Happy Holidays from Chicago! And I want to give a special thanks for the writers of America 3.0, who are taking time out from their busy lives and mercantilistic duties in order to try to bring a positive set of recommendations for the future.
America 3.0
Thanks to John B. Wells and Coast to Coast AM
Jim Bennett and I had a good conversation with radio host John B. Wells during the deep, dark early morning hours of Sunday December 22, 2013.
It is a privilege to speak to John’s listeners, many hard-working Americans on the third shift, keeping things going while the rest of the country is sleeping.
John was kind enough to have us on for three whole hours, so we were able to talk at some length about America 3.0.
The Amazon sales ranking for the book went through the roof during and following the show, which is welcome indeed.
John mentioned that he would like to have us on again at some point, and we would be very happy to do that.
BTW, here is a bleg: If you have not yet ordered America 3.0, but plan to do so, it would be helpful if you did so before the turn of the year.
A big, huge thank you to John and to Coast to Coast AM.
Wee Hours Radio Interview About America 3.0 [UPDATED]
For our friends who are insomniacs or working third shift: Sunday, December 22st 1 AM to 4 AM CST — in other words, the wee hours TONIGHT — Mike Lotus and Jim Bennett will be interviewed on Coast to Coast Radio by John B. Wells, discussing America 3.0.
We look forward to our conversation with John (pictured here on his motorcycle) and his listeners, and we thank Coast to Coast radio for having us on.
I will circulate a link to any podcast when it becomes available.
UPDATE:
There is a strong admonition on the excellent blog Cold War Warrior to read America 3.0 and to listen to the radio show during the wee hours tonight. The Cold War Warrior cites the great Frédéric Bastiat, about the perversion of our public life since the end of the Cold War:
The law has been used to destroy its own objective: It has been applied to annihilating the justice that it was supposed to maintain; to limiting and destroying rights which its real purpose was to respect. The law has placed the collective force at the disposal of the unscrupulous who wish, without risk, to exploit the person, liberty, and property of others. It has converted plunder into a right, in order to protect plunder. And it has converted lawful defense into a crime, in order to punish lawful defense.
Converting “plunder into a right” sounds very much like the cronyism which is ransacking our country under color of law. Cold War Warrior goes on to write:
There is a restlessness, an uneasiness among the population that is palpable. The federal government’s response has been one of fear. The government gets more abusive as it becomes increasingly fearful. The tide will change. The people will rebel at the ballot box and in the picket line but then what? What is the plan? Voices decry the current situation but few offer solutions. America 3.0 is the right idea presented at the right time. The John Wells interview is a long format so the ideas can be explored.
Jim Bennett and I are looking forward to this conversation.
Calling For A Million Mutineers (With Some Backstory, A Plug for America 3.0 And A Really Cool Map)
Robert Lucas
I recently ran across this quote:
For income growth to occur in a society, a large fraction of people must experience changes in the possible lives they imagine for themselves and their children, and these new visions of possible futures must have enough force to lead them to change the way they behave … and the hopes they invest in these children: the way they allocate their time. In the words of [V.S. Naipaul] economic development requires “a million mutinies.”
A Million Mutinies: The key to economic development, An excerpt from “Lectures on Economic Growth” by Robert E. Lucas, Jr. Professor Lucas is a Nobel laureate in Economics from the University of Chicago, so one of our homies.
Lucas is right. Major change, political as well as economic, requires a change in peoples’ vision of the future, and requires that “a million mutinies” break out against the status quo.
Less Than a Year
I saw this today:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYyMMs-WO4U
It is a pretty good ad. Zerocare has been a debacle, as we all expected it to be. It isn’t just a “broken website”. It is a classical 20th century big government scheme, completely unprepared and unable to deal with a 21st century economy – this is one of the main thrusts of America 3.0.
Every Republican (and the groups cheering for them) should just shut up about pretty much everything but this one issue. Make the Democrats own it. It is theirs. It passed by a straight party vote. Make them eat it in 2014.