use the washington metro subway to get to work in downtown washington. i had just been at the bethesda station in new exactly which was talking about. the two escalator's there have been under repair for nearly six months.acac well, the one being fixed was closed. the other had to be shut off and converted into a two-way staircase. at rush hour this created a huge mess. everyone trying to get our of the platforms when -- single file down one escalator and up the other. it sometimes took ten minutes just to get out the station. a sign on the close to escalator said the repairs were part of the massive modernization project. what was taking this modernization projects along to make we investigated. spokeswoman for washington metros said that the repairs were scheduled to take six months and are on schedule. mechanics need ten to 12 weeks to fix each escalator. a simple comparison made a

startling point. to china's construction group 32 weeks to build a world-class convention center from the ground up including sign escalators in every corner. it was taking the washington metro crew 24 weeks to repair to a tiny escalators of 21 steps each. researched further and found that on november 14th the "washington post" wrote a letter to the editor. he wrote, as someone who has ridden metro for more than 30 years i can't think of an easier way to assess the health of the escalators. for decades they ran efficiently, but over the past several years when the escalators are running aging moral footing parts have generated terrific noises that sound to me like a tyrannosaur's rex trapped in a tarpit screeching is dying scream. we found most disturbing, maryland community news story about the long lines of rush-hour. it quoted benjamin ross to my

regular metro rider, my impression standing on line is that people have a gun used it. people have sort of gotten used to it. indeed that sense of resignation , that says that this is just how things are in america today, that america's best days are behind it and china's best days are ahead of it has become the subject of water cooler dinner party and custom conversations all across america today. so do we buy the idea increasingly popular in some circles the burden of the 19th century and america dominated the 20th and china will inevitably raise supreme in the 21st? all we have to do is flawed a washington and take the subway to know where. no, we do not. we have written this book to explain why no american young or old should resign him or herself to that you. the two of us are not pessimists

, we are optimists. we are frustrated. we are too frustrated optimists. the title of this opening chapter is if you see something say something. that is the mantra that the department of homeland security plays over and over on loudspeakers and airports are road stations around then couny we have seen and heard something millions of americans have. what we have seen is that a suspicious package left under a stairwell. will we have seen is hiding in plain sight. we have seen something that possesses a greater threat to our national security and well-being anything out kyte it does to my country with enormous potential falling into the worst sort of decline, slow decline, slow enough for us not to drop everything and paul together to fix what needs fixing. this book is our way of saying something about what is wrong, why things have gone wrong, and what we can and must do to make them right.

>> america faces four largest challenges, and those challenges of the spine of that used to be us. the book is organized around them. the first of these is the challenge posed by globalization , which among other things has brought 2 billion more workers into the global workforce over the last two decades. the second challenge comes from the revolution in information technology with which we are all familiar, which is part of our daily lives, and which has, among other things, stripped away whole categories of jobs that hundreds of thousands, really millions of americans used to do and which they used to make good livings. those jobs are now gone, and

they are not coming back. that is a huge challenge. the third challenge stems from the chronic annual deficit that the american government runs, and the national debt the piles hire every year, the result of the accumulation of those annual deficits. now, those of us in washington are familiar with the federal budget deficit, which is the most serious, but not the only one. it is important to note that all over the united states there are state and municipal governments that have made commitments for pensions and other benefits in the future that they cannot possibly pay. deficits and debt are not simply a federal problem. the fourth and final challenge is the one that stems from our pattern of energy consumption. our enormous reliance on fossil fuel, and the impact of the

burning of fossil fuel and the world environment and its climate. now, the stakes in meeting these challenges or failing to meet them could not be higher. the extent to which we as americans can meet these challenges will determine the rate of economic growth the united states enjoys in the future. and where the rate of american economic growth is concerned the old saying applies. lots of things are more important than money, and they all cost money. in particular, the weight of economic growth in the united states will determine whether the current generation of americans is able to pass on to the succeeding generation, a country in which it is possible to do even better than the

current generation is done. this is commonly known as the american dream. the american dream today is very much in play and very much a risk. and the american dream has been the core of the kind of society that the united states is ben for almost two centuries. but the implications for the success or failure the country has in meeting these challenges goes beyond the american standard of living. as tom noted, the whole world is a stake, and the sense that as both of us believe, the united states plays a unique and uniquely valuable in the world. the extensive foreign policy of the united states is, as tom said, the tent pole that holds up the international system, an international system is political and economic dimensions are today more benign

her of all the difficulties the[ have been has ever been the cas[ in history. if the united states cannotw[w[ç sustainw[ economic growth we wi[ might have the resources or the[ political will to sustain this vital global role, and if that happens everyone will live in a world that is more dangerous have less prosperous. so, the stakes, as i say, could not be higher. how are we doing in meeting these challenges? not very well. we are not measuring up to the task. and for this there are number of reasons. we devote a chapter of that used to be us to explaining why we have done so badly on what is our national agenda. one reason is that we misread the end of the cold war. we thought that the end of the cold war was a great historical triumph for the united states.

