How to make things better

 The Opportunity Agenda has to be one of a library of books proposing ideas that if pursued will, the authors believe, make America if not great much better than it was before the pandemic.

Subtitled A Bold Democratic Plan to Grow the Middle Class, the book discusses with statistics and illustrative anecdotes five areas in which Sly James and Winston Fisher think should and can be improved: childcare for pre-school children; high school and college education; infrastructure; the social contract, and entrepreneurship.  

Unlike any conservative proposal I've seen for a Trump second term, these are all positive. The only Republican message I've seen supporting a second Trump seems promote a solidly conservative Supreme Court and more right-wing Federal Judges and that if the Democrats win the presidency, the country will turn socialist and become as dysfunctional as Venezuela. 

Sly James was the mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, from 2011 to 2019; Winston Fisher is a partner in Fisher Brothers, a real estate firm based in New York City and is CEO of Area15. They argue that the Democratic party is behind held back by tired, stale proposals and is past due for an overhaul.

Unfortunately for the authors who probably began writing before this year, we're in the middle of a pandemic, so proposals that would have been obvious, sensible, and relatively (relatively) easy to implement six months ago now have to take potential Covid-19 infection, social-distancing, a crashing economy, and all the other disruptions into account. This does not vitiate their ideas, but it does make things harder.

For example, James and Fisher make a strong case for affordable pre-school childcare. A woman who takes three years off of work to care for a child loses not only that income, she's three years behind in wage growth, lost retirement assets and benefits. Also a case can be made that for many low-income families, their children will flourish more in a professionally-run facility than at home. Of course low-income families—and many middle-class families—cannot afford childcare. And who wants to send their child into a group while infections rage?

They argue that high schools and colleges are not graduating students with the skills they need to find jobs in our evolving economy. They could spend more time in school, less time on summer vacation, and need courses that will train them for 21st century jobs. The situation is serious enough that corporations have stepped in. "At the University of Memphis, the FedEx Institute of Technology worked with software giant SAS to develop student expertise in data analytics and business intelligence. The courses are designed to prepare existing and potential employees to pass exams developed and curated by SAS itself, making the university a gateway into an established company."

In their chapter on improving the country's roads, bridges, dams, airports, water treatment facilities, James and Fisher ask, "Why are so many Democrats remiss in shining a spotlight on infrastructure? . . . We believe Democratic candidates fear that mentioning the nation's rotting infrastructure will simply remind voters of their frustration with incompetent public bureaucracies." One answer may be public-private initiatives.

Thirty years of conservative Republicans have poisoned the well by convincing many citizens that government is not solution, it's the problem. Cut taxes and get government under control. Gut the Environmental Protection Agency, the Center for Disease Control, the State Department, and more and more and more so the agencies cannot perform their functions effectively, and the conservatives have proven their point: public bureaucracies don't serve the public.

The chapter on the social contract points out that fewer and fewer Americans join an organization after graduation and retire from it forty years later with a healthy pension and a gold watch. With the economy evolving the way it is and with the gig economy growing we need to find a way workers can keep their health insurance and pension as they move from job to job, industry to industry. The alternative will be a population badly-housed, badly-fed, unhealthy elderly. We'll return to the days when grandad or gramma finished her life in a grown child's home.

James and Fisher argue that access to capital is what depresses entrepreneurship in this country. I believe it's more complicated (and their anecdotes are undercut by the information that businesspeople were able to find capital eventually). As a volunteer business advisor for a national non-profit I routinely see clients who have a skill and want to turn it into a business. Unfortunately, many of them have no idea of how to create a business plan, how to read a financial statement, how to manage a business. I wouldn't lend them money, and I don't have to consider my depositors. This, however, goes back to the need for junior colleges and universities to teach skills people can use.

To win elections, Democrats must convince you that what they propose will do something for you (the authors' italics). James says, "If we're going to be a winning party for more than one election cycle at a time, we need to embrace bold, disruptive ideas that offer equal opportunity through access to capital, education, and support for entrepreneurs." 

Fisher adds, "Democrats need to think bigger than the current election and shed old habits and get-even mentalities to grow our base and win over voters across the political spectrum. We can do this by offering all Americans the skills, tools, and opportunities they need to participate in the 21st century economy."

While I would liked to read the concrete proposals (who is going to pay for—subsidize—childcare? how does portable health care work?) I would hope that there are people in the Biden campaign studying The Opportunity Agenda and crafting legislation right now. The country could do worse.