Please give a warm Georgia Tech Welcome
to our dance Stephenville Thanks.

OK this is working.

Is the mike working.

Great.

It's a great pleasure to be here with
you and to be here in Atlanta and to

for this afternoon have a discussion about
really what we're going to be talking

about is what's the right development
model for the twenty first century.

You know a few years ago we suffered
an economic growth quake about eight point

zero on the Richter scale and
we've been seeing aftershocks ever

since you know I'm sure a lot of you have
seen headlines of places like Greece and

Portugal but also in California where
I'm from California is the state that.

Right now is twenty five percent of the of
California's don't have any health care.

A lot of California have lost
their homes John employment is

twice what it used to be it's over
twelve percent you know this is

other states are also having a hard time
so we're living in the aftermath of this

economic earthquake and
when you think about it a lot of

the rules that we thought had been
settled about how you develop an economy.

You know how banks are supposed
to act how businesses are spoken

of supposed to act how
the interaction of government and

the private sector is supposed to act
those rules of suddenly been thrown

up in the air because you know you we
used to have a mentality in the U.S..

The government is the problem as President
Ronald Reagan said in his first inaugural

address and there was a big move for
a couple of decades to deregulate

deregulate deregulate get government
out of the way a business let business.

You know go to work and
do what it does which is create jobs.

And that attitude of course is still there
and it's an important attitude it's but

on the other hand we saw what happened
when government just vacates the field

when it comes to things like
the financial industry.

And when it comes to some
of the other areas where.

Business left to its own devices
actually crashed the economy and

created the worst economic crisis
since the Great Depression.

So many of the assumptions that we
thought had been settled and many of the.

You know of the thinkers who we thought
were leading us in the right way suddenly

it's all up for grabs again and this is
not just true in the United States it's

true around the world because in
many ways the development model for

emerging democracies was based on what
was called the Washington Consensus

done in conjunction with other
organizations like the the I.M.F.

the International Monetary Fund and
the World Bank and

you know the the idea there
was you're supposed to really.

Decrease government costs decrease
regulation and increase your exports if

you're an emerging democracy Well now
another country has come along China

who has a slightly different way of
developing an emerging economy and

suddenly that poses
another model out there

of development that in some ways is
a competitor with the American model.

And isn't yet a third model out there.

And it's what I base of the subject of my
book Europe's promise which is that there

is actually a European way of development
that is different than the American

way it's different than the Chinese way
it's different than the Japanese way.

And so.

When my colleagues were a book called The
Second World of eliminating Parag Khanna

and you know a lot.

Our conversations are one who's
read the books focused around

that there is ease free power
centers in the world today.

The U.S. China and Europe and

the other Powers says just because
their economies are so big.

And that the rest of the the world in
some ways are what we sometimes just

talk about politics as the swing voters
they are the ones are going to decide

which of these develop models
are most attractive to them.

And and as they decide that developing
model is going to gain in currency and

in prominence in the world.

And.

And as we think about these things
what come becomes very clear.

Is that the world is is facing
some immediate challenges that

are going to last for for many decades
into the twenty first century and

in fact the premise of my book is that
the world is facing two immense challenges

that we've never faced before and they
are the following First how do we identify

the institutions and practices that
are going to allow a burgeoning global

population of six and a half billion
people to enjoy a decent standard living.

Another way of saying that is how we
are going to allow the Chinese and

Indians in the Brazils to come up in the
world and have a seat at the table which

they undeniably deserve because they want
what we have right they want nice water

Torrens nice universities nice homes nice
streets that's the middle class life you

know and so they're all looking to have
what we have a new America what they have

in Europe what they have in Japan and
Australia and other places so that but

the other challenge becomes how do we
allow that kind of development to occur

without burning up the planet in a Venus
atmosphere of our own creation through

excess carbon emissions and even for those
who aren't convinced about global warming.

No no doubt that as more and more
countries try to become quote middle class

they're going to be using up more
resources they're going to use it more

water more steel more cement China is
already becoming one of the largest

users and many of these resources
you know there's a lot of

trace minerals that are using technology
that those of you in Tech students know

what I'm talking about a lot of trace
minerals that are absolutely needed

you don't need a great quantities but
you need them and there's not that much

of it in the world so there's going to be
competition for these sorts of things.

So we have both the development
economic development challenge as

well as the environmental challenge and
increasingly these two are going to

collide if we don't figure out
a development model that is going to allow

it all to work and into this discussion
is where my book enters because

in looking at Europe it actually has
developed some important institutions and

practices that we here in America
can learn from just as they have or

Europe is learning from
us all the time and

this is not about who's right who's
wrong and which model is going to beat

the others it's about how do we learn from
each other and it's very global age so

that we can develop the best model that
other countries other parts of the world

can begin to use coming up with their
own local regional versions of it

that makes sense for
them that's really what this is about.

And so when you when you think about.

Europe I mean a lot of the American
media really has missed

the real story of what's
going on in Europe.

You know just as the American media missed
weapons of mass destruction right and they

missed in a trillion dollar housing bubble
I mean how do you miss a trillion dollar

housing bubble that size the housing
bubble and many of the economic experts

also missed is that you know the media of
course rely on the experts at the expert.

I don't get it right the media
doesn't get right so just that but

in a similar way they're missing the real
story of what's going on in Europe and

now you see all the reportage on
the PIGS Portugal Ireland Greece and

Spain and just four countries out
of you know thirty in Europe or

more depending on how
you count Europe and.