indeed, it was, but it was also something else. ushered in a world in which the united states would face and does face unprecedented challenges. those challenges, we have all but ignored. moreover some of these challenges are subtle, and criminal, almost invisible. we have overlooked them. one of the purposes of the book is to call to people attention. there is the third reason we are doing very poorly in meeting our basic challenges, and that is for most of them in one way or another some kind of sacrifices required, and we as a people, we as a country for a number of reasons that we outlined in the book have gotten out of the habit of sacrificing. that will take an enormous pull on future generations. we can recover our commitment to

do what is necessary to secure the future. there is another problem the country faces, and it receives a chapter in that used to be yes. we have got no way from what tom and i regard as having been a key to america's economic and social success over the last two centuries and more. it's what we call our formula for a public-private partnership for prosperity. it has had and continues to have five basic parts. the first part is education. historically the united states has educated its work force and educated population up to the level of technology so that americans could take the existing technology to become the most productive work force in the world. second the united states has

always invested in infrastructure. from the building of the erie canal, the beginning of the 19th century, this country has always billed, usually through a public-private partnership, the canals, roads, highways, superhighways, course and airports in the world, and these elements of the country's air for structure form the framework for vigorous commercial and activity. third, especially since world war ii heavy research and development to push our the frontiers of knowledge and develop innovation commercially to bring to market new products and new services and thereby sustain american economic growth . the fourth part of this formula is an immigration. for most of our history, not all of it, but most of it we have had an immigration policy that

attracted him a welcome, and retained will we call i iq risktakers, people able to discover new things and start new businesses that have contributed enormously to america's success. fifth and finally we always have an appropriate regulatory environment. we have had regulation strip to prevent dangerous excesses such as those we experienced in the financial system and 2008, but also a regulatory system not so strict and not so confining as to suppress and discourage the risk-taking and innovation upon which economic growth depends. where we have gotten away from the formula, we have not renewed it. we have not reinvested it. in some ways we have forgotten it. and in order for prosperity in this century we have to get back

to it and bring it up today. well, all four challenges are important, but we believe that over the long term the most important challenge for the united states is the one created by the merger of globalization and the information technology revolution. tom will tell you about that. >> so one of the fun things for( me in working on the book with michael was really to go back and think about what had happened to the horses -- forces that have led the world because that was really what we meant by the merger of globalization, the mighty revolution. the world again connected. and so when we sat down to work on this book in particular this chapter, the new challenge of the merger, globalization, and i tea, i went back to the first

edition of the world was flat, which i started in 2004. i discovered that facebook was an ana. so when i was out this in the world was flat, the world is flat. facebook did not exist, the car was in the sky. clinton was a prison. application is ready sent to college, and from most people's couple's typo. all of that happened in just the last six years. none of those existed. less than a decade ago. so what has really happened in the world, and that thing we would agree that it was actually the most important thing that happened in the world and lost in years, but it happened under the mask of the 2008 sub prime

crisis and september 11th. the world actually went from connected to hyper connected. that is actually what happened, and it has fundamentally revolutionize the workplace, the education environment, and what students need to learn. last time i have a book talk there was a cameraman behind that camera. there is in one now. that job was outsourced not to mexico were to china, but to the past. that is what the merger of globalization and nike is all about, and it is changing everything. now, you can see this often. those stories in his paper. i love collecting these things. reading the hindu stand in the morning. there is alive and there.

the tokyo acacias from. it started providing third-generation three t-mobile network service at the summit of mount everest. the world's tallest mountain. thousands of climbers and trekkers internet and video calls from the summit of mount everest using the mobile phone. can you imagine the number of calls that began mom, you will never guess from calling from the hyper connecting of the world shows up in other ways as well, other small items. the new york times about six months ago, reported that canal college, wonderful small liberal arts college in central iowa my mother and wallet, later chairman of the board. this year, one of ten applications came from china.

