Diversity Is One of Our Strengths
Imagine the world is open again. You are visiting the Library of Congress with someone you love. You walk in, look forward, look to the left, and look to the right – all the books are exactly the same inside and out. Losing your energy for the experience, you leave.
Would these cookie-cutter results where everything is exactly the same inside and out stimulate innovation? Raise energy levels to take action? Inspire us? Or increase our relationship connections? – Not.
Most likely a dynamic environment of color, sights, sounds, different backgrounds, different communication styles, and different thoughts will lead to more innovation, action, and connection together. Most likely a dynamic environment will lead to growth on multiple levels.
Diversity is one of our strengths.
Social-economic neglect is a real issue, not our racial differences. From underemployed Americans in the mid-west to underemployment in urban clusters, the middle class is getting crushed. Corrupt and self-serving leadership poured fuel on American families who are hurting for their own political advancement instead of putting our country first.
Let’s Act On What Really Matters Instead of Being Manipulated.
- Establish Our Shared Vision to Unite Us – Countries without a vision are like a rudderless ship going nowhere. In the past, we had Manifest Destiny and Church on a Hill that united us. What is our vision now? Where are we going? What unites us?
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Employ Our People – When US companies compete against Chinese companies, our people are actually competing against the Chinese government. We lose every time. We need to decide which industries we will lead in to ensure that our people have good-paying careers that thrive for decades. Then invest and protect these industries from unfair competition.
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Reform Our Education System to Produce Skilled Labor – Our public education investment produces graduates who officially can’t do anything, many are illiterate, and many have no connection or sense of responsibility to our broader community. I am certain that our K-12 education will pay off when students graduate as skilled labor to have a future to look forward to. Public education can definitely do this because the US military is able to achieve skilled labor in 2-12 months across thousands of professions from medical to construction to combat arms. College is not for everyone nor is it needed to have a meaningful life.
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Invest $2 Trillion in Infrastructure – We failed to sign the $2 trillion infrastructure package that the Senate and House presented but came up with $10 trillion to keep our 2020 recession from becoming the 2020/21 depression. Most likely hyperinflation is going to be added to the challenges ahead from this level of spend and debt accumulation.
These are some of the things we can do to advance as a people to alleviate the financial pressures that the middle class has been suffering from for decades. Our diversity allows us to tackle these topics with greater insights and more options than a homogeneous society could.
Let’s have real conversations instead of being manipulated by self-serving politicians. Diversity is one of our strengths that drives our innovation and productivity success globally. We are Americans, One People.
Happy 4th of July!
Kirk W. McLaren, MBA, CPA, IFM
CEO of Foresight CFO
Georgetown University Lecturer
kirk@foresightcfo.com, 202.262.1231