So, in addition to his early actions to reverse Obama’s push for more government dependency, President Trump has his work cut out for him.
Today, the United States has the lowest workforce percentage for men age 25 to 54 of any economically developed country except Italy.
This is alarming, and it is antithetical to the ideas on which America was founded. America was based on the idea that you could have big dreams, but you have to work to make them come true. All of the Founding Fathers thought work was absolutely essential to America’s success, and all of them would be appalled at the number of people that are now dependent on the government—and the structure of the bureaucracy that encourages them to be dependent.
America was founded on the importance of the work ethic. If you work hard, study, and learn, you’ll rise because you will have earned it. Those in Trump’s America still believe this is the essential principle for success in America. The Left side of the anti-Trump coalition, however, would rather convince the public that work is unnecessary and that people should simply be dependent on the government for their daily needs. After all, in 2014 after the Congressional Budget Office found that Obamacare would greatly reduce work hours in America—to the tune of 2.5 million full-time jobs—Nancy Pelosi said it was a goal to help people “not be job-locked, but to follow their passion.” Keep in mind, the jobless rate at the time was at 6.7 percent and 10.5 million Americans did not have jobs.9 If Trump and the Republican Congress can implement sensible reforms to our national dependency programs, the American workforce will easily be able to sustain a 3 to 4 percent GDP.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM
The final piece of the puzzle for solving America’s workforce problems (as well as helping solve a number of human and community problems) is through serious, thoughtful criminal justice reform. I discussed some of these ideas in the previous chapter dealing with the opioid epidemic, but they are useful for building the workforce as well.
First, the numbers: At the end of 2016, there were 1.51 million people locked up in state and federal prisons nationwide. This is far from normal. As Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky noted in March 2015, “Though only 5 percent of the world’s population lives in the United States, it is home to 25 percent of the world’s prison population.… Not only does the current overpopulated, underfunded system hurt those incarcerated, it also digs deeper into the pockets of taxpaying Americans.”
Senator Paul is exactly right.
The most recent estimate from the Federal Bureau of Prisons indicates that it costs roughly $32,000 a year per prisoner to house these inmates. That comes out to more than $48 billion a year. And this estimate may be modest. The Prison Policy Initiative10 estimates the total cost to U.S. taxpayers for the U.S. prison system at every level is roughly $182 billion annually.
At the same time, according to the Bureau, roughly 15 percent of state prisoners are jailed for nonviolent drug offenses, while 47 percent of the federal inmates incarcerated are nonviolent drug offenders. Some of these prisoners may be drug dealers who should be dealt with strictly, but some are people with addictions who do not necessarily belong in prison.
Another significant portion of the incarcerated population suffers from some form of mental illness. We can’t know for sure how large this subset is, as the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General reported in July 2017 that, among other problems, the Bureau of Prison’s “mental health staff do not always document inmates’ mental disorders.”
People who have drug addictions and mental illness don’t need to be in prison—they need to be in treatment programs. If these Americans can get the help they need, some can overcome their personal hurdles and return to being productive members of society.
Finally, there are many other low-risk, nonviolent inmates who possibly deserved to be convicted for theft or other property crimes, but who have received overly harsh sentences. One thing we have learned from the 1980s, when the federal government started heavily utilizing mandatory minimum sentences, is that long sentences do not make Americans safer, nor do they help those who commit crimes change their lives.
In fact, research shows low-risk, nonviolent offenders who receive overly tough sentences often become more serious offenders later. This is partly because they spend a significant time in prison with serious criminals. When they are eventually released, these once low-risk offenders are often behind the times in terms of technology, applicable skills, and education. They have been schooled by hardened criminals rather than potential employers. For them, crime seems like a more lucrative and realistic career choice.
Had they instead received a sentence that more reasonably fit their crime, they might have been incarcerated for a shorter time, been able to participate in a work program, or been able to get a job and work off their debt to society while on probation.
For these reasons, I have been troubled by Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s decisions to pursue harsh sentences for drug crimes and other nonviolent offenses. I appreciate Sessions’s position. He is the attorney general and is responsible for seeing that our laws are enforced as they are written, but I don’t think the steps he is taking will help lower crime or boost productivity.
President Trump should work with Congress to put in place reasonable, common sense, criminal justice reforms, and provide the opportunity of a much brighter future for many Americans who are incarcerated. Republicans can look to reforms that have worked in Texas and Georgia for guidance. Texas implemented sweeping criminal justice reform a decade ago, and this year it has seen the lowest crime rates in more than a century. More recently, in 2012, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal worked with the state legislature to pass a set of reforms that redesigned sentencing guidelines for nonviolent property crimes and drug offenses, so low-risk offenders weren’t being turned into hardened criminals after spending years in prison. Long sentences were replaced with substance abuse courts, accountability programs, and other diversionary systems, which ultimately led to fewer victims of crime, lower costs to the justice system, and less recidivism by offenders.