of that 1600 students, one out of ten and their applications, the class of 2000 alone came from china and 50 percent of those have a perfect 800 on the math test. so when i wrote the world as flat as said, you know, you are willing not just competing now. now you are literally competing for a place. some one and pf21 in shanghai, someone at tolstoy university in moscow. you are literally now competing head-to-head with them in this hyper connected world. what does that mean for the workplace? because what we decided was before we talk about education we actually need to talk to employers and say well, what does that mean for the workplace? so we broke up this section of the book, which is really the biggest section of the book and

education in the four chapters. we like movies. the first chapter is called up in the air. many of you i'm sure saw that movie. george clooney place a person whose job is to go around firing people face-to-face. he loses his job when his new assistant figures out a more efficient way to do that with the internet. that movie is the movie of our time. it is a brilliant film about what happens to the workplace when it gets high connected. now, labor economists, to put this in their jargon speak about a phenomenon called skills combines, polarization and what that means in english is that if you have the kind of skills, problem-solving and creative thinking skills to take advantage of the separate connecting you will be fine, but

if we tell there is nothing for you. the labor market is getting divided up into three broad segments. the first people who have not routine skills. that is what all of you aspire to, what i aspire to. people who are doctors, lawyers, musicians, artists, accounts, professors, hopefully journalists, people who do things that cannot be described by an algorithm, and therefore cannot be outsourced, automated, robot a sliced, or digitized. basically what happens when the world goes from connected to hyper connected is that if you imagine the world was like a big class, the whole curve has risen the whole curve has risen because every employer, the

people who are on c-span2 now have access to cheaper and cheaper and more and more powerful automation, resources cooperatively tools, robots, and not just cheap labor, but she genius. so the whole curve rises. so we all have to rise with that. we all have to find something extra. those are those not retain skills and jobs that will be outsourced, automated, digitized a moribund size. >> this is at the top in the;w middle were routine jobs. those would be just crushed. being a cameraman turns out was a routine job. it could be robotic size, it has been robust. the world is the separate connected, whatever can be done will be done. that has been done. those jobs have collapsed. at the other end of the spectrum of people who have not routine skills of local.

they have to be done face-to-face. the butcher, baker, and the candlestick maker. their skills, their skills and their pay will depend on the health of your local economy. those of the three categories. now, what we really discovered is that the big change, we discovered this from interviewing employers, going from a connected world to a hyper connected world is what w# are demanding now from those two non retain workers, those at the top called creators, and those of the bottom called servers. spam what we discovered is that every employer now is looking for the same employee. they're looking for people who have non routine critical thinking and problem solving skills in order to get an

interview. there are looking not just for creators, not just for counselors and scientists. they're looking for creative creators. creative lawyer, creative scientist, creative journalist, create a professor. if you are not a creator professor, jessica, she can use all this technology to bring in the best professor in the world and put them right up against you. and something that isn't going to happen in the next five years so it's not enough anymore. you have to be creative not retained. by the way, the same as on the other end. it's not enough to be a server, you have to be a creative server. the way be really discovered this was in the next chapter called help-wanted. we went to for generic employers, and we asked them what you are looking for. we went to a high and white-collar firm, washington, the head of the washington office of a big national off from. we went to a lower and

white-collar firm, the outsourcing firm in india. went to a blue-collar firm, and it went to the world's biggest crinkle a firm, the u.s. army. then be asked all four of them the same question. what are you looking for. as i say, they're looking for people look in the critical thinking and problem solving in order to get an interview because what all four are actually looking for, they explained, are people who can not only do the job, but an event, reinvent, and reengineer the job as they're doing it. because when the world gives this separate connected change happen so quickly that the big boss of the above, he or she can't possibly know what is going on, therefore they need every employee to actually be an innovator. so, for instance, we interviewed the head of this washington law firm.

the first thing he said is we just tired innovation officer. say what? a law firm. my not hire a chief innovation officer. what is that about? well, i interviewed jeff in the two dozen is sub prime crisis, the middle of it. he happens to be a family friend at the time i said to have what's happened to your law firm. up, down. he said, of, business is off. we have to lay people off. i said that's interesting. who gets laid off first and a law firm? is the last in first out? he said not a more. now the people that are getting laid off or those that are in the height of a credible with all the work, give them that work and they did that. they did it in a routine way and handed it back. some of them are gone. the ones we're keeping of those who came to us and said we can do this in no way. we can do new work in .

michael and i, we are old fuddy-duddies. we have the pleasure and the great opportunity when we graduate from school to find a job. you will have to invent a job. that is the big difference. it may not be your first job you will have to invent, but to keep that job you will have to invent. there are firms in silicon valley that now do quarterly reviews of their employees because if you're going to find a product cycles you can't wait until the end of the year to discover that group on all wherever there you have a bad team leader. you can be crushed by the end of the year. so everybody needs people who can invent, reinvent, and re-engineering their job. one of the most interesting examples was given to us by the head of that green, from. his name is general martin dempsey. you may have heard his name recently because he is about to become the new chairman of the

