WEBVTT 00:00:00.578 --> 00:00:03.496 Well, I was introduced as 00:00:03.496 --> 00:00:05.528 the former Governor of Michigan, 00:00:05.528 --> 00:00:08.544 but actually I'm a scientist. 00:00:08.544 --> 00:00:11.536 All right, a political scientist, it doesn't really count, 00:00:11.536 --> 00:00:15.332 but my laboratory was the laboratory of democracy 00:00:15.332 --> 00:00:18.488 that is Michigan, and, like any good scientist, 00:00:18.488 --> 00:00:21.330 I was experimenting with policy 00:00:21.330 --> 00:00:24.024 about what would achieve the greatest good 00:00:24.024 --> 00:00:26.133 for the greatest number. 00:00:26.133 --> 00:00:30.411 But there were three problems, three enigmas 00:00:30.411 --> 00:00:32.945 that I could not solve, 00:00:32.945 --> 00:00:36.423 and I want to share with you those problems, 00:00:36.423 --> 00:00:38.429 but most importantly, 00:00:38.429 --> 00:00:42.185 I think I figured out a proposal for a solution. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:42.185 --> 00:00:44.054 The first problem 00:00:44.054 --> 00:00:46.045 that not just Michigan, but every state, faces is, 00:00:46.045 --> 00:00:49.364 how do you create good jobs in America 00:00:49.364 --> 00:00:51.112 in a global economy? NOTE Paragraph 00:00:51.112 --> 00:00:54.604 So let me share with you some empirical data from my lab. 00:00:54.604 --> 00:00:59.114 I was elected in 2002 and, at the end of my first year in office in 2003, 00:00:59.114 --> 00:01:01.646 I got a call from one of my staff members, who said, 00:01:01.646 --> 00:01:04.014 "Gov, we have a big problem. 00:01:04.014 --> 00:01:07.634 We have a little tiny community called Greenville, Michigan, 00:01:07.634 --> 00:01:09.896 population 8,000, 00:01:09.896 --> 00:01:12.691 and they are about to lose their major employer, 00:01:12.691 --> 00:01:17.510 which is a refrigerator factory that's operated by Electrolux." NOTE Paragraph 00:01:17.510 --> 00:01:20.189 And I said, "Well, how many people work at Electrolux?" NOTE Paragraph 00:01:20.189 --> 00:01:25.119 And he said, "3,000 of the 8,000 people in Greenville." NOTE Paragraph 00:01:25.119 --> 00:01:27.900 So it is a one-company town. 00:01:27.900 --> 00:01:32.828 And Electrolux was going to go to Mexico. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:32.828 --> 00:01:35.716 So I said, "Forget that. I'm the new Governor. 00:01:35.716 --> 00:01:38.004 We can fix this. We're going to go to Greenville 00:01:38.004 --> 00:01:39.972 with my whole cabinet and we will just 00:01:39.972 --> 00:01:42.877 make Electrolux an offer they can't refuse." NOTE Paragraph 00:01:42.877 --> 00:01:45.308 So I brought my whole cabinet, 00:01:45.308 --> 00:01:49.020 and we met with all of the pooh-bahs of little Greenville -- 00:01:49.020 --> 00:01:52.250 the mayor, the city manager, the head of the community college -- 00:01:52.250 --> 00:01:55.845 and we basically emptied our pockets 00:01:55.845 --> 00:01:59.138 and put all of our chips on the table, 00:01:59.138 --> 00:02:03.266 incentives, you name it, to convince Electrolux to stay, 00:02:03.266 --> 00:02:04.917 and as we made our pile of chips, 00:02:04.917 --> 00:02:10.024 we slid them across the table to the management of Electrolux. 00:02:10.024 --> 00:02:14.132 And in the pile were things like zero taxes for 20 years, 00:02:14.132 --> 00:02:18.348 or that we'd help to build a new factory for the company, 00:02:18.348 --> 00:02:21.141 we'd help to finance it. The UAW, who represented the workers, 00:02:21.141 --> 00:02:24.980 said they would offer unprecedented concessions, 00:02:24.980 --> 00:02:29.033 sacrifices to just keep those jobs in Greenville. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:29.033 --> 00:02:31.911 So the management of Electrolux took our pile, 00:02:31.911 --> 00:02:34.724 our list of incentives, and they went outside the room 00:02:34.724 --> 00:02:37.244 for 17 minutes, 00:02:37.244 --> 00:02:39.475 and they came back in and they said, 00:02:39.475 --> 00:02:42.416 "Wow, this is the most generous 00:02:42.416 --> 00:02:46.905 any community has ever been to try to keep jobs here. 00:02:46.905 --> 00:02:50.300 But there's nothing you can do 00:02:50.300 --> 00:02:54.589 to compensate for the fact that we can pay $1.57 an hour 00:02:54.589 --> 00:02:57.847 in Juarez, Mexico. So we're leaving." NOTE Paragraph 00:02:57.847 --> 00:03:00.852 And they did. And when they did, it was like 00:03:00.852 --> 00:03:04.108 a nuclear bomb went off in little Greenville. 00:03:04.108 --> 00:03:06.423 In fact, they did implode the factory. 00:03:06.423 --> 00:03:10.401 That's a guy that is walking on his last day of work. 00:03:10.401 --> 00:03:14.425 And on the month that the last refrigerator rolled off the assembly line, 00:03:14.425 --> 00:03:17.065 the employees of Electrolux in Greenville, Michigan, 00:03:17.065 --> 00:03:22.730 had a gathering for themselves that they called the last supper. 00:03:22.730 --> 00:03:25.713 It was in a big pavilion in Greenville, an indoor pavilion, 00:03:25.713 --> 00:03:30.202 and I went to it because I was so frustrated as Governor 00:03:30.202 --> 00:03:34.099 that I couldn't stop the outflow of these jobs, 00:03:34.099 --> 00:03:36.622 and I wanted to grieve with them, 00:03:36.622 --> 00:03:39.942 and as I went into the room-- there's thousands of people there. 00:03:39.942 --> 00:03:43.685 It was a just big thing. People were eating boxed lunches 00:03:43.685 --> 00:03:47.845 on roundtop tables, and there was a sad band playing music, 00:03:47.845 --> 00:03:51.582 or a band playing sad music, probably both. (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:03:51.582 --> 00:03:54.809 And this guy comes up to me, 00:03:54.809 --> 00:03:58.549 and he's got tattoos and his ponytail and his baseball cap on, 00:03:58.549 --> 00:04:01.167 and he had his two daughters with him, 00:04:01.167 --> 00:04:04.774 and he said, "Gov, these are my two daughters." 00:04:04.774 --> 00:04:07.822 He said, "I'm 48 years old, 00:04:07.822 --> 00:04:12.380 and I have worked at this factory for 30 years. 00:04:12.380 --> 00:04:15.036 I went from high school to factory. 00:04:15.036 --> 00:04:17.644 My father worked at this factory," he said. 00:04:17.644 --> 00:04:20.493 "My grandfather worked at this factory. 00:04:20.493 --> 00:04:25.516 All I know is how to make refrigerators." 00:04:25.516 --> 00:04:26.869 And he looked at his daughters, 00:04:26.869 --> 00:04:29.357 and he puts his hand on his chest, 00:04:29.357 --> 00:04:31.907 and he says, "So, Gov, tell me, 00:04:31.907 --> 00:04:37.235 who is ever going to hire me? 00:04:37.235 --> 00:04:40.668 Who is ever going to hire me?" 00:04:40.668 --> 00:04:44.190 And that was asked not just by that guy 00:04:44.190 --> 00:04:46.868 but by everyone in the pavilion, 00:04:46.868 --> 00:04:52.708 and frankly, by every worker at one of the 50,000 factories 00:04:52.708 --> 00:04:57.020 that closed in the first decade of this century. 