For those interested, Jeff Atwood (Stack Overflow/Discourse/Coding Horror) and Alexander Vindman (former NSC official) will be discussing the future of the American Dream. They'll explore how we might bridge our current divisiveness, which I'd say has been accelerated by technology.
The conversation happens in Cooper Union's historic Great Hall, where Lincoln delivered his "Right Makes Might" speech in 1860. They'll address what core values unify Americans today, how to rebuild a collective sense of purpose, and approaches to economic mobility in an era of inequality.
It's a free event on March 20th, but registration on EventBrite is required for in-person attendance (first-come-first-served).
> How do you make long-term structural change that creates opportunity for everyone? It is an incredibly complex problem. But if we focus our efforts in a particular area, I believe we can change a lot of things in this country. Maybe not everything, but something foundational to the next part of our history as a country: how to move beyond individual generosity and toward systems that create security, dignity, and possibility for all.
In general, if you're talking equal opportunity, I won't be hard to convince. If you're moving "beyond individual generosity" to a system which forces others to be "generous" (via taxation) in order to achieve equality of outcomes, I will be very hard to convince.
It's reminiscent of what NY Times lead economic correspondent Binyamin Appelbaum said in The Economists' Hour about Milton Friedman, the famed free-market evangelist: Friedman celebrated drivers but took roads for granted.
So are you arguing taxation is theft and we should abolish the IRS and let private organizations fund through donations fund everything, or are you just on a different area of the continuum than I am.
No, I have no issue with tax-funded police, firemen and roads; nor with equal protection under the law, or equal civil rights for all citizens :-)
But if you start to talk about "moving beyond individual generosity" I start to get the sense that you want to force me to be part of a TBD "collective generosity".