And in fact Europe you know when you look
at a lot of the headlines about Europe

over the last ten fifteen twenty years
what you see consistently in American

media is they report Europe as this week
school rhotic economy strangling and

red tape of socialism
you know the place where

it's dying out its population is dying
out it's you know being overrun by

Islam immigrants Muslim immigrants this
is basically that what you see reported.

Time and time again in the American media
but in fact Europe is as Dr Burchfield

said earlier is the largest economy in
the world it produces nearly a third of

the world's gross domestic product which
is the output the output of your economy.

In fact Europe's economy is almost
as large as the United States and

China combined Think about that and
think about you know most people here that

they're very surprised you know that with
all the hype we're hearing around the G.

two it's called America is the superpower
China is the emerging superpower and yet

Europe has an economy it's almost as large
as the two of them combined Europe has

more Fortune five hundred companies then
the United States and China combined

Europe has the largest trading partner
with both the United States and China.

If you invested your money in European
stock markets up until two thousand when

everything crashed on average you made
more money in European stock markets

than you made in the American stock
market does this sound like socialism.

Sound like a weak.

School rhotic economy as you see the word
school Roddick used over and over yet.

Absolutely not and

in fact what you realized is that
Europe is completely capitalist.

Just as America is capitalist but
it's a different type of capitalism and

it's what I call in my book social
capitalism and I compare that to

what we have in the United States
which I call Wall Street capitals.

And there's a lot of differences between
the two more than I could go into now but

we can certainly talk about during Humanae
But what it boils down to the difference

between them is that
with social capitalism.

Well you know there's no
question that capitalism and

the corporations that
are the major economic

actor in capitalism is the greatest wealth
generator that humans have ever devised.

But there's an outstanding question there
who gets that well whose pockets does

it go into and that's where Europe
has figured out how to harness this

capitalist engine to create
a more broadly shared prosperity.

Whereas the United States version
Wall Street capitalism is still for

the most part of a trickle down type
of economy where much more the wealth

goes into fewer it increasingly
fewer pockets to give you just one

standing statistic I saw recently
the four hundred wealthiest Americans

in during two thousand and ten in a year
in which another million Americans

lost their homes more jobs were lost at
this point in our economy has lost and

shed fifteen million jobs
during this economic crisis

in a year where you know fifty million
Americans still don't have health care.

And where many of the programs that
the the poorest in children and

others depend not have been slashed in
state after state in two thousand can't

afford Well these individuals saw
their incomes increase by ten percent

to the point where those four hundred
people have a total of one point.

Four trillion dollars in wealth which is
greater than the entire gross domestic

product of the country of
India with a billion people.

That's the type of inequality
that we're talking about and

the inequality is not just
a matter of you know.

It's not fair it's not right or any moral
question it's a matter of how do you have

a functioning macro economy because
there's all sorts of studies that have

been done by economists and
others who showing that if if not enough

people have enough money in their pockets
to buy what's produced in your economy.

Then you see a drop in consumer spending
because the business is now have fewer

customers they still have to lay people
off because people are laid off now they

have less money they have to buy less so
businesses lay off more people and

you get into this downward spiral which
is what has happened in our economy and

so the inequality aspect is not simply
a matter of moral what's right or

what's wrong it's a matter of how do
you have a functioning macro economy

where what you're economy
is produced is producing is

bought by consumers and that maintains
jobs maintain standard of living

maintains can skins consumption levels and
what we're seeing now clear trajectories

is that a lot of even as a lot of the the
banks and the corporations that lost.

Quite a lot during the economic crisis as
they've come back to pre-crisis levels

they're not creating really any jobs why
is that because they are using those

resources to go overseas they're
creating jobs overseas they're not

creating jobs here that's a big problem
from the point of view of having.

I just saw a.

Newspaper the Constitution Journal
Constitution called County I think

the number was eleven percent of homes
are in foreclosure and other counties

in Georgia even higher up to fourteen
percent not to mention lot of homes now.

Or what they call underwater where their.

The value of their home is now worth
less than their mortgage because of

the complete drop in prices that
essentially they're bankrupt and

with no end in sight so this is the type
of trickled out economy that can really

hurt your broader macro economy in both
the short term the medium term as well

as the longer term and that's what the you
know the washing consensus has left led to

here in the United States so
with with Europe's brand of social

capitalism they have figured out how
to create just more broadly shared

prosperity how do they do that they do it
by putting it to things like health care.

Things like retirement they have a much
more generous retirement structure

in these countries things
like childcare paid parental

leave after you have a child you can see
you stay home you still get your pay

paid sick leave you know when you're sick
you get to stay home in the United States

sixty million private sector workers
do not have any paid sick leave.

So when they get sick they're forced to
make a decision between do I stay home and

take care of myself or don't fail
to take care of my children whose

child I'm sick and
lose that income or I go to work and

infect all my coworkers right Lilias
sixty million workers work in the service

sector in restaurants handling your food
when you call it when you eat there so

next time you go into a restaurant think
for yourself that there may be someone in

the kitchen or even your waiter or
waitress serving your food who is sick and

can't afford to stay home and
they're handling your food.

Does that make economic
sense absolutely not.

I love getting on toward radio and bring
up that point I haven't found anyone yet

who has a good comeback to why
that's a good thing for our economy.

So university education you know
it's much less expensive in Europe

some countries it's still free and
you know the U.S. is.

As many of you know you can graduate
tens of thousands of dollars in debt and

let's you have to be
independently wealthy so

you can start out your career
with significant debt and.

