Imus Makes Tom Friedman Smile for First Time in Years
Tom Friedman was greeted this morning to chants of “We’re number 11! We’re number 11!” from Imus and Charles, who were inspired by the title of one of Friedman’s recent New York Times Op-Ed columns. Though he giggled at this stunt, Friedman warned Imus that the basis for his column—a Newsweek article ranking the best countries in the world ranked the United States at 11—is no laughing matter.
Having recently returned from China, Friedman was feeling bad about his country; not because China undertakes and completes huge, progressive projects, but because they have the sort of can-do spirit that he once thought emblematic of the U.S.
“We are so embroiled in political divide, so unable to really make our democracy work democratically to generate the kind of focus, authority, legitimacy and support for big projects that China does through dictatorial means,” he said. “You really wonder, can we only produce sort of sub-optimal solutions?”
Friedman pointed out that China’s progress, particularly in the area of green technology, was born out of necessity. “They woke up around the time of the Olympics and said, ‘We cannot breathe, cannot swim, cannot fish, cannot drive, cannot drink,’” he said, adding, “One thing we know about necessity: it’s the mother of invention.”
He cautioned Americans to watch out. “You won’t just buy your kids’ next tennis shoes or t-shirts from there,” he said of China. “You’ll buy your next electric car…solar panels, and wind turbines.”
With the world becoming increasingly flat and crowded, as Friedman loves to say, energy demand has only one way to go: up. “And that means clean technologies and renewable energy have to be the next great global industry,” he said. “Either that, or gasoline’s going to cost you 50 dollars a gallon and we’re going to burn up the planet.”
The latter seems to be the direction the U.S. is heading in, because politicians on both sides of the debate are unable to pass comprehensive climate change legislation. Should the Republicans take back the House this year, Friedman speculated it would be at least three more years until a serious energy bill could be passed.
“It’s so obvious what’s going to happen,” Friedman said. “We’re going to wake up and basically, we’re going to have gone from importing our oil from Saudi Arabia to importing our solar panels from China. Thank you very much, have a nice day!”
Though Imus observed that Democrats in Congress can freely support climate change because they know it has no chance of passing anyway, Friedman said the real missing person in this debate is President Obama. Despite hiring an “A-team” of energy and environmental experts, like Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and Environmental Protection Agency head Lisa Jackson, Obama has kept them largely hidden from view.
Friedman supports a one-dollar-per-gallon gasoline tax, the profits from which could be used toward paying down the deficit and cutting payroll and corporate taxes. But that just makes too much sense.
“It’s win-win-win-win!” Friedman exclaimed. “I don’t want to live in China for a second, but I want my own country to work, and it’s not working right now.”
Imus, for one, was frightened. “You’re starting to squeak, Tom,” he told his guest. “You’ve got to calm down.”
-Julie Kanfer
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