then we will be able to survive in a flat world and we will be able to compete better with other countries. Many Americans today would like the opportunity to go to college but many factors are holding them back. One of the many obstacles is money. The concern today is, for the first two years of community college should there be funding

This quote from Freidman’s book agrees that people are trying to move up in the social class, “I once heard Jerry Yang, the cofounder of Yahoo!, quote a senior Chinese government official as saying, "Where people have hope, you have a middle class." I think this is a very useful insight. The existence of large, stable middle classes around the world is crucial to geopolitical stability… "Middle class" is another way of describing people who believe that they have a pathway out of poverty or lower-income status toward a higher standard of living and a better future for their kids” (537). This quote is trying to say that the people in the middle class do have hope in moving up because it will provide a better. life for their families. They are not just staying in the lower class but with the opportunity they are willing and motivated to do it. Having a college degree will give people more options. In the book, Class Matters, it has short anecdotes and Jeff in the story is a great example of someone who was stuck because he did not have a college education. Egan writes, “For a guy like me, with no college degree, it’s becoming pretty bleak out there” (106). In making this comment he knows that nowadays an entry level job is not a good stable job and that

Obamas proposal will affect the Yakima Valley especially. In Rafael Guerrero’s article he speaks to the President of Yakima Valley Community College, Linda Kaminski, about Obama’s proposal that the first two years of community college would be free. She agrees that this would be a good idea, she states, “. . . middle-income students are often ineligible, forcing them to work to pay tuition. . . Obama’s proposal would alleviate the stress placed on these students trying to get a college education.” In making this comment she believes that if a students get financially support it can benefit them in class room by having all their attention on their class work and not having to worry about a job that would usually help pay for the classes. With having the first two years free this would give people hope and encouragement to continue their education. Kaminski aggress when she said, “High school students might be more motivated, too . . . For whatever reason students may not want to go to college — lack of resources, family issues, work — the measure would reduce the reasons not to focus, study and complete high school at their highest potential.” In other words she believes that no one’s potential should be held off for financial reasons. With the proposal if passed it will give students motivation to continue their education and there