So on and

on you know Europe has basically taken
the wealth that their economy produces and

they produce a lot of well and they
ploughed into these sorts of things and

this of course is what is referred
to as the welfare state and

you know as we know as Americans in
America the term welfare is not a very

nice term it's a big red flag saying
that this is somehow a bad thing and so

and I remember it doing the interviews for
this book and asking people about this at

one point there was a British analyst who
said to me no this really is not welfare

as you Americans understand that term this
is about how do you support families and

individuals and workers so they go to
work and be healthy and productive

it's about good having good workers that's
what these supports are about it's not

about people kicking back on the dole like
we think of it we think of welfare and

United States and so in my book actually
call it the European work fair system

because it's about working it's not about
what we Americans think of as welfare and

that's an important
distinction to underline.

In many ways Europe has come
up with a way to really enact

family values in America here a lot of
politicians saying a lot talking a lot

about family values they actually have
a quote in my book from a conservative

politician in Europe a Danish politician
and he said you know in America

you want to talk a lot about family
values but we actually put money behind.

And in the type of things
I'm talking about is

as I said paid parental leave
when you have a child you

know there's a feeling there that it's
a job to stay home and take care of that

child give that child a good start in life
you can't take away people's wages and

expect that they're going to stay home
with that child you all in Europe and in

just every country that I'm aware of they
also get what's called a kidney stipend.

Where for every child you have you get
about one hundred fifty to two hundred

dollars a month for
things like diapers and baby bottles and

all the things you need and you have
that up until the child turns eighteen.

And you get this you know poor
families get it middle class

families wealthy families get it's
universal everybody gets it and

they can afford it because they've
taken the wealth of their society and

they decided this is the values this is
what we think is going to produce them

the healthiest workers the healthiest
families in order to to make our society

work they also have you know depending
on the country five to six weeks paid

vacation they have holidays for Catholic
saints you've never heard of you know

all sorts of holidays every little hilltop
town in Italy or Spain or Germany or

ever has it all little holiday for
different it's different sayings and so.

Now it's just you know if America are on
average we have two weeks paid vacation

and not nearly as many holidays and in
fact America is one of the few countries

in the world that does not have a law
requiring mandatory paid vacation for

its workers there are Americans working
full time jobs at jobs you not that

do not give them any paid vacation and
there's all sorts of research out there

again that shows that well rested
workers workers who feel like you know

they're not worn out those are better
workers they're more productive workers so

again are at it in many ways our
approach is just penny wise and

pound foolish as as as it has been said
because it has blowback in certain ways

now the American response is to say OK OK
OK Europeans have all that of course but

you know they pay a lot of taxes for
that kind of thing and

here in no taxation without representation
America Americans would never put up with

that so you can forget about it so
I began to look into that a little bit

are our Europeans really
paying more taxes then than

we are and they want to look
into it get a on the bumper.

Sticker slogans that sometimes passes for
policy discussions you realize that's not

true either because if you're an American
paying escalating health care premiums

Anthem Blue Cross just recently announced
an increase of up to forty percent

in health care premiums Americans
are paying on average twice as much money

per capita for health care as someone in
France or Britain or Sweden or Germany or

any of these other countries and all the
metric show we're getting worse health and

health care for even though we're
paying twice as much money.

If you're an American paying.

Child care average family
with two children in America

pays at least twelve thousand dollars
a year for child care some countries in

Europe child care is free and it's better
quality because they don't have these

decentralized hodgepodge systems where you
know you're not quite sure who you know

the household that you're dropping your
child off and there's no really system for

keeping track of the quality of care it's
just word of mouth in France and Sweden

other places they have child care where
it's some places it's free others that

you're paying a certain amount of money
per child pending on what your income

level is maybe thousands some as much
as fifteen hundred dollars a month so.

Me or.

So Americans are paying at least
six seven eight times more for

child care and some cases quite
a bit more twelve thousand than

other places are are paying for their
child care and the quality is not as good.

If you're looking at things like
I mentioned university education

they could use in Europe it's still
free some of paying a few hundred

dollars more intuition here you're paying
tens of thousands of dollars a year.

Retirement The average retirement
pension government pension in

France Germany Sweden Britain
other countries on average

you're going to be getting about
two thirds to three quarters

of your final salary in a retirement
pension here in the United States so she.

Purity pays about thirty five percent so
you know in some places half of what

they're getting and that's why Americans
are so obsessed with stuffing our IRAs for

a one k's and trying to save as much
as we can out of pocket because

the Social Security is is
is not enough to live on.

And you know I give numerous examples
like this senior care Americans

are paying three times as much out of
pocket for senior care as Europeans are.

And so when you boil it all
down what you realize that

yeah Europeans are paying more in taxes
most countries are not all actually but

we're paying a lot more out of pocket to
receive the things that they're getting

in exchange for their taxes we're paying
a lot more for health care a lot more for

retirement all these sorts of things in
order for us to have a good sailor Now if

you're an American critic of the European
way you say OK OK that's that's true but.

In America we allow you to keep
your own money we allow you to put

you know we know what the government is
not taking the money out of your pocket

you get to decide for yourself which of
these services you want to buy right and

that was the you know
George President George W.

Bush said this many times this was part of
his conception of the ownership society

and there's certainly
a degree of truth to that but

here's the thing to think about is
health care discretionary today is

a decent retirement discretionary is
you know child care is that really

discretionary or these are things
that families and workers and

people need in order to have
a good standard of living

good quality of life in his increasingly
economically competitive age.

And.

You know this is certainly the.

The and when you look at a lot of
the you know the the the passes for

analysis comparative analysis on
faxes from country to country.

