Have you read this book?
I just did. It’s an interesting book. Much of the book is a sales brochure for Gallup’s business. I would disagree with his interpretation of behavioral vs classical economics. However, he raises some very interesting points that I don’t disagree with.
America needs to raise it’s GDP. No amount of government spending can increase GDP sustainably for any long period of time. Jim Clifton makes that point in his book too.
I don’t see the book as pablum for either the right or the left. Clifton wades through data and reaches conclusions. Some of his data is conjecture, like the amount of customers that go through the door at a book store, but his points about what to do with those potential customers is correct.
If we are going to get the American economy going again, it has to come through small and medium size businesses. They add marginal jobs at a much greater rate than big multi national corporations. They also are more nimble and can exploit niches much better than big companies.
Gallup articulates a lot of the themes from other books like The Lean Start Up, and lectures that professors have given on innovation.
I also like other themes in his book. Job creation in America isn’t about getting jobs that went to other countries back. It’s about creation of new customers to create new jobs in America. Who to blame for our economic situation?
Dan Schawbel wrote this in Forbes,
“Blame leadership. Always blame leadership. Everything turns on lousy or great leadership in government, business, and all organizations of all shapes and sizes. Leadership really does matter. Leadership fails especially when it works with failed assumptions. Failed assumptions and the wrong core thinking for the problems at hand. The worst failure is probably failure of vision. We have turned our national assets too much to those who “need” help versus toward those who can “offer” help — the small and medium businesses that are the primary job creators and employers.”
and
“So will our heroes come in the image of a great equalizer like Barack Obama or a great pioneer like Steve Jobs?”
I’d place my chips on people like Jobs. If there is anything we have learned over the past four years it’s that Obama is a terrible leader. Obama is the “Great Separator”, not a unifying force for good.
I would urge you to pick up a copy of the book and do some thinking. America is on the wrong track. The country needs a complete overhaul in attitude, and structure. Currently, we are hurtling down the path to European style socialism. Go there, and we will abdicate our place as a leader for liberty in the entire world. Our “shining city on a hill” will go dark.
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