Michael Strain

Their incomes are not growing as rapidly as we would like. There's less innovation in the economy than we would like. And so in kind of a perverse way, that populist rhetoric, that negative rhetoric can create the problems that it incorrectly argues exist.

Well, we can strengthen the American dream by calling people to their best selves, by challenging people and giving people the confidence that if they work hard and if they take risks and if they invest in themselves, that that will pay off. I think we can do some concrete things beyond those sorts of important cultural messages.

Well, we can strengthen the American dream by calling people to their best selves, by challenging people and giving people the confidence that if they work hard and if they take risks and if they invest in themselves, that that will pay off. I think we can do some concrete things beyond those sorts of important cultural messages.

Top of the list is strengthening education, strengthening skill formation, especially for lower-income Americans. Helping them to get great educations and build their skills is probably the best thing we can do to increase their economic success. Creating policies that support education scientific research and support scientific discoveries and innovation is just absolutely crucial and critical.

Top of the list is strengthening education, strengthening skill formation, especially for lower-income Americans. Helping them to get great educations and build their skills is probably the best thing we can do to increase their economic success. Creating policies that support education scientific research and support scientific discoveries and innovation is just absolutely crucial and critical.

Those are some very important concrete policy goals.

Those are some very important concrete policy goals.

Many. Right now, the Trump administration is quite hostile to universities, which is the source of so much scientific research and innovation and dynamism. We need to be increasing our support for basic research. And for scientific research, not decreasing it, we need to be supporting the institutions where that research happens, not trying to damage those institutions.

Many. Right now, the Trump administration is quite hostile to universities, which is the source of so much scientific research and innovation and dynamism. We need to be increasing our support for basic research. And for scientific research, not decreasing it, we need to be supporting the institutions where that research happens, not trying to damage those institutions.

A concrete challenge on the education front is pandemic learning loss. We were set back several decades. in terms of reading scores and math scores for elementary school kids and middle school kids as a consequence of the pandemic.

A concrete challenge on the education front is pandemic learning loss. We were set back several decades. in terms of reading scores and math scores for elementary school kids and middle school kids as a consequence of the pandemic.

Lower income Americans, kids in lower income communities and lower income schools were hit disproportionately hard by the just disastrous decision to keep classrooms closed for so long in 2021. This is a national disaster.

Lower income Americans, kids in lower income communities and lower income schools were hit disproportionately hard by the just disastrous decision to keep classrooms closed for so long in 2021. This is a national disaster.

emergency nobody is acting like it's a it's a national emergency and that's i think a you know a major challenge in terms of educating our kids and and helping them to have as strong of economic outcomes as possible before i ask for the three takeaways you'd like to leave the audience with today is there anything else you'd like to mention that you have not already talked about

emergency nobody is acting like it's a it's a national emergency and that's i think a you know a major challenge in terms of educating our kids and and helping them to have as strong of economic outcomes as possible before i ask for the three takeaways you'd like to leave the audience with today is there anything else you'd like to mention that you have not already talked about

So much of our current public conversation is rooted in anxiety, and that anxiety breeds nostalgia for what I would argue is largely an imagined past. That anxiety leads to a kind of zero-sum mentality where we want to put up walls around the nation and engage in commerce with other nations less. We want to put walls around the nation and welcome fewer people born abroad into America less.

So much of our current public conversation is rooted in anxiety, and that anxiety breeds nostalgia for what I would argue is largely an imagined past. That anxiety leads to a kind of zero-sum mentality where we want to put up walls around the nation and engage in commerce with other nations less. We want to put walls around the nation and welcome fewer people born abroad into America less.

Internally, we are divided against each other. And the anxiety that we feel leads us to identify enemies and try and engage in zero-sum conflict with them. I think anxiety was the natural response to the 2008 financial crisis. And we saw that anxiety increase in other nations as well. Other nations... went through their own populist spells.

Internally, we are divided against each other. And the anxiety that we feel leads us to identify enemies and try and engage in zero-sum conflict with them. I think anxiety was the natural response to the 2008 financial crisis. And we saw that anxiety increase in other nations as well. Other nations... went through their own populist spells.

Anxiety was a natural response to a once-in-a-century global pandemic. And anxiety was a natural response to the out-of-control price increases of 2021. The message I would like to leave your listeners with is that all of that is in the past, and it's time to kind of kick the dust off our sandals and walk forward, so to speak.