Conference Presentation, Fireside Chat, Panel
The Conservative Heart: How to Build a Fairer, Happier and More Prosperous America
- The Milken Institute's California Summit is scheduled for next week on the 8th at the Ritz-Carlton and Marina del Rey to publish reports addressing the state's pressing issues.
- Arthur Brooks plans to discuss balancing public policy ideas to achieve a more satisfying life and defines his role at the American Enterprise Institute as a service job for the poor.
- Brooks predicts that 70% of Americans mistakenly believe global poverty has worsened since 1970, despite data showing an 80% decline in starvation-level poverty.
- Development economists universally agree that globalization, free trade, property rights, the rule of law, and entrepreneurship pulled two billion people out of poverty since 1970.
- Brooks anticipates a 30-minute explanation that the free enterprise system is the only mechanism capable of lifting billions out of poverty, while noting it requires government oversight, regulation, and morals.
- Brooks expects to address fears among college students and his own children that capitalism promotes materialism, the "hamster wheel" of work, and spiritual harm.
- Referencing a 2012 University of Rochester study, Brooks notes that exogenous goals like money and status lead to high anger and low satisfaction, whereas endogenous goals like relationships yield happiness.
- Brooks plans to resolve his existential crisis regarding abundance by advocating for "abundance without attachment," a concept taught by Swami Gyan Muni.
- Brooks outlines a strategy to avoid alienating audiences by encouraging the giving of physical possessions to rebel against attachment and investing in endogenous relationships rather than material prices.
- Brooks predicts that giving money and volunteering lowers stress hormones, raises self-efficacy, and leads to greater happiness and health, citing studies where generous men are perceived as more handsome.
- Brooks expects that shared experiences with loved ones, such as annual fishing trips, provide permanent joy compared to material items, validating the concept that "it's what you get out of it."
- Brooks anticipates that society can achieve coexistence between high-tech jobs and skilled trades if vocational paths are viewed as morally worthy as white-collar professions.
- Brooks asserts that morals must come before markets, citing Adam Smith's "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" as foundational for a free enterprise system that lifts others up.
- Brooks predicts that resentment toward globalization can be resolved by reframing displaced workers as assets to develop through education reform, including vocational and technical training.
- Brooks expects that societies based on greed will not persist, while those based on aspiration can achieve great things, provided they correct misconceptions that the poor simply want free stuff.
- Brooks predicts that campus free speech issues are not the norm and will resolve once people guard against excesses, though he notes progressives must become "militants" for intellectual diversity to hire conservatives in academia.
- Brooks urges individuals to ignore the evolutionary drive for fame and power, arguing that declaring peace on these natures leads to a loss, while rebelling against them leads to happiness.
- Brooks hopes for "breakout leadership" to transform Washington's "holy war" into a productive dialogue by establishing a moral consensus on pushing opportunity to those who need it most.
- Brooks expects that visionary, positive leadership is required to "reinflate the moral consensus" in Washington and that constituents urging leaders to love one another and discuss the poor will rebuild this consensus.