Has our children’s American Dream been looted by Wall St. and Washington?

Has our children’s American Dream been looted by the elites of Wall Street and Washington? Of course I hope not. I am a nearly insane optimist constantly encouraged by people’s resilience, creativity, and ability to invent unexpected solutions to blood-curdling problems. Of course it is easy to connect the dots to see a picture that is nothing less than a conspiracy of greed. This is not so much a planned conspiracy as it is an emergent system in which a few players have strip-mined our future while gaining financial assets unimaginable a decade ago.

First we can look to the rotten system of well-financed special interests that have invaded Washington. In 1980 there were 300 registered lobbyists. Today there are over 30,000. Lobbyists have gutted our anti-trust laws, which has retarded competition. They deregulated our financial systems, which has evaporated over a trillion dollars in American’s savings and cost us millions of jobs. Meanwhile the very bankers who caused all this suffering are back making multimillion-dollar bonuses doing virtually the same things as they did before the taxpayer bailout. There have been no indictments, no regulation and no repentance.

While Wall Street was becoming a gambling syndicate, the forces of commerce decided it was good for America to become a mall-based economy using cheap debt to buy stuff made in China while China kept its currency artificially low. This enabled the Chinese to become America’s financier loaning us money to pay for bloated college tuition, Hummers and crazy priced real estate.

Now that China holds nearly a trillion dollars of U.S. debt, our President has to tread lightly on issues of Chinese human rights and free speech (Obama’s Censorship Talk Unheard). What’s perhaps more serious is that our foreign policy is being compromised. China is the largest investor in Iranian oil fields and they want the rest of the world to respect Iran’s ambitions to become a nuclear power. So far they won’t let us impose serious economic sanctions let alone use threats of force. How can China dictate our foreign policy? It’s simple. We sold our independence to finance a consumption bubble that left us with debt the size of the Himalayas. Why did we do this? Because the financial engineers of Wall Street and their lobbyists were able to systematically dismantle regulations and institute trade policy using the jargon of personal independence as propaganda to lull voters into believing that Congress was acting in our best interest.

So in a single generation we’ve gone from the richest economy in the world to the world’s greatest debtor. We have a ferocious deficit and staggering unemployment and mass under-employment. Social Security and Medicare are unsustainable and special interests have real solutions held hostage. Who is benefiting from all this? A very few, very powerful club of friends who shuttle between jobs in Washington and New York depending on which political party is in power.

As the grandfather of 9, it’s hard not to be ashamed. I grew up believing in free markets, low regulation and benign power of competing self-interest to create the greatest opportunities for all. It hasn’t worked out that way. No markets are free because special interests are always granted special favors. Unregulated greed always causes innocent people to suffer and self-interest is insufficient to create innovations we need for a sustainable future.

As for Democrats, they are not exactly leading the change I was hoping for. They’ve produced 1900 pages of a health reform bill. Can anything good come from a 2000 page law? What we all fear is they are creating a new bureaucracy distorted by lobbyists to line the pockets of Democrat supporters just as Republicans do with theirs. Well, politics is called sausage making, but it’s imitation meat and we may be in for major indigestion.

As I write this my health insurance premium increase for 2010 is over 14%, and drug companies are raising prices faster than any time in the past 10 years. Corporate self-interest in health care is plundering our health. Real health care reform would remove the profit motive from insurance. We as a nation can self-insure ourselves just as over 1000 major corporations do. We can create incentives for healthy behavior and tax toxic food. We could reduce our total cost of health care to 12-14% of the GDP and increase access and improve health outcomes. We could. We know how. What we lack is the will to make it happen.

What is missing appears to be moral leadership. Leadership that is sincerely focused on the common good as well as individual rights. I have faith that a new, younger generation of leaders will revitalize our future.

As I speak to leaders under 40 and college graduate students, I sense a world-changing values shift. This generation is looking for sustainable solutions, they thirst for self-reliance and firmly believe our institutions, from business to government and education, can be revitalized or even re-invented to work. The new and emerging technology of social media make rapid change more possible. While some cranky people shout at each other on radio shows, the rest of us will reconstruct the future.

Every week as I visit some of America’s most enlightened corporations, I am astounded at the roaring progress of sustainability and greater social responsibility. Last week I visited Nike, who is sponsoring The Girl Effect which is lifting 600 million adolescent girls in developing nations to self-reliance. Women are the force that drives civilization and our future depends on educating our most vulnerable human resource. Girls. Nike also sponsors events like the Homeless World Cup, which brings forgotten, impoverished youth from around the world to enrich their lives and ignite hope. This is not an isolated stunt. Nike uses sport to intentionally break down the walls of racism and gender discrimination, teach leadership and promote teamwork. Their new design and sustainability mandates are driving them to create shoes that leave a zero carbon footprint and can be easily reused as ground up track surfaces or biodegrade.

Why is this happening not just at places like Nike and Gap but at industrial manufacturers I have recently visited like Herman Miller and Johnson Controls? It’s because of you and me demanding change. As consumers and employees we are insisting on corporate responsibility, and it’s working.

As I travel the country on my book tour I see inspiring energy in the eyes of people focused on a new future. What we believe, how we act, who we work for, all matters. More than ever. It’s our time. Each day I am actually more encouraged that we will save the world. You and I using our gifts to do the very best thing we can imagine. Special interests, politicians, Neanderthal leaders are no match for the high tide of our collective will. As we demand more responsibility and sustainability we are forcing the change we really want. It’s time to turn up the heat, increase the volume, and reward progress. It’s time.

Yes, of course I am sickened by our problems, but my optimism is based on our individual moral intent, our ingenuity, and our unwillingness to accept a future that makes our children suffer. I see this resolve everywhere I go. Don’t give up. Ever.

What do you think?