All essays in this volume are written expressly for this publication or are reprinted with permission of the authors and/or copyright owners. Future 500 Publishing San Francisco, California Copyright © 2012 by Bill Shireman Printed in the United States of America Future 500 The Westin St. Francis 335 Powell Street, 14th Floor San Francisco, CA 94102 Phone: (415) 294-7775 Fax: (415) 520-0830
[email protected] www.Future500.org Cover Design by Glen M. Edelstein Cover Photo © Gabriel Edelstein Book Design by Greg Gubi
TABLE OF CONTENTS Welcome & Introduction
1
UnConvention Sessions
3 Section One
TOWARD AN INNOVATION AGENDA How to End the Left and Right’s Favorite Deficits
The Two Deficits Why Conservatives and Progressives are Both Right – Bill Shireman
7
An Agenda for the Future Energy, Taxes, and Security for Our Great Grandchildren – George P. Shultz
31
An Economic Program for the Fall Campaign and the Next Four Years
49
– Robert J. Shapiro Make It, Take It When No One Owns Their Environmental Impacts, Everyone Loses – Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
53
End Taxes As We Know Them Stop Taking Prosperity, Start Taking Responsibility – Bill Shireman
57
Section Two
CRONY CAPITALISM How to End Right and Left Dependence on Big Government and Big Business
Crony Capitalism and the Crisis of the West – Luigi Zingales
71
Three Easy Ways to End Cronyism – Peter Schweizer
75
Paul Ryan’s Fairy-Tale Budget Plan – David A. Stockman
79
Section Three
ENERGY SECURITY BLANKET How to Outgrow Right and Left Addiction to the Past
The Supply and Demand of Renewable Energy – Dennis V. McGinn
85
Efficiency and Conservation Not Enough to Achieve Energy Security – Dave Kerner & Scott Thomas
89
To Drive or Not to Drive, That Is the Question June 21 is Dump the Pump Day 2012 – Michael Marx
97
Section Four
DIGITAL FREEDOM How the Right and Left Can Use Technology to Advance Freedom and Sustainability
A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace – John Perry Barlow
103
Telework An Opportunity to Dramatically Improve the Nature of Work as well as Reduce the U.S. Trade Deficit, Congestion and the Production of CO2 – Joan Blades
107
Europe’s ACTA Freak Out How Hollywood Holds Back the Trade Agenda – Harold Feld
111
About Future 500
115
WELCOME & INTRODUCTION Welcome to the UnConvention at the Commit! Forum. With an election imminent, we thought it vital to bring together independent leaders from the left to the right, to work with business and civic leaders as we seek common ground, no matter which candidates and parties hold Congress and the White House next January. We all know the nation’s dilemma. America’s two oncegreat political parties are engaged in an angry divorce, each demanding full custody of the nation they claim to love, paralyzing it in the process. The UnConvention is an intervention, not to force a reconciliation neither side wants, but to fill the leadership vacuum left by gridlock. Like it or not, it is time for business and civic leaders from across the left and right to step forward, together, and show what it means to lead. On at least one point, the right and the left agree: Something is wrong in America. After two centuries on the rise, America’s purpose and power are being lost, and the prosperity once enjoyed by middle class Americans is dissipating at an alarming rate. The UnConvention and these essays give us an opportunity to help change the tenor of the debate, and focus on what is best not just for us, but for