joint chiefs of staff, our senior military officer. when we interviewed in he was head of the u.s. army education course. but been even more interesting, he commanded the first armored division that took bad that from saddam hussein in 2003. he told us the story. five years later he was commander of scent, all middle east military operation. in that year in 2008 he went on to visit a forward base in afghanistan commanded by capt somewhere near the hindu kush. he spent an hour with that captain, and he realized after this hour that that captain scott there near the new crash in is the base had access to more intelligence at the national and technical level and more firepower than he did when he took baghdad from saddam hussein in 2003. therefore he realized how we educate the captain and how we choose that captain has to be

very different from before. one of the first thing to give money to cover the army education gore was introduced the idea of giving new recruits to put kemp and iphone. first to get your iphone, maybe within three weeks the drill sergeant will tell you you download the app, you teach the lesson. i'm sitting in the front row. they have completely revolutionized the army education corporation around this idea, how do we get everyone to produce their extra to not only do their job but to be able to invent and reengineer the job as they're doing it. it's now this is a huge education challenge. what it means is, and this is the next chapter which recall homework times to be close the american dream. homework times one is not calling to do it anymore. we have to education challenges.

we need to bring our bottom of to our average so much quicker because we have so many people who are below average, and in this world where you have to be a creative creator or a creative server, if you do not have my school degree, and if you don't have a high-school degree that allows it to get through some kind of to the four year college without some kind of remediation, there is nothing there for you. we are speaking here. at the mother ship in baltimore very interesting. fifty years ago the biggest employer in baltimore was the company called bethlehem steel.- you could get a job at bethlehe? steel without lies skulduggery, join the union, have a goodñ?7// salary, actually buy a house and two kids, yard, dog, and retire. go to the whole cycle. without nuys school degree. certainly with a high-school degree. what is the biggest employer in baltimore today? john hopkins university medical center. they don't let you cut the grass

there. you can't mow the lawn there without a ph. so we have to challenges. we need to bring our bond to average command many to bring our average so much fire to the global average with particular emphasis on what tanya wagner calls the three c's of education, creativity, communication, collaboration. you have people who can not only do their job but inventing and reinvented on the spot. as ellen coleman, the head of dupont says to us, i need every employee now to be present, to be present all the time. because in this hyper connected world, and this is the last chapter of the four, averaged is officially over. what happens when the world hits this hypercorrection and your

next boss has access to that robot were cheap genius or automation or digitization, averages over. you know, 80 or 90 percent of life is just showing up is no longer applicable. if you just show up for your job you are not going to have that job or thrive in that job much longer. there's a saying in texas if all you ever do is all you ever done now you're getting is all you ever got, that too is no longer applicable. if all you ever do is all you have ever done, just me, all you ever get is not all you ever got you will get below average. we are now all living in garrison keeler's. [inaudible] all the minister on, all the women are beautiful, and all the children are above average.

average is officially over. what this means for education is two things. we need to bring our bottom to our average calamity to bring our average so much higher. law requires more education and the other requires better. now, we conclude this chapter in this whole section by trying to think through. what is the right mode for educators, parents. as the think about describing. it would leave you with three attitudes, points that we would suggest. think like a new immigrant, think like a new immigrant. think white and partisan, and think like a waitress at perkins pancake house in minneapolis just off highway one. what do i made?

first of all, we all need to think like new emigrants. the new emigrant things that i come to this country and there is no legacy spot waiting for me at johns hopkins. the new emigrant understands that he or she is in a new world. we are in a new world. the hyper connected world is actually in the world. all new immigrants. the new emigrants as i'd better figure out what's going on in this country. a better see where the opportunities are and pursue them with more energy and vigor and speed than anybody else. we are all new immigrants. approach the workplace him like a new immigrant. second, think like an artist and that is an idea that the professor of labor economics at harvard. basically says to is the artists and, that person in the middle ages before mass production, but foremast manufacturing. the artists and made everything one off, made every pair of

shoes individually, every person in every saddle, every tinsel. and the best took such pride in their work. they brought something so extra that they insisted on carving their initials into a. do your job every day in a way that you would want to carve your initials into it at the end of the date. that is what insulates you from the of source automated digitized robotic live. lastly, not everyone can invent software to start a company. but everyone is above average to someone. everyone confined their extra someone, maybe it is the employee at the nursing home, an aged parent in a nursing home knows how much you pay for that one hears or health care worker who actually engages your aging parent and puts a smile on the face. that is their extra.

