Saturday, February 18, 2012

Day two of the Camden Conference

Nicholas Burns talked about the following things:
The 4 categories of power:
1) Political Power
2) Military Power
3) Smart Power, also known as soft power.
(our ideals and values are the major components of soft power)
4) Economic Power.
-This one is the most important of the four powers. The state of the US economy is currently a drag on our economic power

Governor Pete Du Pont used the following quotes I found to be inspiring and interesting:

"No government can be all things to all people, nor can it be or will it be."
"American's are ready for the new class warfare. The battle lines are drawn for these times"

He believes that cost of post-secondary school is too high, but also that the government should not get involved with issues of pricing college education.

He also said that China's growing middle class is good for production in the USA.

Clyde Prestowitz spoke on:
Agrees that economic power is the most important.
Explained why some major companies are building factories in China. China provides major incentives for US companies to come and bring jobs there, as well as severe disincentives to not do so -- veiled or unspoken threats to exclude us from their markets. They may also force US companies to provide intellectual capital as part of the deal, or simply steal it.

Amory Lovin said the following:
"What if energy could do our work without doing our undoing."
"We must leave oil before it leaves us."

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson:
"We have militarized the decision making process"
That, just as less than one percent are millionaires, less then one percent of the US population serve in our armed forces and are put in harm's way. Many of these people come either from small towns or the inner city.

Captain Wayne Porter and Colonel Mark Mykleby explained the origin and inspiration for the "Y Article":

That we live in an ecological system.
We live in an open system but we as humans view it as a closed system.
That they want the US citizenry to become more active and to fulfill the moral obligation put forth by the preamble of the Constitution.
These are 3 key action items they recommend:
1) Education
2) Security as well as broader definition like free of diseases and negative thoughts.
3) Renewable resources:
Food systems and agriculture.
Water conservation
Sustainable energy

No comments:

Post a Comment