00:04:57.020 --> 00:04:59.914 Enigma number one: How do you create jobs 00:04:59.914 --> 00:05:02.347 in America in a global economy? NOTE Paragraph 00:05:02.347 --> 00:05:04.647 Number two, very quickly: 00:05:04.647 --> 00:05:07.379 How do you solve global climate change 00:05:07.379 --> 00:05:11.716 when we don't even have a national energy policy in this country 00:05:11.716 --> 00:05:16.644 and when gridlock in Congress seems to be the norm? 00:05:16.644 --> 00:05:19.806 In fact, there was a poll that was done recently 00:05:19.806 --> 00:05:24.083 and the pollster compared Congress's approval ratings 00:05:24.083 --> 00:05:26.513 to a number of other unpleasant things, 00:05:26.513 --> 00:05:30.033 and it was found, in fact, that Congress's approval rating 00:05:30.033 --> 00:05:32.915 is worse than cockroaches, 00:05:32.915 --> 00:05:39.907 lice, Nickelback the band, root canals and Donald Trump. (Laughter) 00:05:39.907 --> 00:05:44.186 But wait, the good news is it's at least better 00:05:44.186 --> 00:05:49.042 than meth labs and gonorrhea. (Laughter) 00:05:49.042 --> 00:05:52.867 We got a problem, folks. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:52.867 --> 00:05:54.505 So it got me thinking, what is it? 00:05:54.505 --> 00:05:58.267 What in the laboratory that I see out there, 00:05:58.267 --> 00:06:00.417 the laboratories of democracy, what has happened? 00:06:00.417 --> 00:06:03.116 What policy prescriptions have happened 00:06:03.116 --> 00:06:04.908 that actually cause changes to occur 00:06:04.908 --> 00:06:08.475 and that have been accepted in a bipartisan way? 00:06:08.475 --> 00:06:09.753 So if I asked you, for example, 00:06:09.753 --> 00:06:12.233 what was the Obama Administration policy 00:06:12.233 --> 00:06:15.347 that caused massive changes across the country, 00:06:15.347 --> 00:06:16.635 what would you say? 00:06:16.635 --> 00:06:20.430 You might say Obamacare, except for those were not voluntary changes. 00:06:20.430 --> 00:06:22.971 As we know, only half the states have opted in. 00:06:22.971 --> 00:06:26.480 We might say the Recovery Act, but those didn't require policy changes. 00:06:26.480 --> 00:06:30.831 The thing that caused massive policy changes to occur 00:06:30.831 --> 00:06:33.251 was Race to the Top for education. 00:06:33.251 --> 00:06:36.493 Why? The government put a $4.5 billion pot 00:06:36.493 --> 00:06:39.939 and said to the governors across the country, compete for it. 00:06:39.939 --> 00:06:43.115 Forty-eight governors competed, 00:06:43.115 --> 00:06:46.414 convincing 48 state legislatures to essentially 00:06:46.414 --> 00:06:48.700 raise standards for high schoolers 00:06:48.700 --> 00:06:51.011 so that they all take a college prep curriculum. 00:06:51.011 --> 00:06:56.397 Forty-eight states opted in, creating a national [education] policy from the bottom up. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:56.397 --> 00:06:59.000 So I thought, well, why can't we do something like that 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:03.046 and create a clean energy jobs race to the top? 00:07:03.046 --> 00:07:05.397 Because after all, if you look at the context, 00:07:05.397 --> 00:07:09.375 1.6 trillion dollars has been invested in the past eight years 00:07:09.375 --> 00:07:11.317 from the private sector globally, 00:07:11.317 --> 00:07:13.689 and every dollar represents a job, 00:07:13.689 --> 00:07:15.284 and where are those jobs going? 00:07:15.284 --> 00:07:17.708 Well, they're going to places that have policy, like China. 