I have no idea what this man is talking about:
Obama should aspire to make America the launching pad where everyone everywhere should want to come to launch their own moon shot, their own start-up, their own social movement. We can’t stimulate or tax-cut our way to growth. We have to invent our way there. The majority of new jobs every year are created by start-ups. The days when Ford or G.E. came to town with 10,000 jobs are over. Their factories are much more automated today, and their products are made in global supply chains. Instead, we need 2,000 people in every town each starting something that employs five people.We need everyone starting something!
What kind of businesses employ five people? Well, maybe a food truck. Or a gardening business. Or a Website for people who want to upload porn videos. Or 2,000 people in every town to write a speech for the Aspen Ideas Festival, I don't know. But I am smelling some big-time renaissance here! And here's the money shot:
But a narrative is not just a business plan. It has to be infused with values, and, in our case, the most obvious is “sustainability,” which doesn’t simply mean “green” or “no growth.” It means behaving responsibly in the market and with Mother Nature so we can have growth that lasts. What “freedom” was for our parents’ generation, “sustainability” has to be for ours.
This much I know. In the Friedman lexicon, "sustainability" does not mean what you and I think it means. It means sustaining Thomas Friedman's lifestyle and Thomas Friedman's investment portfolio and Thomas Friedman's top marginal income-tax rate and Thomas Friedman's place on the A-list of Serious Persons. Because any connection between sustaining the Friedman family fortune and, you know, actually saving the planet and alleviating poverty is purely coincidental unless it can be done through a sensible combination of new revenues and entitlement reforms, etc.
For the ultimate takedown of this chucklehead, read this. For all his warts, God, I miss that guy.
---Vitelius
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