For the Forbes tax misery
index as it's called

is one of the most authoritative I mean
that's what a lot of people refer to and

yet Forbes only looks at
income tax social security or

some sort of pension tax and
things like sales tax if you mine or

taxes they're not looking at what
are you getting in exchange for that and

what do you have to pay out of pocket in
order to to get those same services and

so that's why when you look at the Forbes
tax misery index you see of the European

countries up there most of them you know
at the top the most tax miserable and

then they're at the bottom happy as
a clam around the Philippines and

Malaysia is the United States because we

we've taken a strategy of of basically
saying we're not going to create these

systems that are going to help
families and individuals and

here's the interesting thing
about that because we don't

create these pools of what I call social
insurance to design and create a good

child care system to create a good health
care system we end up paying more money as

a result that's why Americans are paying
more for you know six times seven eight

times more for child care that's why we're
paying twice as much money per capita for

health care as well as other reasons that
I can if I have time I'll get into but

it's not we can talk about in Q.

and A.

So by you know by plan these things
out ahead of time instead of having

these decentralized hodgepodge systems
like we have health care child care and

others you actually can
create economies of scale and

efficiencies that allows you
to produce that service for

less money that's really key going
forward because in many ways.

You know what our economy is going to be
asked to do what the European economy in

every Conny the world going
forward is as China and

India Brazil try to come to
the table we're going to be asked to

do more with less we're going
to be asked to have more per.

Anymore labor productivity more energy
productivity more productivity our health

care systems and social systems in
order to be able to afford them and so

when we're spending six seven eight times
more per capita for child care twice as

much money per capita for health care this
is going to hurt our economy American

businesses as they're trying to compete
against global competitors when they're

paying more money per employee for health
care this makes them less competitive.

So we're really going to address these
things going forward as is there's

no question about it.

So.

I.
Would do it on time.

Twenty minutes.

Apart.

So I would know it and he was going
to tell me when I how much weight.

You know.

Fifteen MINUTES LEFT OK so.

You know how does Europe accomplish this.

You know it's a it's a subject
of an entire book but

I want to just give you a few.

Things to think about institutions that
I find quite impressive in Europe.

One is it will look at Germany as
an example they have a practice

there that's known as CO determination
what CO determination is you know you

have all these corporations out there
Fortune five hundred companies Germany has

a lot of them with names that you probably
recognize like Vokes wagon in the M.-W.

in which telecom Siemens all these ones
and you know their corporations just like

we have in the United States the
difference is there by law the workers who

work in these corporations get to elect
fifty percent of the members of the boards

of directors of these corporations think
about that think about the ramifications

of that I've asked first well I would like
to sort of get a poll sometimes how many

people in this audience have heard
of these partially work or elected

boards of directors of major corporations
if you hands that's more than I do.

Typically get Actually in
most audiences in America.

It would be a zip imagine
if we had a law requiring

that Wal-Mart had to have its workers
elect fifty percent of its board members.

We kind of chuckled that we can't imagine
it in the American context right and yet

if Wal-Mart did that it would change
how they treat their employees

it would change how they treat the regions
in which their stores are reside

it would change how they treat their
supply chain this is what Germany has done

Germany is the fourth largest
national economy in the world

it's the world's largest exporter
some people say China is but

I don't think you can trust China's
numbers so I still say Germany is.

And and now that it's spread
throughout Europe in Sweden

the workers get to elect a third of
the members of boards of directors.

And this kind of code determination
means that the employers and

the employees need to confer much
more extensively with each other

about all sorts of things now the American
responses would be well that's going to

hurt the competitiveness of both those
companies as well as the national economy.

But look at let's look at that German
these German corporations is a Fortune

five hundred companies they're completely
compared to some of them are leaders

global leaders in their field Siemens one
of the the largest and most successful

most proper prosperous engineering and
construction firms in the world.

Say with the B.M.W. the other all these
a Mercedes these are all German companies.

It's a but it also means though that the
you know when you have the workers having

say and what's going on that and they've
done a lot of research on this if you can

imagine but it helps to keep the company
everyone within the company on the same

page in terms of the challenges faced by
that company and the perspective solutions

so it's actually important component and
you know again Germany's economy is.

Right now actually in during
the middle this economic crisis

while our unemployment rate
has just about doubled

in Germany the unemployment
rate has actually gone down.

So you just can't argue that somehow
this is going to make economies

less competitive the World Economic Forum
actually does a rating of the most

competitive national economies in the
world and regularly six out of the top ten

slots are taken by European come on trees
most of whom are using this type of coded

germination all of them also use another
feature called Works Council at every job

site no matter how small it works council
is elected that has a quite a bit of legal

authority and power with a network
place to negotiate things like layoffs

you know vacation you know
wages all sorts of things and

taken together these create much more of
what I call a culture of consultation

with there's a lot more consultation going
on in most of these countries not all of

them some of them are certainly
gripped by labor strike France France

is is a good example but
France actually you know contrary to

the stereotype only eight percent
of France's private employees

are are unionized it really isn't
a heavily unionized country they do but

they have even the average person just has
a great deal sensibly resolved area so

they when those strikes everyone no
one breaks a strike it's amazing but.

So these sorts of you know these sorts
of techniques create this culture of

consultation and as a result of this
culture of consultation Durness economic

crisis Germany was able to adopt
a a strategy that proved to be not

possible here in the United States instead
of laying off millions of German workers.

What they did was they had
everybody cut back a little bit so

instead of working say one hundred percent
you working maybe ninety percent or

eighty five percent of your
of your regular hours but

during the boom years they were
laying money aside so if someone is.