As an example, from 2007 to 2016, parole revocations in Georgia declined by 35 percent. This is remarkable because it means a significant number of men and women who went to prison in Georgia and were then released on parole decided to live lawful, peaceful lives instead of returning to their old ways.
Applying this Georgia model to the federal system could have a tremendously positive impact on America as a whole by making it a safer, more law-abiding country. And it could also mean a large number of Americans could rejoin the workforce. Many of these men and women are smart, talented people who either struggle with addiction, mental illness, or simply made bad decisions.
We would all be better off if they had the opportunity to be responsible, healthy, citizens—and help the United States remain the most productive country on the planet along the way.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
REACHING BEYOND THE STARS
Perhaps more than any other initiative, President Trump’s commitment to revive American leadership in space will have enormous, long-lasting outcomes that will help ensure the United States remains a global superpower for decades to come. Even more importantly, if the Trump administration can build on the emerging commercial launch systems Americans will lead people throughout the solar system and freedom will be the banner of space travel.
Right now, we are at an incredibly exciting—potentially revolutionary—moment when it comes to space travel. At the time I am writing this, it has been only a few weeks since SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. This was truly a historic moment for American space flight. The Falcon Heavy is the most powerful rocket launched since the Apollo era, and it is the biggest rocket ever made by a private company. This was a clear signal that the commercial sector is ready to take on challenges in space that conventional wisdom has for decades claimed can be met only by gov
ernment.
Just as important, the Falcon Heavy launch was a blazing signal of inspiration for young people across America. Young Americans throughout our nation watched Musk’s rocket blast into space and catapult into orbit a red Tesla Roadster piloted by “Starman” (a mannequin dressed in a spacesuit). They then watched streaming video online of Starman as he and his sports car floated above our planet before being sent further into space. This symbol let every one of these young American students know that a career in the American space industry was just as real and attainable as a career in medicine, engineering, or any other occupation that requires hard work and dedication. In this way, SpaceX was able to rekindle a sense of patriotic, American intrepidness that has not been felt since millions of Americans watched astronaut Neil Armstrong take his “one small step” on the surface of the Moon.
President Trump and Vice President Pence have a tremendous opportunity to foster more of this activity in the commercial sector—and help launch the American space industry into a new era of adventure and prosperity.
Furthermore, from the standpoint of human history, the Trump-Pence space initiative will ensure that the principles of freedom, the rule of law, private property, and free enterprise become the core values that define humans in space.
Do not be complacent. A Russian-or Chinese-defined spacefaring system will carry dictatorship and the subordination of people to the state into space. There are very large historic reasons for making sure the dynamic leadership in colonizing the solar system is based on freedom.
As I write this book, it has been nearly a year since President Trump signed the order reestablishing the National Space Council and designating Vice President Pence as its leader. In that time, I have had the opportunity to work with Vice President Mike Pence on strategic planning for America in space.
When President Trump announced he would revive this important institution, he challenged us to profoundly rethink American activities in space. His words on June 30, 2017, were simple and direct; America must start thinking big again:
With the actions we are launching today, America will think big once again. Important words: Think big. We haven’t been thinking so big for a long time, but we’re thinking big again as a country. We will inspire millions of children to carry on this proud tradition of American space leadership—and they’re excited—and to never stop wondering, hoping, and dreaming about what lies beyond the stars.
Three months later, on the eve of the first meeting of the National Space Council, Vice President Pence outlined a focus for President Trump’s challenge that we “think big.” In the Wall Street Journal,1 the vice president wrote that “America will lead in space again.” He went on to say:
We will refocus America’s space program toward human exploration and discovery. That means launching American astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit for the first time since 1972. It means establishing a renewed American presence on the moon, a vital strategic goal. And from the foundation of the moon, America will be the first nation to bring mankind to Mars.
We will renew America’s commitment to creating the space technology needed to protect national security. Our adversaries are aggressively developing jamming and hacking capabilities that could cripple critical military surveillance, navigation systems, and communication networks. In the face of this threat, America must be as dominant in the heavens as it is on Earth.
We will promote regulatory, technological, and educational reforms to expand opportunities for American citizens and ensure that the U.S. is at the forefront of economic development in outer space. In the years to come, American industry must be the first to maintain a constant commercial human presence in low-Earth orbit, to expand the sphere of the economy beyond this blue marble.
