Investment in projects that would open American Mind so that American Minds see the challenge and tragedy of socialism. We want to share the record of the past, the record of venezuela so that when they come to vote or lead businesses and families Young Americans recognize what is not useful policy. Where are we . It is november of 2019. Educating as a longterm investment. Some of us dont have the heart for the long haul. We feel frustrated at the prospect, slow outcomes and perhaps outright failure in our intellectual entrepreneurship. Politics are much more fun and instant gratification. All of us have some vanity. People remember politicians, they do not always remember educators. So we tend, we journalists, businesspeople, philanthropists, scholars want to be remembered and sometimes pick shortterm prospects for that reason so tonight i would like to tell you a story about a really longterm project, a crazy project, this is a story which starts in the 1950s, features the company, a man, and the american public. It is a story of a failing longterm project of business shame and intellectual failure, no way around it but the story which ends in the 1980s also reveals an unexpected payback, some of you may know the characters but might appreciate hearing about them one more time. The name of the company was General Electric. In the 1950s General Electric road high, its factories in new york, massachusetts and connecticut employed many thousands in the industrial center. Every americans bought more tvs, radios or squeeze, ge was not just the company but an icon, it served the Space Program in Tennessee Valley authority. American stress to General Electric like they trusted the game of baseball, a good company that follows rules, the essence, the soviets in 1959 invited the us to create its way from press in moscow and carnegie park. America sent several modern kitchens in the lemon yellow one was General Electric. Most ge executives at the time, talking about the late 50s, like execs at most companies of the time had a view of how capitalism worked. The private sector was invincible. It was a workhorse or a new cow. What it was supposed to do was serve the milk how for the public sector. The government heard of the private sector like a domestic animal, John Maynard Keynes noted this at one point. Through ge or most of ge that sounded just fine. The milk cow was content with the government, Tennessee Valley authority, the client, was the essence of a government project in ge executives at the top like that very much. Ge found tva was one of its biggest customers. They didnt mind serving the Space Program, these executives, the militaryindustrial complex. Unions existed by virtue a very strong union law and they demanded big pay packages. Social experiments by the federal government, American Business could pay that. The expansion of healthcare, the us would pay that or perhaps a longer lead for young parents, that is just a joke, longer leave for young parents and nearly 60s, we could pay that too. Have unions we can pay any load. Stalin was said to have joked that the only country rich enough to afford communism was the United States. [laughter] why should it not be true . Why should it not be true . In the 1960s a benchmark for you the Dow Jones Industrial average was approaching a record level of 1000 and it seemed only a matter of months before the dow would pass its landmark but there was one aging, underappreciated executive who saw things differently as he was an older guy, Vice President Labor Relations and the name of this man was Lemuel Ricketts where. He believes growth didnt come when a board, and wrote out big plans. Boulware believes growth took place when a lonely scientist in a dumpy lab had an idea. World. Ideas like the light bulb. I ge idea. Even a little bit of socialism could do damage. The recent are 1959 kitchens were better than the russian kitchens was those old longterm investments of inventors at the beginning of ge. The reason the companies thrived was good were affordable but the high wages in prices would render ge uncompetitive. In the end of the russians would make better kitchens. Nobody could quite imagine japan at this point back. That was a scope but imagination. It was in the godgiven assignment in his view of a Pristine Company like General Electric am a national hero, to inspire america to return to old capitalism of edison. And the problem was urgent he said. Ill read a quote from him. The current rapid trend has got to be changed. Are we through with everything we cherish . The younger executives at General Electric found him ludicrous. He wasnt modern. This apartment is irritated them superlatives. Many agree. Fortune magazine described him this Vice President is a figure who combined the folksiness of the Kentucky Farm background with the fervor of a washing machine salesman. [laughing] the other executive said ge did not worry. They with the future. He was approaching retirement. By 1960 or maybe 1965 he 65 he would be out anyhow. Let him rant from his recliner in delray beach. Still, he determined to use his final years and hours to make his own longterm investment saving the future. Ge and america turkey want to teach americans the gift of the nature, the depth, the freshness of the gift hat in capitalism. He spent millions of ge money mimeographed and pamphlets explaining theng value of marke. He warned towns were g operated the midwest or the east that the high wages and all the extra social benefits would force companies eventually deleted one such down was pittsfield massachusetts and daschle center. He warned the people grass will grow in pittsfield if pittsfield didnt wake up. To importancero of competitive prices, wages and costs here he use new media in this case that would be television, to reach the people creating a tv shows some of you seem cold ge theater to showcase traditional American Values picky hired staff including that aging actor to be ge spokesman. Remember, the actor was a union man, a democrat who admired Franklin Roosevelts and the new deal. Still i wont say his name yet but this actor who was hired had potential. [laughing] well, we have our cspan audience so lets stick with the story. He kitted out a special ge house with all modern appliances can of like the ge kitchen for the actor to live in and he schooled the actor who was Ronald Reagan in adamas smith, friedrich von hayek, john locke and tocqueville with little essays added by henry had luck. He gave little books just at the manhattan is it and hoped they would be red. This actor, reagan, wasnt exactly popular across ge either. Thee younger executives didnt like having some kind of western propagandist, and they complained about reagan. But for the few remaining years, they couldnt stop him and his actor and he sent reagan all around to hundreds hundred of s with mimeograph pages to explain all about the tva and future of industry and the industry move west and so on. The actor he wrote speeches about the dangers of socialism and socializing medicine was a bad idea. Tva was a bad idea. Power could innovate faster when it was free to make its own decisions. Maybe hydropower wasnt the only kind of power in the future of the United States. Amity shlaes is the author of Great Society am one of many authors you consume booktv every weekend here on cspan2. You can find the entire conversation on cspan. Org. Youre watching a special edition of booktv now airing during the week while members of congress are in their districts do the coronavirus pandemic. Tonight, america at war. Enjoy booktv now and over the weekend on cspan2. This weekend on booktv, saturday at 6 p. M. Eastern Richard Cordray former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This is how consumers and the problem they face, its about Consumer Finance and how its changed and its about the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the role and importance of the work that it engages in to protect people across america. Sunday at 12 30 p. M. Eastern h. R. Mcmaster former Trump Administration National Security adviser. The United States and of the free and open societies will do everything we can to protect ourselves against the efforts of the Chinese Communist party to subvert our free economic market systems and our democratic form of governance. And at 6 20 p. M. Ruth gilmore, author and city of new york professor of mass incarceration in the u. S. The fact that most people leave prison do a little bit of analysis to see that we could be closing prisons already and jails already if we just cut my two weeks and three weeks and four weeks much less years the kinds of sentences people are serving. Watch booktv this weekend on cspan2. Now on booktv is after words New York Times magazine contributor Thomas Chatterton williams looks at race and identity turkeys interviewed by author and New York Times columnist kwame athony appiah. After words is a weekly Interview Program with relevant guest hosts interviewing top nonfiction authors about their latest work. All after words programs are also available as podcasts. Host so they introduced us and they tell of who we are so we can just are talking about your wonderful new book and to think the best way to do that is talk about its author because its a book that makes an argument that
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.