Working eighty five percent they're
still getting maybe ninety or

ninety five percent of their pay and
by doing this this is this is what's

been called short work in German Kurtz
arbeit by doing this a few other

good things happen one you keep more
money in more people's pockets so

you don't get that downward spiral of
consumer spending that I didn't talk about

earlier more people can you know they
need that money they spend it and

it keeps the the downward spiral
the economic crisis from being too

great second thing it does is it
keeps your workforce intact so

once the recovery comes you're ready to go
workers still have their skills they have

deteriorated here in the United States
we have workers now the better work for

two years their skills have deteriorated
even Kalyan getting up to go to

work every day is not sharp anymore and
so you lose the productivity of your

workforce as a result of this
the third thing that that that

short work does is it prevents the utter
devastation that has happened in American

communities when the main breadwinners
were laid off and what that happened what

that does the families people losing their
homes foreclosed homes because they can't

afford their payments anymore you know
increases in domestic violence alcoholism

and all other types of social ills all
of which is going on in this country

these countries in Europe Germany
the Netherlands and

others that have done the short
work have spin spared the worst

the most acute type of of
these sorts of problems.

And yet when.

OK And yet when Summers who has been one
of President Obama's closest economic

advisers until recently was asked what you
know this German work this German sure

were things he's be working pretty well
over there why don't we why don't we do

something like that his response was well
here in America we're not about protecting

old jobs we're about creating new jobs as
if there's some conflict between the two.

And I think this really shows how you know
injure in Germany and Europe in general.

They're much more pragmatic in
their capitalism then we are here

in in here in the US we we seem to
do it here to some fundamentalist

playbook capitalist playbook about how
you're supposed to do these things so

when it comes to you doing something like
short work in preventing the foreclosures

preventing the social ills
keeping your workforce intact.

You know this economic front
fundamentalism kicks in this is not

all we can do that but when it came
to bailing out banks when it came

to bailing out auto companies suddenly
they suspend their economic fundamentals

because that's not what you do in
the capitals playbook either right and

so you know the question here
is what what's the correct way

what kind of pragmatism is going to
work really not whether you're hearing

this something that was written by
Joseph Schumpeter you know decades ago.

The other area in which Europe has
really excelled in our wrap up with

this that we can open up to Q.

and A.

And terms of addressing the global
challenges I mentioned at

the beginning of my
talk is in the area of.

Environmental sustainability.

You know again these are capitalist
economies and yet they have managed to

lower their electricity use to the point
where the average European uses half

the electricity of the average American
the average European emits half the carbon

of an average American it takes forty
percent more fuel to go on a mile

in an American car than
it does in a European car

they're implementing all sorts of
interesting technology is both renewable

technologies as well as conservation
technologies things like you know low

wattage light bulbs which you can you see
a little bit more of an United States I

don't know up to look what do we have here
we have a lot of playful I can't tell.

But you know these low wattage light
bulbs they use they get the same wattage

the same power the same woman Ossie for
a fifth of the power motion sensor.

In buildings so that when the you know no
one's in the building the lights go off on

elevators and on and on escalators when no
one's on the escalator the escalator stops

rotating doors carousels and buildings
when no one's in the Carousel it stops.

And you know I don't know what I am look
here in Atlanta but in San Francisco where

I live you can look down down at night you
can see all the buildings with the lights

on up like a Christmas tree and all I
have to do is put a motion sensor in all

those buildings you can even if for some
reason you're afraid of planes going to

smash near building at night you can bring
it down to a certain level of dimness.

And and reduce the amount of power that's
being used all our plans today are always

on what's called standby power you know
our stereos are always flashing not as you

when we're not using them I have a toaster
where you know there's a light always

on in my toaster and you push the button
down to make toast it does this thing with

a light goes doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
doo doo did why do I need a light in my

toaster they think I need to make toast in
the dark or something WHAT IS the point of

that is supposed to attract me as a
consumer right well this is what's called

standby power and in aggregate it actually
uses quite a lot of power in the E.U.

They passed a regulation saying telling
manufacturers you've got to bring your

standby power your prices down to ten
percent of what it was it's just you know

this is not government subsidized
just by passing a regulation that

gives a signal to the manufacturers
of the you know what they have to do.

We're also doing amazing
things with building design

to decrease the carbon in energy footprint
of buildings I gave a talk with your

European Commission back in September and
it's a huge building and

in the entire building is surrounded what
looks like you know window blinds but

they're very big when window blinds and
these blinds just tilt.

The day progress is it as the sun comes in
or out it to let natural sunlight in both

for warming purposes and for lighting
purposes so you can use less electorate.

Before warming and lighting your building
you know doing other interesting designs

like hermetically design buildings excuse
me hermetically sealed buildings where

the air can't get in or out unless
you let it and as you let the air

inside the building outside you can
exchange the heat that's in that air and

give it off sort of handed off to the air
coming in so the air goes out but

the heat doesn't and by doing as you can
eat the buildings is a one person tell me

we can beat this building for the About It
takes two to power a hairdryer so these

are sorts of building designs that are
going on that are really quite impressive.

They're doing things
like combined heat and

power when you produce power
at a power plant about forty

percent of the energy used to produce
that power is lost up the chimney flue as

heat it just is belch into the environment
what the Europeans are doing is

they're taking that heat they're drawing
it off and putting it into pipes and

taking it into their villages and
towns and buildings and homes and

using it to heat it's kind of like what
you do in your car when you think about it

you know your engine is producing heat and
you know that he could just be Bell

since the atmosphere instead it's stored
in your engine in a certain place and you

can draw that into your car to heat the
car that's basically what they're doing

with their buildings with this huge amount
of heat that's given off by power plants.

