Geoff Mulgan: Post-crash, Investing in a Better World
Attached is a video from the site Ted.com. TED is an organization that produces talks from the best and the brightest people in the fields of Technology, Entertainment and Design. Often, TED Talks focus on economic or sociological issues that impact all of us in one way or another. In this talk from earlier this year, Geoff Mulgan discusses the opportunities that the world economy has in the face of rebuilding after the recession.
Geoff Mulgan is director of the Young Foundation which in previous incarnations under Michael Young (described by Harvard’s Daniel Bell as ‘the world’s greatest entrepreneur of social enterprises’) initiated dozens of new organisations and initiatives including patient-led healthcare and schools for social entrepreneurs. Between 1997 and 2004 Geoff had various roles in the UK government including director of the Government’s Strategy Unit and head of policy in the Prime Minister’s office. Before that he was the founder and director of the think-tank Demos, adviser to Gordon Brown MP, and a reporter for BBC TV and radio.
Assignment:
Watch the 18 min talk and then post a comment in reaction to the speech. Your comment should be clear and concise and add to the discussion. A simple, 'I liked it', or "I don't get it" will not suffice.
You can watch the video by clicking here.
Make sure you put your name on the comment line so that you get credit for the assignment.
Geoff Mulgan is director of the Young Foundation which in previous incarnations under Michael Young (described by Harvard’s Daniel Bell as ‘the world’s greatest entrepreneur of social enterprises’) initiated dozens of new organisations and initiatives including patient-led healthcare and schools for social entrepreneurs. Between 1997 and 2004 Geoff had various roles in the UK government including director of the Government’s Strategy Unit and head of policy in the Prime Minister’s office. Before that he was the founder and director of the think-tank Demos, adviser to Gordon Brown MP, and a reporter for BBC TV and radio.
Assignment:
Watch the 18 min talk and then post a comment in reaction to the speech. Your comment should be clear and concise and add to the discussion. A simple, 'I liked it', or "I don't get it" will not suffice.
You can watch the video by clicking here.
Make sure you put your name on the comment line so that you get credit for the assignment.
posted by Mr. Castle at
7:32 PM
9 Comments:
Very Cool
Man, I wish I had gotten to see this stuff when I was a kid!
You guys have the coolest Econ teacher - you are so lucky.
I found this test pretty interesting, but I felt the speaker didn't really give us anything too concrete. I did think that his idea of investing in social research was a good idea and I was surprised to hear that Obama has created an office of social innovation. I also found his suggestion that bailout money should have gone to startups and those who will create progress interesting. But, I wonder if major banking institutions had collapsed if there would be new institutions to take up the slack.
I agree with his argument that capitalism will become more social, and I agree that it should. However, I also believe that companies like AIG, and Goldman Sachs must remain viable forces in the market–to use the cliché, they are currently too big to fail, but they also provide much needed services to consumers. I believe however, that the American economy must diversify itself in the manner he suggested (social innovation); the lesson of this recession must be that technology, industry, and finance alone cannot keep economies afloat. Americans must recognize that capitalism must become a combination of social innovation and material goods; this was the heart of his argument. In general I agree with what he says; I believe that his ideas shoud be integrated into the current market.
This was an impressive speech that I thought made a good criticism of how most of our governments combatant to the current economic crisis is only to repair the damage and not prepare for future generations. The goal of extending human life a billion years makes the integration of social qualities to capitalism seem important. I think that this brings into focus how the subsystems like family and community, like the speaker said, ultimately effect the quality of the economy. the social integration that he is suggesting helps to correct the mistakes we have made and prevent future conflicts. I think that the ideas he presents are intriguing and that its a good point that most efforts are to correct ourselves to the standards of where we where prior to this crisis. We should in fact be preparing future generations and ourselves from ever making such mistakes ever again.
I love the way he says "innovative." Is that off topic? I was interested in his comments about using the biggest crises as turning points for reform. Also that our money is pourred into patching leaks instead of replacing the pipes. I agree with him that we should be focussing on the parts of our economy that we already know will expand in the near future, like healthcare, as opposed to the parts that are already failing, like automobiles. Looking forward will help stop market fluctuations from getting far and damaging our economy greatly again.
I really liked this lecture. it was interesting how he believes that health care is the future, as well as green technology.
I found this lecture very insightful. I especially found it interesting when he talked about how economic growth has impacted social growth in a negative way. His ability to stress that economic and social balance is essential flowed nicely with his ideas on consumption - money going into consumption and not solving problems, giving money to those who can create the new and not into producing products, and changing what we consume instead of boosting consumption. Overall his message was clear and well articulated - capitalism depends on other systems and a balance is essential.
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