everyone has some extra they can bring. i really learned this in being from minneapolis and having breakfast at perkins pancake house at highway 100. my best friend, we are having breakfast, and that order to the buttermilk pancakes unscramble the next. can order three buttermilk pancakes an effort. and after 15 minutes the waitress came, but the place down and simply said i give you extra effort. she get a 50 percent tip from us . the waitress the buzzer did not control much, but she controlled the for a little, and that was her extra. everybody has got to find their extra, and i know what your

thinking. you're thinking very easy for you to say this to new york times columnist. i was born at night, but not last night. .. >> you can get them write-up

on your screen. we are all caught up in this and we need to find our extra because average is over. >> we have perhaps some excuse for not regress seen effectively the first challenge of globalization and the itc revolution it is not some ways settle to take place under the radar of a great political event it is not always easy to know how to adapt but with the third and fourth challenge is concerned of deficit and debt and energy and climate, we have no such

excuse. these are not hen, the day's not settled but well known and over the last decade now since we have not been addressing the to challenges effectively, some of us for many of us, influential people have been denying that they even exist. we had a quote from former vice president cheney speaking with secretary of the treasury paul o'neill who objected to another tax cut the administration was proposing thinking the country could not afford it. cheney said, you don't understand, reagan approved that deficits don't matter. and as for energy in our climate, the survey shows

the most hof -- half of all americans believe global warming, and the impact of human activity especially the burning of fossil fuel on the world's climate is an ugly rumor or a hoax. it does not exist. what if it were true that deficits don't matter and global warming does not exist? unfortunately it is not true. it does matter and it does exist and we have to come to terms in ways that we have not even begun in. where deficits are concerned, whatever they are for or against, at least it has focused the attention on our problem of deficits and cumulative national debt. even though the political class and the congress and the president talk about it

all the time, and none of them has presented the kind of approach that is necessary to cope with the challenge. what is necessary is a three part approach. we have to cut spending and that means reducing the federal programs. important and valuable programs on which good people, hard-working people rely. we're going to have to make adjustments in the two major so-called entitlement programs of social security and medicare as they are structured now, we simply cannot afford them. anybody who says we can go one as we are, is not being serious about the challenge. second, we also need more

revenue. we have to collect more taxes but that doesn't necessarily mean raising marginal rates on income taxes but we can probably get a lot of revenue closing loopholes and certainly with the kind of tax that we strongly advocate that used to be as which is the energy tax. one way or another, we will need more revenue. anybody who's says that we don't to go along with a cat -- tax structure as it is is not being serious. but those two measures by themselves will not alter the future we also have to make investments in our historic formula. we may have to spend money on education and certainly on infrastructure by the

estimate of the americas society of civil engineers engineers, the infrastructure deficit today the amount of money it would cost to bring us up to par is 2.2 trillion dollars and we have to spend more money on research and development to lead to the new products and services of the 21st century. we need all three and nobody is proposing that. as for climate change, we know for sure that said geophysical phenomenon known as global warming is a real. we know that a search and heat trapping gases form in the earth atmosphere and reflect back and raise the temperature of the plan at. we know that. and we know without the

phenomenon we would not be here because without it the earth would be too cold for habitation and as the earth's blanket of the gases is sick and -- ticketing because of human generated activity comment and we know the earth's temperature is rising because we can measure the greenhouse of blanket and no plausible explanation for the rise except for a human generated activity and the burning of fossil fuel cell this is not a hoax but as close to the established fact as the science can overcome but having said that, when you go further, there is a lot

of uncertainties we don't know how far or how fast it will rise. we don't know the facts. scientist talk about floods, droughts, storms, but the science that we have cannot predict with any precision if any such events will take place, where, when, what magnitude. therefore we don't know with any certainty social or economic damage will do. so there is a lot of uncertainties surrounding the effects of global warming although not really involved but that uncertainty is not a reason for complacency or reason to do nothing. it is true because of the uncertainties the effects of global warming could be more

benign than most scientists believe they will be but equally, that uncertainty means the facts could be much more severe. it is conceivable within the boundaries of possibility that global warming if go unchecked could do catastrophic damage to the planet which is the only habitable one that we know it. we are running an uncontrolled experiment on the only home we have. so we need to start doing something about this problem. and the essence of any problem is raising the price of fossil fuels. we will not get off immediately overnight were

in the lifetime in this room but the difficult complicated problem but elementary prudence dictates that we start now and the way we start is to raise the price of fuel and nobody advocates that. one more reason besides those that i had mentioned before to cope with the four major challenges thereby putting our future in jeopardy. our political system is broken. it is simply not working. and the basic reason as the allied into chapter devoted to the politics is the extreme polarization dividing our two major political parties. in political terms are farther apart hen this is

the 1850s. there arevo complicated and deeply rooted reasons. it did not happen overnight o process took four$o decades to play out.$/ not just one individual or easy to fix but it is an enormous problem because it means the two parties cannot cooperate to bring forth the measures that we need to cope with a large and growing challenges and the political system is paralyzed all the challenges grow worse and that is aggravated by two other things. and with special interest of american politics that has many great did bandages and blessings to american

democracy but also to have the effect we have a serious political problem. but the paralysis of the system is not a reason to meet the challenges. but the good news is things that we can do to put ourselves on the right track i will tell you about both. >> as michael said we are stuck politically and another reason we had a values decline in the country the chapter in the book is called devaluation

we have to hearings that could take place on capitol hill but the first was the five great to baseball home-run hitters standing at the witness table at that congressional hearing on steroids. to explain how some of them used steroids to hit grand slam home runs. five years later, not far away come on the same capitol hill, and another hearing room, five big wall street bankers explained how they used steroids called credit default swaps in order to hit a grand slam home runs.