When my favorite example is off
the coast of Portugal they have these

things called sea snakes they're about
three hundred feet long and about twenty

five feet in diameter these big huge tubes
and they just float in the ocean and

you can make grids of these things they
have Pistons inside and as they go up and

down from the wave motion they producing
power twenty four seven was off the coast

of Britain Maje taking a windmill sinking
it beneath the sea and getting it into

the sea floor we're just churns in
the currents twenty four seventh's and

of course they're doing amazing things
with the wind power and solar power and.

Not only creating big electricity
generating plants but

also putting solar panels on people's
homes in fact in Germany Spain Portugal

elsewhere they passing things called
feed in tariffs where if you're a home

producing power for
yourself through a solar panels and

you produce more than you need you can
you can sell it back to the grid and

you get four times the amount of money
per kilowatt that you produce compared to

standard power so again government isn't
subsidizing this stuff they're using

they're doing it by regulating the private
sector things like feed in tariffs and

other sorts of policies so
these are the sorts of things that.

Europe is doing and I should mention
that they a lot of the technology well

maybe not a lot but certainly a number of
them that were originally that they're

using they're increasingly widespread
fashion originally were developed

here in the United States possibly even
in schools here like Georgia Tech.

And yet they've been able
to implement these things.

Way more than we've been able to do it
here in fact a lot of American companies

that have started they go to Europe for

their business because they can't get
traction here because we don't have

the correct policies that gives
them the the ability to do that so

and as a result of that you know
the Germans and the Swedes and others they

taken these technologies perfected them to
the point where they've now produced their

own green industries that are creating
hundreds of thousands of jobs and

they're still exploiting these
technologies to China India Brazil and

emerging economies who want this
technology needed we need them

to have it because we need them to
lower their carbon emissions as well so

it in many many ways Europe is just really
at the forefront these sorts of things and

we have we haven't been doing nearly
enough to take advantage of what really

should be our home field advantage in
developing a lot of these original

technologies so as you know why
don't we pause there and go into Q.

and A and
I'd be happy to entertain other ideas.

I do go into some of the problems that
Europe is having including on things

like population decline and immigration
such and so that's of interest I'd be glad

to talk about that so whatever you
want to talk about let's let's do it.

Thank you.

Hey briefly mention at
the very end innovation in

sort of the technologies that were made in
America being applied over in the European

area do you think if we were to implement
sort of the European economic viewpoint in

the future like something you're talking
about the innovation in America would be

hindered because I feel like it could be
but there are ways that we could sort of.

Prevent you know innovation from
totally being kicked out but

I think it's pretty important thing
to think about what you think

well I think the reason why we
have are are playing catch up now.

I mean we can trace it historically but
in terms of right now there's no question

that President Obama intended to
go further in this area than he's

been able to and I mean for
example President Obama.

For the first time we actually have
a line item in the federal budget now for

high speed rail we never had a line item
specifically for high speed rail and

that was already because of President
Obama because during the stimulus money

in the spring of two thousand and
nine you know they're going back and

forth in Congress and the money for high
speed rail kept getting cut cut cut cut at

one point President Obama said to Rahm
Emanuel I want a transformative amount of

money in this budget for high speed rail
as a result of that we got eight billion

dollars for high speed rail which
is actually not that much money if

you're really going to do it seriously but
it's way more than we ever had before so

President Obama clearly wants
to go more in this direction.

The problem he has run into is the buzz
saw of a filibuster Gone Wild Senate.

At this point you know no one ever thought
that we would need sixty out of one

hundred votes to get anything done in
the Senate usually you know you need

a majority fifty one hundred and the
filibuster suddenly came along I mean to

give you a perspective on what this
you know the filibuster there were for

me what I meant by the filibuster where
in order to cut off debate the Senate

you need sixty out of one hundred votes to
cut off debate and then vote on a bill and

once you've cut off debate you can vote
on a bill no it takes fifty one out of on

the road to win to pass that bill but to
cut off debate you need sixty out of one

hundred and the other filibuster
was meant as a tool to slow

down bills in the Senate to create a more
deliberative body to create some sort

of consensus formation process but for
example the one nine hundred sixty S.

during a very tumultuous
time civil rights era

the filibuster was used maybe
a half a dozen times a year.

And since then we've seen increasing
use of the filibuster but

in the in this Congress the filibuster
is basically be used for

every piece of legislation
that comes into the Senate and

as a result of this it is completely
stymied what Obama want to do on health

care on global climate issues
Idaho range of issues and

so going forward this is going to be
probably I can't I can't think of any of

the legislatures around the world where
you need a close to a super majority.

Except for one California State
Legislature where you need two thirds two

to changing the revenues and as a result
it's led to a tremendous amount

of paralysis in California so too you know
super majorities are just bad thing to

as a regular practice there are certain
there are only seven times in the U.S.

Constitution where calls for
a supermajority vote.

The founders were very precise in knowing
that two thirds is just simply too high

but through a quirk of history we've
developed this filibuster is not in

the Constitution is just a.

All the Senate's not even
a law that's created and

now we need six hundred votes
again this is a big problem and

it's not going to change yes any
time soon and it will change engine.

OK story and yet
I was wondering and the E.U.

has come very far when it
comes to green energy and

to encourage this development they have
for example raise taxes on petrol etc And

I wonder do you even think that
is applicable here in the U.S.

I'm from Sweden so we're kind of used
with a little bit higher taxes but

I wonder do you even think it's possible

since to raising taxes might not be
as acceptable in the US as in the.

Certainly Americans
are more tax averse but

I think part of that is is just
education as I said you know Yet

we have the stereotype that somehow
Europeans pay more taxes than we do and

yet when you really do the the balance
sheet of what you get for

what you pay it turns out Americans
are paying out just as much as Europeans

we're just getting a lot less for
our money and

when it comes to things like green taxes
I think the case needs to be made.

