Because modern communication makes the world smaller at the same time globalization makes it spikier, those trapped in the valleys are looking directly up at the peaks and seeing the growing disparities in wealth, opportunity, and lifestyle.
Economic progress requires that the peaks grow stronger and taller. But such growth exacerbates disparities that threaten stability. Only by understanding that the world is not flat can we begin to address the greatest political challenge of our time: how to raise the valleys of the spiky world without sacrificing the peaks.
From the book Who's Your City? How the Creative Economy Is Making Where You Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life, by Richard Florida. Copyright (c) 2008 by Richard Florida, reprinted by arrangement with Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group. All rights reserved.
Image: Chief Executive Officer of Infosys Technologies Kris Gopalakrishnan at the Infosys campus in Bangalore. | Photograph: Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP/Getty Images
Also read: 10 Ideas that could change the world
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