Consumer Electronics Association CEO Gary Shapiro delivered a wake-up call to America’s business and government leaders this week at Business Facilities’ seventh annual LiveXchange event, declaring that innovation is the key to the restoration of the American Dream.
In a keynote address based on his best-selling book The Comeback, How Innovation Will Restore the American Dream, Shapiro laid out the principles of his grassroots “Innovation Movement” to restore the nation’s entrepreneurial culture as the surest path to recovery and renewal.
“We are in crisis, and it won’t be fixed simply by more government spending or by cutting taxes. Our growing sense of entitlement is destroying America’s innovative culture, which is the true engine of economic growth,” Shapiro told the keynote gathering at LiveXchange, held at the Rancho Bernardo Inn in San Diego,CA.
Shapiro and his association are spearheading the Innovation Movement (www.innovationmovement.com), which is designed to develop a cadre of Americans committed to the future of their children and a nation built upon prosperity created by entrepreneurship, innovation and free-market principles.
“What we first need is a national debate on priorities,” Shapiro said. “Together, we can send the message to Washington that greater prosperity requires innovation. It does not require more government spending. Government at its best will be neutral. At its worst, it will get in the way and create barriers to innovation, investment, trade and the creation of long-term jobs.”
Shapiro noted that Americans tend to view the competition with emerging economic powers like China and Brazil strictly in terms of manufacturing, while overlooking the American edge in innovative brainpower and initiative.
“Innovation is America,” he declared. “It is our special sauce, our destiny and our best and only hope for escaping the economic malaise, which decades of excessive government spending and intrusion have created. Our best hope is for government to foster innovation by creating a fertile ground for innovation to flourish. Innovation is a natural by-product of the free market.”
Business Facilities’ LiveXchange is a unique, award-winning event which connects senior-level corporate executives actively searching for new locations for major projects together with leading economic development professionals from across the U.S.
Photo caption: Business Facilities Chief Business Officer Ted Coene (right) greets Consumer Electronics Association CEO Gary Shapiro at LiveXchange in San Diego.