That.

The By taxing things like gasoline

it actually forces the auto companies to
come up with more fuel efficient cars

that actually increases the productivity
and innovation of your industry

because they you know they're going to
be sensitive to consumer demand and

whichever company comes up with the more
fuel efficient cars going to get

more business and you clearly see that
in Europe where these higher taxes

force the industries to become more
fuel efficient more innovative.

Again this is something I think Obama
wanted to look at more seriously and

because it is still
a buster Gone Wild Senate

it's proven to be difficult to do and so

until we resolve these political issues
things like raising taxes on gasoline.

To create these more efficiencies within
the developing of the technologies and

Sufism is going to be difficult
in the current political climate.

Yes if if the U.S.
does decide to name the concepts

in the policies of Europe how long do
you think you it will take for for

us to actually see the benefits
of the of the things you discuss

Well it depends on the policy I mean
if we could pass a law right now for

paid sick leave and every of the sixty
million American workers that currently

don't have it would
immediately have access to it.

You know we could.

You know some of these things could
be passed and Americans immediately

experience I mean even the Obama the Obama
health care plan which is you know it's

a step in the right direction but it's
a small step of a win is asking a question

about that Ali answer it in more depth but
you know for example it has said that.

You know that children our young adults
can be covered on their parents' insurance

up to twenty six if that used to be
twenty one merely had an impact for

those queer those people who are between
the age of twenty one and twenty six so

you know some policies what you pass and
you see immediate impacts others will take

more time when you start talking about
developing things like high speed rail or

developing the the electricity grid we
don't really don't have a nationwide

grid that's why you can't really you don't
see regions of the U.S. that are having

a surplus of power able to pass it
on to regions they have a decreased.

Deficit of power and so that's why a few
years ago in California we saw this

huge spike in what Californians
are paying for electricity and for

power because of the the grid didn't
allow that allowed companies like

Enron to basically game the system and
to charge California exorbitant rates for

electricity so I mean some of those things
are going to take more time but you.

We can't be discouraged by that I mean you
know America is a country that has never

shirked from challenges we have taken
on challenges that take many years and

there's a lot of discussion
now about deficits and

we've got to reduce our deficits and
certainly deficits are important but

you have to also look at think about that
another name for a deficit is investment.

If you're spending money on good things
that are going to improve your country for

the future that's a wise thing to do and

a do previous generation of
American leaders understood that.

So.

You know if you're investing things like
health care because no question we're

spending seventy percent of our G.D.P. on
health care over a long term the current

cost of health care is going to
bankrupt our country and and

so if we don't do something about
we're going to get serious trouble so

investing in a way that's going
to allow us to address this is

just a smart thing to do but you have to
spend money today sometimes in order to

to get the benefits to what you know
tomorrow or twenty years ago and so

it's really a matter of what you're
spending your money on if you're spending

a trillion dollars in Iraq and
Afghanistan that may not be the best

use of the money considering some of
the other needs of the country right now.

I kind of want to go
back to what you said for

your first answer to a question and
you were talking about.

A lot of times in European legislatures
they're actually able to pass

legislation and pass laws that can
are implemented rather quickly compared to

the United States and filibustering
techniques and the polarization between

the two major parties I was on any of the
significant do you in the European Union

in European countries that there are
multi-party systems as opposed to the U.S.

and the two major parties and
if that's an if again how

could the United States foster
a more multi-party system.

So excellent question because
everyone here she was asking.

Well the fact that Europe
has a multi-party system

has that allowed them to adopt
some of these things and

I actually have two chapters of the book
comparing the political systems

of the United States to various
European countries is no question

that this is part of our challenge is
that before we give a knack some of these

things we have to significant reform our
political system you know right now.

You know we have this two party system
where you know it's me against you and

I can win as easily by driving voters
away from you as by attracting them to me

in fact it's easier in a campaign to
drive voters away from you than it is to

track them to me so that means I don't
try to take stands on issues and

when I do I get my stance or
are predicated on the polls and

focus groups I've run in order to
figure out because every close election

is decided by a small group of voters
called swing voters right and it is in

the American system and as one political
consultant is defined swing voters they're

the voters that are least interested and
know the least about the issues and

if you don't grab them in eight seconds
with your sound bite that slashes and

Burns you've lost so these are people
deciding the close elections in those

close less decide who has control of the
House of Representatives in the Senate and

all these sorts of things so that
the architecture of our political system

dumbs down the debate where
becomes hard to have.

Discussions in a way that flushes out
the importance of these issues and.

So that's one aspect the other aspect is
you know we don't even have universal

voter registration automatic voter
registration like they have in Europe

everyone who's eighteen and eligible to
vote is automatically registered to vote

we also don't have other things like
public financing of campaigns or

free media time for candidates and
parties so as a result your your ability

as a candidate or party to reach voters
is dependent on the amount of money you

can raise privately and in order to raise
enough money you've got to go to certain.

Sources they have that money got to go and
you have certain restrictions on what they

want you to talk about so you can have the
open and debate and discussion of ideas

in Europe they have another thing
that's a crucially important and

it's a different electoral system instead
of electing one district at a time

which is sometimes called the winner
take all that total system.

We are has these dynamics I described you
know I mean we used to think of our system

as a two party system Democrats or
Republicans but in fact we can tell you

who's going to win about ninety percent of
the seats in the next election in Congress

two thousand and twelve because most of
these districts are so lopsided either

Democrat or Republican that there's
no chance for the other side to win I

live in San Francisco Nancy Pelosi is
my representative there's no chance for

a Republican to win in San Francisco
there's just not enough Republicans there.

