Recently, I received an email quoting a Baptist minister that started:
“The American dream ended on November 6th, 2012 in Ohio. The
second term of Barack Obama has been the final nail in the coffin for
the legacy of the white Christian males, who discovered, explored, pioneered,
settled and developed the greatest republic in the history of
mankind.
“A coalition of blacks, Latinos, feminists, gays, government
workers, union members, environmental extremists, the media,
Hollywood, uninformed young people, the "forever needy," the
chronically unemployed, illegal aliens and other "fellow travelers” have
ended Norman Rockwell's America.”
There are a lot of emotional hooks embedded in this openly racist
screed. However, I am unpersuaded.
Having grown up in the Melting Pot of New York, I don’t think of America
as a monolith of white Christian males. In
my view, the American Dream is the product of hard-working immigrants, many of
whom are not white, Christian or male.
Moreover, I don’t think the American dream has ended.
I would guess I am swimming against the tide of public opinion. Rasmussen reports that about 70% of the
public thinks we’re on the wrong track. Many are enamored of Donald Trump
because he speaks to the trends that disrupted the 20th Century economic model
that made them secure.
But, this isn’t the 20th Century and our challenges aren’t
the result of a lack of jobs. They are
the result of a lack of skilled applicants.
McKinsey reports that “[i]n advanced economies, demand for
high-skill labor is now growing faster than supply, while demand for low-skill
labor remains weak.” They further
predict that there will be a global shortage of workers with the skills
demanded by the 21st Century economy while the cohort of low-skilled
workers will grow by over 90 million, resulting in an oversupply of 11 million
such workers.
If we are to address income inequality – if we want to “make
America great again” -- we should start right here.
Birth rates are declining in the industrialized world just as
the Baby Boom generation is retiring in great numbers. The
American Dream is our greatest weapon in the competition for immigrants. We need more engineers and well educated
technical people than our education system can produce in the next decade.
Writing for Quartz.com, Leila Janah asserts that the
challenges go to the heart of our education system. “Community colleges… have a 70% dropout rate
nationwide,” she reports. “And even when
people do manage to finish, they emerge with training that doesn’t equip them
to succeed in the new economy – skills like marketing one’s talents in an
online profile, submitting applications for project-based work, and developing
new skills using on-line resources.”
Ms. Janah is associated with Rework America a private
initiative whose goal is to harness the energies of “entrepreneurs,
educators, technology leaders, CEOs, diplomats, community activists [and]
religious leaders”… to “expand opportunities for employment … for all Americans
to learn and train for the work of the future.”
Such efforts are more likely to achieve results for workers than any
government program.
To achieve the American Dream, 21st Century workers will
need to project themselves into the future rather than pine for the past. Don't expect government to provide the answer.
You must make the right choices.
The Bernie Sanders ad running in NY goes like this: “if you’re doing everything right and finding
it harder and harder to get by, you’re not alone.”
We need to modify that message thusly: if you're doing everything
right and finding it harder and harder to get by, you’re not doing everything right.
WHO WILL LEAD?
