Big Think

Well it’s interesting you should ask that question. You’ll be sorry you asked it. I am planning to take my bounty from Blackstone going public, a lot of it – and it’s quite a windfall – and set up what would turn out to be a very large foundation. And because I’ve been boring people relentlessly for the last 20, 30 years about some of these problems, I’m going to take a number of these problems that are what I call undeniable and unsustainable, and yet politically untouchable because of the political culture we now live in where it’s considered almost politically terminal to ever ask anybody to give up anything, or to pay for anything. And you know, “I want more, and more, and more, and I want it now.” And to take these issues which I think are a serious threat to America’s future, and take those issues where there’s a huge gap between what we should be doing, and what we could be doing, and what are or are not doing, and figure out how at the margin, a major foundation might be able to make a difference. For example, looking at you you’re a very young person, certainly by my standards. When I think of young people today, I think of what we’re leaving them 10, 15, 20 years from now. You remind me of that old joke from a philosophy class where the professor asks the students which is worse – ignorance or apathy. And some poor kid from back of the class says, “I don’t know and I don’t care.” Well I think it’s an interesting question. Is there an exciting way that we could get the young people of this country aware, and their parents? Because I refuse to believe that parents have suddenly become cold and indifferent to their own kids and grandkids. I think they’ve been deceived, and misinformed, and disinformed and so forth. So we have a political system today, for example, where the elderly are unbelievably well represented. The American Association for Retired Persons has 38 million dues paying members. They write more. They lobby more. They call more. And by and large, it’s not too unfair to say a lot of their programs are “We want more”, even though by any reasonable standard – as I say some of these challenges are unsustainable – we’re not going to be able to meet the promises that we’ve made. For example, in about 20 years or so . . . 25 years, I’m looking at you, your payroll taxes are scheduled to go from 15 to 30% or more, which would be a huge, huge burden on you, on the economy, on your future and so forth. So on one hand we have this culture of our ethic of “shared sacrifice” being a kind of a dirty word – not wanting to give up anything – we have political organizations who are dominant in representing one age group. And the young people who are all about the future are somehow being slipped this huge check – hidden check, I might add – for our free lunch, and nobody seems to be doing anything about it. So I would like to gather together the student and the young leaders of this country, and take a day or two and say . . . try to give you the biggest, best rundown I can in half a dozen areas of the economy and fiscally, and what the world looks like. And I want you to contemplate that – because it’s not my future. It’s yours. I’m 81years old. Lord knows I don’t need anything more – and ask you, “What are the best ways to do something about it?” And should we have an American Association of Young People and Their Parents, for example? Because until this democracy gets educated and gets informed – which is the first requirement – and then get active and motivated, not much is gonna happen on these problems unless there’s a huge crisis. Then it will be a very costly crisis when it hits. So that’s a long-winded answer how I feel about the economy. I’m much more concerned about the long-term picture than I am about the next year, or two, or three.

Recorded On: 7/26/07