Issue No. 2, Summer 2017 Enterprise Report Restoring Liberty, Opportunity, and Enterprise in America The Dignity Deficit in America By AEI President Arthur Brooks On April 24, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson visited Inez, a small town in Kentucky’s Martin County. Located in the heart of coal country, Inez was plagued by poverty and unemployment. It offered a perfect case study in the despair that hung over countless poor communities in America, from Appalachia to the inner cities. And it was there in Inez where Johnson staged the photo-op that launched his War on Poverty. Most people remember that effort as an all-out fight against material deprivation. Indeed, the policy core of the War on Poverty consisted of new transfer programs— such as Medicaid, Food Stamps, and cash welfare—designed to lift physical living standards for poor Americans. But the program’s architects insisted these material metrics were secondary to a deeper moral purpose. In Johnson’s own words, the real aim of the War on Poverty was “human dignity and decency.” His adviser Sargent Shriver put it this way: “We’re investing in human dignity, not doles.” By these standards, how have we done? To be sure, material conditions for our poor brothers and sisters have improved. Thanks largely to free enterprise and innovation, but with a real assist from the welfare state, being poor is less materially miserable in 2017 than it was in 1964. But unfortunately, while poverty may be less painful, it has not become any more escapable. If anything, at the bottom of the income scale, the job opportunities that would provide a real escape from poverty have fallen even further out of reach. AEI Scholar Nick Eberstadt details this in his 2016 book Men Without Work. Since 1965, the percentage of prime-age men who are jobless has surged from 6 percent to 16 percent. One in six American men age 25–54 has no paying job of any kind. Meanwhile, the church, family, and community institutions that have historically buffered against economic shocks are instead evaporating themselves. The result is a creeping despair that spreads like a social contagion. As recent work by the economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton shows, mortality rates for middle-age, white Americans are on the rise. Notwithstanding medical advances and favorable Arthur Brooks trends sweeping the globe, this group of Americans is dying progressively younger. Why? AEI President and The biggest culprits are strong signals of despair: chronic liver disease, acute drug and alcohol Beth and Ravenel Curry overdoses, and suicide. Scholar in Free Enterprise We need to redirect American policy and culture to address this urgent crisis. First, we need to set aside bad questions, including how government can better “help” struggling people. This mind-set regards our brothers and sisters in need as human liabilities to sustain at minimal cost. But these millions of Americans are not inconveniences to remediate. They are dignified men and women whose talents, values, and voices America will need in our journey toward social and economic renewal. AEI is dedicating a major new initiative to this mission. The Human Dignity Project is a landmark effort that will span research, outreach, and strategic communications. Our aim is nothing less than refocusing the national dialogue around making every American necessary. Some of the Human Dignity Project’s key pillars include: (1) New scholarship on education and workforce development, creating more pathways for all Americans to build human capital; (2) New research on labor markets and family economics, designed to identify obstacles to dignity for poor Americans; (3) A research effort to better understand and combat America’s opioid addiction crisis; (4) Targeted study to develop solutions for uniquely vulnerable populations, such as currently and formerly incarcerated Americans; and (5) Deep intellectual work that aims to reunite our fractured country, on topics from patriotism and civics to social connectedness. As with all of AEI’s work, the Human Dignity Project will begin with policy research of peerless quality. But it is not simply an academic exercise. We will amplify this research with significant expansions in our ability to lead leaders: policymakers and senior staff here in Washington, students and faculty across elite campuses, and state- and local-level leaders around the country. AEI will also further invest in our abilities to disseminate our scholars’ work through digital, print, and broadcast media. And I will personally launch a new line of creative products, including a major new book project. It will transcend politics and policy and explore the systems, values, and habits that define entrepreneurial living. We plan to invest nearly $10 million in these efforts over the next year and more than $30 million in the next three years; we would be happy to speak with you about opportunities to support this work. As always, thank you for your support of AEI that makes our work possible. Arthur Brooks Friends of AEI Tapped AEI Scholars Nominated for by the Administration Top Posts in Administration We are proud of the members of AEI’s community who have been asked by the AEI scholars have long been relied on by leaders on both sides of the political administration to serve in various capacities. aisle to offer the best ideas to tackle some of our nation’s biggest policy Former AEI Trustee Elisabeth (Betsy) challenges. We are proud that several of our scholars have been nominated DeVos was confirmed in February by the by the Trump administration for leadership roles in the government. US Senate as our nation’s 11th secretary of education. Secretary DeVos served on AEI’s Board from June 2015 to Scott Gottlieb, M.D., Resident Fellow November 2016. Scott Gottlieb was nominated for Food and Drug AEI National Council Co-Chair Jim Administration commissioner. Much of Scott’s work Donovan has been nominated as deputy at AEI has focused on expanding policy and regulatory secretary of the US Treasury. He currently approaches that preserve physician and patient serves as a managing director at the autonomy and on advancing public health through Goldman Sachs Group, where he is medical innovation and entrepreneurship. responsible for advising many of its largest corporate and individual clients. Kevin A. Hassett, State Farm James Q. Wilson Former AEI National Council member Chair in American Politics and Culture and Linda McMahon was confirmed by the Director of Research for Domestic Policy Senate in February as the administrator Kevin A. Hassett was nominated for chairman of the of the Small Business Administration. Council of Economic Advisers. Over his 20-year tenure Administrator McMahon is the cofounder at AEI, Kevin has conducted a vast body of research and former CEO of World Wrestling on economic, budgetary, and fiscal topics. He also Entertainment. served as senior economic adviser to several Republican Enterprise Club alum Heath Tarbert presidential candidates between appointments at AEI. has been nominated to serve as the assistant secretary of the treasury for Adam Lerrick, Visiting Scholar international markets and development. Adam Lerrick was named deputy undersecretary for Mr. Tarbert is currently a partner at international finance at the Treasury Department. Allen & Overly. At AEI, Adam has focused on international economic AEI Leadership Network alum Seema issues. He is known for his work on international Verma was confirmed as the administrator financial crises, such as in Argentina, where he led of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid the negotiation team of the largest foreign creditor in Services. She is credited as the architect of restructuring the country’s $100 billion debt. the Healthy Indiana Plan, the nation’s first consumer-directed Medicaid program. Learn more about AEI scholars at aei.org/scholars. Gerard Robinson Meets with President Trump AEI Resident Fellow Gerard Robinson joined a meeting in February between African American leaders and President Trump to mark the start of Black History Month and discuss the issues that most affect the African American community. Two members of the AEI Leadership Network, Ja’Ron Smith and Paris Dennard, were also in attendance. Gerard discussed the meeting US President Donald Trump attends an African American History Month and President Trump’s education agenda in an appearance on Fox Business listening session, accompanied by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson (C), at the Roosevelt room of the White House in Network’s After the Bell. Washington, DC, February 1, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria 3 AEI Launches New Project to Close the “Dignity Deficit” AEI recently launched our largest family leave policy. The project will research, outreach, and communications work with AEI’s Open Source Policy initiative in our nearly 80-year history. “While existing programs Center to develop the modeling The Human Dignity Project will produce are making poverty less capability to predict the use and actionable policy solutions and a robust costs of paid leave policies. body of scholarship on issues such as painful, most Americans restructuring our education system want to see poor • Formulating Effective Policies to promote workforce development, to Tackle America’s Opioid encouraging work and strong families, people move up the Addiction Crisis. Sally Satel will tackling America’s increasingly devas- income ladder through launch a research project to help tating opioid crisis, and reforming our understand