we have been cheating ourselves that is exactly what happened on wall street we have injected ourselves' .teroidsq we know the greatest generation born board and hardened in the depression but ultimately brought us the victory of the cold war. it is the generation that has two things, one to save in invest but we are now eating through savings and investment and the other thing they believed then was what our teacher and friend cost sustainable values.

our your generation, we are baby boomers, we thought mardi gras and christmas were so much fun we would make them every day of the week. we believe in situational values. and then to give the 810 -- $800,000 mortgage with only $100,000 in town but can you fogged up a ninth for identification? i do it if the situation allows it. just do it. our book is built around movies and the great movie of our time about this issue is jerry maguire. show me the money. jerry maguire is all about

the struggle and one firm between the guy who wants to do things sustainably and olive his partners who want to act situational the. we have values. that is very much a part of this. that brings us to the concluding section of the book can to make two quick points, when michael and i argue about shock therapy which is a phrase they chose consciously that we thought we needed to deliver to the post soviet union, we are now the ones who need shock therapy because right now for us to be able to solve the big problems, and basically we energize the formula for success, we

first need to act collectively. that is what we have lost because all the problems that people faced they all have collective solutions. and the cold war are fundamental choice is either have a hard decade or a bad century. either react collectively in the next stage next decade or we will have a bad century. those of the choices. those and not only the collective action it has a high bred agenda. -- khyber agenda. we need to cut spending we made promises to your generation that we cannot possibly keep. second, we need to raise

revenue because we cannot just shred social security and medicare. we are a capitalist system we will need a safety net if it tries to survive because capitalism is brittle with wild swings in but if that allows them to thrive or continue if people know the safety net is under there it does have some truth to it would like a republican and cut like a democrat. [laughter] raise spending and cut revenue and invest in for structure and education and immigration and all of those that wants. it does not quite correspond to the agenda satisfaction

of either party that brings up the shock therapy. we have an agenda. we have agendas stake and not by president obama and the way the we think it needs to be. if it was taken up by rick perry for mitt romney or somebody else, then we are for whoever comes up with the agenda. but if nobody does, what we would argue is somebody will start an independent candidacy or third party to put that agenda before the public. there is a radical center in the country without 30 or 40% without that we will never get out of the paralysis.

we saw teddy roosevelt masoud george wallace with the agenda 1968 and ross perot 1992. remember, he builds -- to build a the deficit reducer. 40% of the vote at one point*. he won a 20% and he was not so. [laughter] -- crazy at the nt that little black helicopters were chasing him. [laughter] but his agenda, his agenda linked up to the center of the country and it had a huge effect. that is why there are two things we would tell you about a third party if one were to be merged. one is that candidate, he or she would not win but if

they had this agenda, there have a bigger impact on the country's future than the person who does. because the only way to break out of the paralysis his by changing incentives they are not stupid, most of them at least, they are clearly operating on a different set of incentives than we are. they are having the election and they overlap. it is like they're in a parallel universe operating to differ incentives with money and politics, the media, , etc.. the only way to change that is the incentive is. move the cheese then you will move the mouse if you don't move the cheese he

will to move the mouse. we need to move the cheese to show the two parties there is a big piece of cheese of the center of the country instead of always directing their iras to the extreme sides, it is about one per cent to get to the right of another to get to the right of another and somebody is brave enough to show it and the courage a model of water to say a exist to say that allowed i did not say that but some people say climate change. [laughter] that now goes for courage in the republican party. some people say the apple came down on the new to some people say it came out of his head. [laughter] that is how crazy it has gotten.

until you can get people back to the center nothing will change that is why remake the argument in this chapter called shock there be. let me end by saying you are entitled to ask, you said the two the viewer optimist but frustrated optimists. right now from whence comes your optimism? when it comes from the closing chapters simply called they did not get the word pro so thank god for those who did not get the word that they were down in out of that we were depressed in a decline they just go out in invent and fix and he'll in collaborate

and the country is exploding with energy from the bottom up and this chapter if you want to be an optimist, a go-ahead because the country looks so much better from the bottom up and the top down. i've learned this in writing my a previous book where i went around the country talking about energy giving talks the number of people who came up to me to say i have this energy invention. this battle so we'll or turns the turbine and i heard the craziest stuff. but to tell me the country is alive with people who don't have the word it. i went up to new haven in the president of the university says we just guarded a medical school in the middle of a recession? he did not get the word?