So this is how most districts
are in the United States and

as a result of that without
that competition you don't have

to be a discussion of ideas it
means the frame of reference for

most voters where they live is not even
of a two party system your choice in

the American system is to ratify the
candidate of the party to dominate your

district that's your choice that's the
type of choice that that the Politburo and

Soviet Union has to offer to
the Soviet citizens that's not choice

whereas in Europe they have what's
called proportional representation

where a party wins five percent of the
vote eight percent ten percent of a vote

instead of getting nothing like you get
in this system you get that percentage

of the seats you get five percent of the
seats or eight percent or ten percent of

the seats if you get fifty five percent
of the vote instead of getting one

hundred percent of the representation you
get fifty five percent of the seats and so

this is what creates multi-party democracy
these different stiffen structures.

And as a result of that I mean using
the Green Party as just one example.

Some of you may evolve the recent German
elections just this past weekend.

In one state election a area
that the Christian Democrats

the conservatives have won consistently
for six decades the Greens are going to be

leading the government the end because
the Green Party started as a small

party and small parties United States
actually start at the same rate that

they do in countries in Europe but they
in USA quickly died because you need so

much such a high percentage of vote
in order to get the legislature but

in the in Germany Sweden France
not France other countries

in Europe they the green parties
the small parties could start small and

build and they got to the Green Party has
grown over several decades to the point

where now positions they used to take
on the environment like sustainability

carbon to lower carbon emissions those
used to be fringe positions they're now

mainstream politics all the parties
even the conservative parties in Europe.

Have to have positions on these that are
actually quite green by American standards

so there's no question that having a
political system where you can have robust

public debate where money doesn't play as
big a role in terms of being able to reach

voters and where you can have multi-party
democracy different points of view I mean

look this is what we're supposed to
believe in the free marketplace right.

That's what America is
supposed to be about and yet

when it comes to our politics there is
no free market place you've got two

choices at him as I said for most people
where they live sometimes entire state

their governor their two senators all the
statewide offices and members of Congress

are all come from a single party you know
these monocultures that develop here and

it's not a good idea a good thing so other
that we have time for one final question.

Yes you mentioned a lot of
really interesting policies

that the United States got a little bit
of I'm sure we're hearing now yeah OK And

you mentioned a lot of interesting
policies that the United States can

implement my question is Which What single
thing these think is most important and

what's our first step and why why.

What is our first step that we can
take to implement these policies

Well the first step is
always the best one.

And you know.

I mean certainly political reform is
important in order to start making some of

these other changes but some of these
other changes don't have to wait and

you can start to do some of the things
that local the local level I mean here it

it lanta the city council could pass
efficiency standards telling all the big

skyscraper buildings that they have to
have motion sensors in buildings they have

to have low wattage light bulbs I mean
I walked by some beautiful buildings I

went to the art museum earlier today and
walked back along the West Peachtree and

I don't know what buildings they were but
some beautiful.

Skyscrapers and
some of them have glass on the outside

you know every one of those
panes could be a solar panel.

And it would be producing power I
mean it is huge you get this huge

vertical structure sticking up from
the ground it could be a producing

all sorts of power and
the City Council just sees the pass a law.

Saying that you know for

future buildings you are going
to have to do stings like this.

And you know that the all the evidence
shows in the study show that the initial

costs are a bit higher but
not hugely hugely more but

as a result you pay this off over time in
the end you end up with these businesses

over time will save money and make them
more competitive globally if they're

involved in global markets at all so that
you know these are the sorts of things

that you can do right here at the local
level and not wait for Congress.

I don't know you know you.

Form yourselves into groups and

start brainstorming these ideas I
mean there's a lot of ideas and

you're a promise so there's when you
do buy your promise self promotion but

seriously you know you can form yourself
into local groups where you come up with

ideas that you push for I mean
San Francisco for example passed along.

Law requiring.

All businesses to have paid sick leave for
their employees they also

required businesses that don't get health
care they have to pay into a fund and

workers can become part of a program
it's called Healthy San Francisco where

they can get they can tap into the San
Francisco health care that's right for

provided the city employees.

So you can do a lot of these things
at the local level and not wait for

the national government or free press they
government to move forward I mean Atlanta

probably in certain ways demographically
is probably more progressive

than all the rest of the state and
I write about that.

Probably quite a lot of that.

So some of that may have to start here and
show that you can make it work here and

then when other people are in the rural
areas think realized wow everyone who

works in Atlanta has health care and
I don't what's that about that becomes

a model and that becomes a model for other
cities to copy because we've if you show

you can do it then they know that they can
do it as well so in every journey stop

start with the first step so form yourself
into groups you have to organize we have

a lot of work to do in this country but
and all of you also can be sort

of ambassadors because you all know people
you have family you have friends you know

telling you start talk about how you know
there's a lot of things going on in other

countries in Japan is doing a lot of these
things too it's not just Europe Canada is

doing some of these things Australia and
really in many ways it is here in the U.S.

where the outlier as I said one of the few
countries the world doesn't have paid

sick leave doesn't have
paid parental leave and

the other countries are like you know
impoverished countries in Africa

that don't have these things so
where the outlier start here start a local

push these things you can do it just you
know organize yourselves into groups and

work with and being students here
you have access to resources that

let me tell you when you graduate you
won't have access to you know you can.

Approach a professor and
as doing a project for

your class where you try to pull
together some of your fellow students to

approach the city council about
having mandatory paid sick leave for

every worker in Atlanta there's
a project for you right there.

Thank you thank you.