00:07:17.708 --> 00:07:19.730 In fact, I was in China to see what they were doing, 00:07:19.730 --> 00:07:22.438 and they were putting on a dog-and-pony show for the group that I was with, 00:07:22.438 --> 00:07:25.441 and I was standing in the back of the room during one of the demonstrations 00:07:25.441 --> 00:07:27.804 and standing next to one of the Chinese officials, 00:07:27.804 --> 00:07:29.466 and we were watching, and he says, 00:07:29.466 --> 00:07:34.100 "So, Gov, when do you think the U.S. is going to get national energy policy?" 00:07:34.100 --> 00:07:37.668 And I said, "Oh my God -- Congress, gridlock, who knows?" NOTE Paragraph 00:07:37.668 --> 00:07:41.682 And this is what he did, he goes, he says, 00:07:41.682 --> 00:07:44.419 "Take your time." 00:07:44.419 --> 00:07:49.057 Because they see our passivity as their opportunity. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:49.057 --> 00:07:51.990 So what if we decided to create 00:07:51.990 --> 00:07:54.689 a challenge to the governors of the country, 00:07:54.689 --> 00:07:57.495 and the price to entry into this competition 00:07:57.495 --> 00:08:01.143 used the same amount that the bipartisan group approved in Congress 00:08:01.143 --> 00:08:03.833 for the Race to the Top for education, 4.5 billion, 00:08:03.833 --> 00:08:06.216 which sounds like a lot, but actually it's less than 00:08:06.216 --> 00:08:08.705 one tenth of one percent of federal spending. 00:08:08.705 --> 00:08:10.729 It's a rounding error on the federal side. 00:08:10.729 --> 00:08:14.647 But price to entry into that competition would be, 00:08:14.647 --> 00:08:17.952 you could just, say, use the President's goal. 00:08:17.952 --> 00:08:21.025 He wants Congress to adopt a clean energy standard 00:08:21.025 --> 00:08:23.300 of 80 percent by 2030, 00:08:23.300 --> 00:08:25.279 in other words, that you'd have to get 80 percent 00:08:25.279 --> 00:08:28.929 of your energy from clean sources by the year 2030. 00:08:28.929 --> 00:08:31.630 Why not ask all of the states to do that instead? 00:08:31.630 --> 00:08:33.621 And imagine what might happen, 00:08:33.621 --> 00:08:35.609 because every region has something to offer. 00:08:35.609 --> 00:08:38.591 You might take states like Iowa and Ohio -- 00:08:38.591 --> 00:08:40.608 two very important political states, by the way -- 00:08:40.608 --> 00:08:42.496 those two governors, and they would say, 00:08:42.496 --> 00:08:45.211 we're going to lead the nation in producing 00:08:45.211 --> 00:08:47.813 the wind turbines and the wind energy. 00:08:47.813 --> 00:08:50.984 You might say the solar states, the sun belt, 00:08:50.984 --> 00:08:54.684 we're going to be the states that produce solar energy for the country, 00:08:54.684 --> 00:08:56.854 and maybe Jerry Brown says, "Well, I'm going to create 00:08:56.854 --> 00:08:59.031 an industry cluster in California 00:08:59.031 --> 00:09:00.870 to be able to produce the solar panels 00:09:00.870 --> 00:09:02.519 so that we're not buying them from China 00:09:02.519 --> 00:09:04.382 but we're buying them from the U.S." 00:09:04.382 --> 00:09:07.812 In fact, every region of the country could do this. 00:09:07.812 --> 00:09:11.918 You see, you've got solar and wind opportunity all across the nation. 00:09:11.918 --> 00:09:15.922 In fact, if you look just at the upper and northern states 00:09:15.922 --> 00:09:18.097 in the West, they could do geothermal, 00:09:18.097 --> 00:09:20.409 or you could look at Texas and say, 00:09:20.409 --> 00:09:23.777 we could lead the nation in the solutions to smart grid. 00:09:23.777 --> 00:09:27.869 In the middle eastern states which have access to forests 00:09:27.884 --> 00:09:30.208 and to agricultural waste, they might say, 00:09:30.208 --> 00:09:32.809 we're going to lead the nation in biofuels. 