To achieve these goals, the National Space Council will look beyond the halls of government for insight and expertise.
Thinking big and achieving big in American space exploration and commercialization will require a lot more drive, mental toughness, and determined implementation than anything we have seen in space since the Apollo program, which put us on the moon.
Unfortunately, the speed, creativity, risk-taking, and technological and managerial innovation born out of the Apollo period from 1961 to 1969 has been replaced by bureaucracies, lobbyists, entrenched old systems, and narrowly defined ways of thinking and measuring success.
Many of these old bureaucracies, old systems, and old interest groups are working overtime to redefine their activities to fit the Trump-Pence vision. In other words, they are trying to put new paint jobs on 50-year-old cars and pitching them as new.
If the old guard succeeds, we will have another eight years of rope-a-dope with slow moving, expensive, safe bureaucratic activities that achieve very little.
Real change in American space activities will be controversial. It will stir up opposition from entrenched bureaucracies, large corporations, and congressional pork barrel vested interests. If you don’t see or hear about this resistance, you can assume it is because the old guard has successfully minimized the amount of change coming, and instead of thinking big, we are acting small.
MEETING THE TRUMP-PENCE STANDARD
At the first meeting of the National Space Council, Vice President Pence outlined the following clear goals based on President Trump’s directive:
1. Refocus America’s space program toward human exploration and discovery—launching American astronauts beyond low-earth orbit for the first time since 1972;
2. Establishing a renewed American presence on the moon to build a foundational system for space activities beyond earth’s reach. The moon will be a stepping-stone, a training ground, a venue to strengthen our commercial and international partnerships as we refocus America’s space program toward human space exploration;
3. From the moon as a foundation, America will be the first to bring mankind to Mars;
4. Renew America’s commitment to creating the space technology to protect national security. America must be as dominant in space as it is on earth;
5. Promote regulatory, technological, and educational reforms to expand opportunities for American citizens and ensure that the U.S. is at the forefront of economic development in outer space;
6. American industry must be the first to maintain a constant commercial human presence in low-earth orbit expanding the economy beyond the planet. We’ll strengthen our economy, as we unlock new opportunities, new technologies, and new sources of prosperity;
7. We’ll inspire our children to seek education in science, technology, engineering, and math.
8. Our nation will bring American values to this infinite frontier. We will renew the American spirit itself and rekindle our belief that America can accomplish anything.
If we insist on the scale of change these eight goals will require, we will have an amazingly dynamic and popular program in space by 2020. Furthermore, we will be poised to make even greater leaps during a second Trump-Pence administration.
A major key to succeeding in this effort is recognizing this level of advancement is vastly more complex than the Apollo program. Apollo was an engineering project with the full force of political-governmental support that could be managed by a bureaucracy with adequate resources. The Trump-Pence goals, on the other hand, require a series of cultural, political, economic, and technological changes that transcend any single bureaucracy or manageable, measurable system.
This new system requires fundamental shifts in virtually every current space-focused activity in our society.
First, the federal government must break out of its old funding paradigm and embrace public–private partnerships. To be clear, I’m not talking about the traditional partnership, where government puts up a ton of taxpayer money, assumes virtually all the risk, and hopes that its private-sector partners succeed at building a launch vehicle or other spacecraft. The federal government needs to develop models for partnering with space-based entrepreneurs as investors—who can get returns on it
s investments.
Entrepreneurs already have ideas about what they could do if frequent journeys to low-Earth orbit were possible and affordable. Operating in zero gravity provides significant opportunities for drugmakers, advanced material manufacturing, and other important fields of science. There are companies right now that want to mine near-earth asteroids for precious metals, water, and other resources. Imagine a system in which the government enabled—and drew dividends from—a new U.S.-led space economy.
An aggressive public–private partnership regime could help close government budget shortfalls and bring entrepreneurial drive and risk-taking into government programs. This would normally take years at the pace of traditional bureaucracies. The development of this system should be approached more like a wartime project with real deadlines and real efforts to cut through red tape and get a variety of partnerships moving.
If you think this might be overkill, consider that our global competitors, such as China, are aggressively leveraging the power of their governments to beat the United States so they can dominate space.
It should be possible to get 40 to 60 percent more resources in the short run with public–private partnerships. By 2020, the United States should have more private money than public money going into implementing the Trump-Pence vision of America in space.
We must also create an environment for military-civilian space cooperation that emulates, and complements, established relationships in our naval and aerial sectors. These partnerships are part of the reason the United States was able to achieve and maintain supremacy in the air and sea. For the sake of our nation’s current and future security, we must have supremacy in space, as well.
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