[laughter] i do these energy talks in giving my business cards i go back to my hotel room and empty my pockets of business cards from energy entrepreneurs and innovators. rock stars get groupies and i get business cards that are very exciting and their own way. [laughter] and what they tell you is that to the country is a live. it really is dead in the hyper connected world is great because it has down sides but the upside is i can start to anything. a multinational overnight with less money than ever before. if it is not happening, it is because you are not doing it. there is no other excuse. what we say in the book if we do a picture of america

it would be a pitcher of the space shuttle taking the off with that the rest of all those people who did not get the word but the booster rocket, washington d.c. is cracked and the pilots are fighting over the flight plan. right now we cannot achieve the escape velocity we need to get into the next orbit. the next wave the deliver the american dream. but it is all here that is why the forward-looking book has the backboard looking title. to have the formula for success nothing we need to learn from china although we wish them well and they could thrive and so could we we don't need to learn anything from brazil. we wish them well. but the simple point* and the conclusion of the block

is everything we need is right here in our past. the history books we need to read our power on and the country we need to rediscover is america. "that used to be us" and it can be again. thank you very much. [applause] >> we do have time for a few questions. books available. >> books are available? [laughter] >> a gratifying number of view have already availed

yourself to this valuable service. there will be available after the conclusion of this session and they are already signed. we have a microphone and a gentleman who wishes to ask a question over here we will count on it being worth the trouble. >> i am not american but turkish but i hope looking at escalators goes well because it is a problem for us as well. [laughter] the segment, i will ask about the incentives for the third party is issued on the book can open the issue of how to change the incentives?

>> it is a good question and spelled out in the chapter on shock therapy and that used to be as. politicians operate according to incentives they're not trying to earn money over in the but of boats and they will do what they need to do in order to get the votes. $0.3 kb gave the wade they do the reason the parties are polarized is the political system has evolved in such a way that the core members, the so-called base are much further apart so they don't really represent the country all that well and the people in the middle don't really get the voice that they deserve or should have by virtue of their numbers. how you change that?

and fear is an incredible independent candidate who runs on the kind of platform that we have outlined in if that does as well of george wallace horror what ross perot of 1982, that will demonstrate to both parties that there is a large block of voters up for grabs in each of these two parties have a powerful incentive to move to the center to co-op some of the issues of the centrist candidate to get those voters in the next election and the incentive is powerful because of that runs on the platform that we suggest, those voters are available to republicans our

democrats and each party has an incentive to capture those of the party becomes the minorities out if you have a substantial block in the middle you draw both parties to the metal that has happened in the past in could happen again. that is how the incentives four. >> i am a member of the elected board from my public-sector union. reading through the index i looked for labor, union, new social contract. i could not find a single mention of any of those. so my question to you it is what does that new social contract look like? can we afford paying the differential? can we afford nighttime and

differential and things like overtime pay for our labor? what does that look like? >> a very good question and obviously and my answer just reading something from the book that is relevant, i think we can afford all those saying this in theory providing that you as a worker or as a collective are delivering unique value because if you are not, we cannot afford it. so levee just read you a section it is in sight from a competitive riding technology company also

teaching the m.b.a. courses i am in the business of killing jobs. i kill jobs in three ways i killed jobs myself and by focusing on internal productivity all of those festive brought -- practice eliminate jobs outsourcing a more consistent output and direct and i have been eliminated over 100,000 jobs in the worldwide economy from the service is my company sell. i have said that i am a serial job killer in a job that could be eliminated is by devin a -- definition not coming back the worker could come back others upgrade their skills in return to previous lovell's of

compensation but it has changed the landscape of what is a sustainable job? the best way to articulate is to tell you as a job killer i cannot kill the people to eliminate a creative person the unique value creator is unique and maybe someone who was a great sales manager who has spent so much time mastering the market that the subject matter experts. my answer is, i can give whenever answer you want, they deserve everything and all of the benefits, but i will tell you if a hyper connected

world they will only be sustainable only if they are unique value. >> >> hello. i also work for the department of defense ig prescriptionur? they are very well laid out but in order to accomplish them good gigantic deity budget seems a good place to start and unfortunately we do face security threats abroad so could you recommend to under two areas of reform for our national security strategy and please buy my book afterwards?

