On this last Sunday of the summer, today's discussion was big picture - where the country is going, how we're adapting to the ever-evolving global market and workplace, and the role of government in this country going forward.
To boil it down, here are the two competing philosophies. Democrats believe in a bottom up structure to achieve economic success, which means starting with the middle class and programs that are centered on that group to facilitate overall growth - this requires more government. Conversely, the Republicans approach it top down, by focuses on growth in the corporate sector first, which will in turn in theory filter down to the middle class and build it that way - this way advocates for less government.
So you have to choose, while considering what government means to you. It's easy to go cynical in both directions. The Democrats want socialism and the Republicans want corporatism, but regardless, there are some issues that transcend politics that are crucial to the future success of the United States and one in particular discussed today is education.
New York Times columnist Thom Friedman described high imagination countries and low imagination countries, and though this column agrees with his overall premise that the high imagination countries will win out, it's problematic to call the United States a low imagination country. As a country, yes, we are definitely low imagination, but as individuals, Americans perhaps the most imaginative in the world. Mr. Friedman mentioned Twitter, Facebook, Skype, apps (think Apple)... All of those are American innovations.
Education starts with how we set the priorities as a society and we've failed in stressing the importance of it. Then you think of South Korea, China, and India all being ahead of the United States in math and science. To innovatively educate of youth in this country, we have to invest so much more than we do now, with a necessity of having a robust and strong public education system. Frankly, a school system of this sort is what launched this country into the technology age, leading the world in the 50's and 60's. Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) said that many cities and states are going are cutting education to a four-day school week. This is exactly what we should not be doing, and in fact, we should have more schooling, more after-school programs everything from the chess club to the school newspaper to the debate team to football to field hockey. With a four-school week, kids will get part time jobs on the other three days, then probably putting the priority on working and making money instead of educating themselves to a high level. So what could be the result? A very large uneducated workforce earning minimum wage.
Investing tremendously in public education - that would be going big, politically fraught but big. Which brings us to the upcoming speech by President Obama on Thursday. [By the way, the Administration should not have requested to address Congress on the same day as the Republican debate. They knew what they were doing and it was not politically shrewd. Our two cents.] The talk is whether the President's job plan will be big or more modest, i.e. supposedly politically feasible.
Congresswoman Waters insisted the President be bold and call for a trillion-dollar jobs program. Conservative columnist Paul Gigot, understanding that the officials in the Administration are advocating for an FDR type approach, said that the President should go more into Republican territory, 'changing the debate,' and start with tax reform.
Politically, a trillion-dollar jobs investment won't fly. The Republicans would never go for it, called it more stimulus and you know the rest. From the Democratic point of view, we agree with the number, but Democrats should do like Republicans. When negotiating, start with a huge number that the other side would never go for but start from there. In a tug of war, you actually want to be on your heels. We do believe that there has to be some type of investment regardless.
Simply doing tax reform won't jump start job growth quickly enough not taking hold fast enough, would be a slow process in legislating, and wouldn't as beneficial to the middle class as it should be. Tax reform in necessary but is just a part of the answer, not the answer. Mr. Friedman also stated that we do, in fact, need a 'shock to the system.' What that shock would be is anyone's guess, but we're afraid it might not be one that has a positive result.
We can right ourselves economically if we could only right ourselves politically and the two political parties are fighting it out on the role of government. This is the core argument. However, if you think of government in terms of how Presidential historian Doris Kearns-Goodwin did, that government not only includes Washington but also our local teachers, policemen, and firemen, then government will always have a large role in our lives, it's unavoidable. So when Rick Perry says that he wants to make government as inconsequential as possible in the lives of Americans he just not being realistic. It sounds good on the stump but it's not at all practical. Ms. Goodwin also blurted out that it didn't make any sense to her why people who hate government are involved in government. It doesn't make sense to us either but if the motivation is money and individual power then it makes perfect sense.
The panel discussed five pillars for our success - education, infrastructure, the rules for capital investment, government funded research, and immigration. Also, it is the private sector-government partnership that can stabilize these five pillars. These require two things - compromise and regulations (otherwise known as rules) for the chance of successful implementation, but the two words have some badly been taboo'ed in Washington that we're set in a debilitating political paralysis. The debt ceiling debate's negative consequences are still rippling through people's minds, ensuring a no-confidence vote.
It's a big political week coming up, with both the Republican candidates, highlighted by Mr. Perry's first national appearance, getting their big stage on Wednesday followed by the President and his spotlight on Thursday. We hope that it will be an essential informative way for Americans to decide as to which path they want to take.
Tom Friedman; editorial page editor for the Wall Street Journal, Paul Gigot; congresswoman from California, Maxine Waters (D); co-founder of No Labels, Mark McKinnon; and Presidential Historian, Doris Kearns Goodwin.
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