00:09:32.809 --> 00:09:35.325 In the upper northeast, we're going to lead the nation 00:09:35.325 --> 00:09:38.189 in energy efficiency solutions. 00:09:38.189 --> 00:09:41.158 Along the eastern seaboard, we're going to lead the nation 00:09:41.158 --> 00:09:42.977 in offshore wind. 00:09:42.977 --> 00:09:45.560 You might look at Michigan and say, we're going to lead the nation 00:09:45.560 --> 00:09:49.454 in producing the guts for the electric vehicle, like the lithium ion battery. 00:09:49.454 --> 00:09:52.861 Every region has something to offer, 00:09:52.861 --> 00:09:55.183 and if you created a competition, 00:09:55.183 --> 00:09:59.301 it respects the states and it respects federalism. 00:09:59.301 --> 00:10:02.855 It's opt-in. You might even get Texas and South Carolina, 00:10:02.855 --> 00:10:05.525 who didn't opt into the education Race to the Top, 00:10:05.525 --> 00:10:07.926 you might even get them to opt in. Why? 00:10:07.926 --> 00:10:10.477 Because Republican and Democratic governors 00:10:10.477 --> 00:10:12.131 love to cut ribbons. 00:10:12.131 --> 00:10:16.445 We want to bring jobs. I'm just saying. 00:10:16.445 --> 00:10:19.065 And it fosters innovation at the state level 00:10:19.065 --> 00:10:21.526 in these laboratories of democracy. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:21.526 --> 00:10:25.832 Now, any of you who are watching anything about politics lately 00:10:25.832 --> 00:10:28.589 might say, "Okay, great idea, but really? 00:10:28.589 --> 00:10:31.221 Congress putting four and a half billion dollars on the table? 00:10:31.221 --> 00:10:33.494 They can't agree to anything." 00:10:33.494 --> 00:10:36.789 So you could wait and go through Congress, 00:10:36.789 --> 00:10:39.365 although you should be very impatient. 00:10:39.365 --> 00:10:47.269 Or, you renegades, we could go around Congress. 00:10:47.269 --> 00:10:48.827 Go around Congress. 00:10:48.827 --> 00:10:55.455 What if we created a private sector challenge to the governors? 00:10:55.455 --> 00:11:00.415 What if several of the high-net worth companies 00:11:00.415 --> 00:11:04.805 and individuals who are here at TED decided 00:11:04.805 --> 00:11:08.333 that they would create, band together, just a couple of them, 00:11:08.333 --> 00:11:11.893 and create a national competition to the governors 00:11:11.893 --> 00:11:14.149 to have a race to the top 00:11:14.149 --> 00:11:16.818 and see how the governors respond? 00:11:16.818 --> 00:11:21.706 What if it all started here at TED? 00:11:21.706 --> 00:11:24.365 What if you were here 00:11:24.365 --> 00:11:29.713 when we figured out how to crack the code 00:11:29.713 --> 00:11:35.159 to create good paying jobs in America -- (Applause) -- 00:11:35.159 --> 00:11:38.880 and get national energy policy 00:11:38.880 --> 00:11:44.858 and we created a national energy strategy from the bottom up? NOTE Paragraph 00:11:44.858 --> 00:11:48.309 Because, dear TEDsters, 00:11:48.309 --> 00:11:51.071 if you are impatient like I am, 00:11:51.071 --> 00:11:54.629 you know that our economic competitors, 00:11:54.629 --> 00:11:58.069 our other nations, are in the game 00:11:58.069 --> 00:12:00.421 and are eating us for lunch. 00:12:00.421 --> 00:12:04.967 And we can get in the game or not. 00:12:04.967 --> 00:12:09.286 We can be at the table or we can be on the table. 00:12:09.286 --> 00:12:11.707 And I don't know about you, 00:12:11.707 --> 00:12:14.414 but I prefer to dine. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:14.414 --> 00:12:18.414 Thank you all so much. (Applause)