[laughter] >> thank you. that is a good question. as it happens the road a book about that very subject frugal superpowerb this book agrees withb block and to summarize the relevant point* which we do mention here, like everything else has to be cut rethink a robust extensive global growth is important and furthermore, it is the case that you cannot solve the fiscal problems there just is not enough money there. our basic problem is

entitlements it surely will be cut and our view is while the do need a large defensive establishment there are things that we should cut and those of the type of interventions in which we have engaged beginning in somalia and bosnia at iraq and afghanistan. we will not see those again because we cannot afford them. >> my name is chad on the class of 2009 also work with the department of defense. you mentioned the green collar which was interesting but one thing that we look

at is going green. and what is your take based on the power of our purchases if read challenge the market to produce results instead of spending money with infrastructure we just they do both or revolutionize the market. >> there is sell whole group from the pentagon and there is something more valuable than read the day going the solyndra route to to help people with commercializing technology we need our race to the top to say too ever comes up with a new generation coming 50 miles to the gallon, you won't

have the market anybody who comes up with solar panels will put them up all over the country. we should use our buying power. we talk about it but we don't do it. if you set a high standard to seek which one jobs through rather than pick this or that the it hot flats crowded i have a chapter about al qaeda is somebody is military the best way to prevent roadside bombs is not to be on the road there is a huge number of roadside bombs with convoys trucking fuel from one place to another one consultants said larry levi iraq it will be the biggest transfer of their

conditioners ever known to mankind. so the army is of great place to start who has done a lot of work to fly the corner it on to mr. received -- seed so there is a lot of potential there but we have not pushed it as aggressively as we should it needs a brace -- pricing and we try to do it the easy way but to it is not sustainable without the poll of the consumer it only comes from a price vigneault lead gasoline was $5 a gallon you could not by the tory attire brad -- julianna hybrid three yes there were waiting list and they stopped taking names.

gasoline at $2 a gallon you cannot sell a toyota prius. price matters and without the price of sigma you don't know that consumer pull there for every investment is risky and depends on a government program and you just don't get where you need to go. >> we have time for a couple of more questions. >> thank you so much for about the center negative as a lot of stores on the issues of climate change and i do agree we need to move away from fossil fuel but i want you to elaborate on what your theory is when you raise the price of fossil fuel doesn't that raise the

price of everything else? want people get used to live like you say on your first chapter that people get used to whatever happens blacks just like the elevator is broke and. >> that is a good question. imagine that i invented the world's first self on and i came to just cut to say i have the fun you can carry in your pocket a phone? it in my pocket? i could call people 24/7? 365? i have a phone you can carry in your pocket.

she would say i will take 10. this thing called the cellphone the cost $1,000 each she would say no problem. of phone that i can carry in my pocket would change my life to give me a whole new set of functions and never had before what happens? six months back here my cellphone now weighs half as much and is only $500 because i have moved down the cost volume learning curve the price where my cellphone will scale in china now. remember oil, guest, uranium, the ozark solar cells is technology renew create more demand for technology price

goes down. you know, that from your iphone. i love johns hopkins come back one year later and i say how did this cellphone work out? >> it changed my a life i have been raising money. i have another deal. see the lights in your auditorium? i will power these with solar energy on the roof of the building but it cost to $100 more per month. what would she say? don't talk to me. remember that cellphone it changed my life and gave me functions i never had before. we already have flights. [laughter] and we don't care where the photons and electrons come from. unless the mayor of washington d.c. comes along

to say now you pay the full burden and cost of the co2 of the atmosphere, the troops protecting the will from the persian gulf , now a cost $200 per month then what happens? jessica gets on her cell phone that only eight cost $25 i will take 10 of your solar lights. then what? now my head down the cost volume curve. there is a transition but as you go through the transition of higher unit cost will be higher but you will be using less energy so your actual bill, if this system works will be lower. ultimately you head for a world where solar cells will be as cheap as tennis shoes but when you deal with a new

technology, understand weakness of green power it is not like a cellphone our computer when you might figure typewriter to a computer you would have paid any thing. you gets a whole new function going from dirty energy to breed energy you don't have a new function but the same mobility and the same function and the same light so to get people to use which you have to have a price signal. >> the last question. >> rican jacobs, i find myself from my abilities to rely on social media more

than the thoughts and ideas that i have perhaps because i am young and otherwise but perhaps you have the oversaturation and with social media with the hyper connected world where we rely on it as communication but we don't care about the ideas that are transported or the people who come up with the ideas and can you comment on that? >> i have gotten in trouble so don't tell anybody i said this. by have never been on twitter or facebook and have never smoked a cigarette and a plan on dying saying all three. [laughter] i do believe it is about the content. i find it is very hard for me to focus on traditional reporting, rating, thinking and editing if i would be tweeting every seconds or posting something

avert -- every second. i famously talk the talk of globalization but i do not walk the walk. [laughter] >> content is not matter to if you went to have your present position for the rest of your life. [laughter] if you want to get a better job, but content matters. [laughter] they give for coming. [applause] [applause]

>> up next on booktv, cameron mcwhirter recounts the violence against african-americans during what became known as the red summer