Obama should launch his own moon shot. What the country needs most now is not more government stimulus, but more stimulation. We need to get millions of American kids, not just the geniuses, excited about innovation and entrepreneurship again. We need to make 2010 what Obama should have made 2009: the year of innovation, the year of making our pie bigger, the year of “Start-Up America.”
Obama should make the centerpiece of his presidency mobilizing a million new start-up companies that won’t just give us temporary highway jobs, but lasting good jobs that keep America on the cutting edge. The best way to counter the Tea Party movement, which is all about stopping things, is with an Innovation Movement, which is all about starting things. Without inventing more new products and services that make people more productive, healthier or entertained ”” that we can sell around the world ”” we’ll never be able to afford the health care our people need, let alone pay off our debts.
Obama should bring together the country’s leading innovators and ask them: “What legislation, what tax incentives, do we need right now to replicate you all a million times over” ”” and make that his No. 1 priority. Inspiring, reviving and empowering Start-up America is his moon shot.
And to reignite his youth movement, he should make sure every American kid knows about two programs that he has already endorsed: The first is National Lab Day. Introduced last November by a coalition of educators and science and engineering associations, Lab Day aims to inspire a wave of future innovators, by pairing veteran scientists and engineers with students in grades K-12 to inspire thousands of hands-on science projects around the country.
But Obama doesn’t really believe in private enterprise and those who takes the risks keeping the fruits of their labors. He was raised and mentored by Socialists and this is what he believes. I doubt he can change, or at least make a change we can believe in :).
Also, if I am an entrepeneur, why would I risk my capital and countless hours trying to launch a new business if I am just going to get tagged as one of the evil rich people who needs to be taxed more? The Obamanistas running the country just don’t get it. Folks are not going to put themselves at risk and knock themselves out working just to have the fruits of their labors forcibly taken from them by a wasteful government.
Friedmans’ article has some useful suggestions, but it will take a social change in the inner city to really make a significant difference. I just had dinner with the leader of an inner city ministry and heard him recount that almost nobody comes to his events. One of the reasons he cited is that the youth that do come are routinely accused of trying to “act better than us” by their peers. BTW, he is black and an ex-addict trying to give back to his community, so I believe he is accurately describing the situation.
I loose more confidence in Friedman with every additional essay. Some good ideas now and then under a barrage of gratuitous comment.
The N.Y. Times and it’s other columnists like Brooks, Krugman and Kristof have too much influence on public policy. I don’t subscribe to the Times yet it seems I do because our local paper includes lots of articles and op-ed pieces from the N.Y. Times. I suspect this is played out across the U.S. with many other local papers. Cable news and blogs help balance this World as seen from New York.
All the news fit to wrap fish in.
Brooks is right about almost everything. You can tell by how he annoys both sides in about equal measure. I wouldn’t lump him with the others.