By Zac Byer, on Thu Jul 14, 2011 at 11:00 AM ET RP Readers, here’s your opportunity to prove to one and all that you could sit for the SAT without breaking into a cold sweat:
Jon walked to work at an average speed of 6 miles per hour and biked back along the same route at 10 miles per hour. If his total traveling time was 2 hours, how many miles were in the round trip? Your choices are A. 6, B. 6.25, C. 7.5, D. 8, or E. 10.
Chances are you could probably narrow your choice down to two or three possibilities. But, what if you are a high school junior, enrolled in a school that is overcrowded and underfunded, sitting in classes taught in two languages, and nobody in your family has ever taken the SAT before? What are your chances then?
***
My friend Jack did not have to deal with those challenges when he was preparing to apply to college. The road was pre-paved, and Jack smoothed it out along the way as he studied for the SAT, applied to college, and eventually accepted admission at the University of Southern California.
When he got to USC, Jack caught the entrepreneurial bug. It’s like the “politics bug” – once you catch it, you have a hard time running away from it. Not far removed from taking the SAT himself, Jack started tutoring some family friends for the test. Two students quickly turned into ten, and Jack found that he had written enough of his own material to create a full-fledged pre-college outreach program. That’s how Study Smart Tutors was born.
***
This is a brief look into entrepreneurship and education. They are two worlds we don’t think of colliding; but, when they do, the reaction sparks unlimited possibilities. Like in any chemical reaction, however, there must be just the right amount of reactants…
• 1 Part Risk: Jack graduated college and decided to grow Study Smart Tutors. He turned down stable jobs that most recent college grads now dream of, trading them in for a seat behind the wheel of his own company. Recently, I asked him if he was nervous to take on the gamble that is entrepreneurship as a twenty-something. “Now is the time with the least risk,” he said. “When you’re young and unattached is the time to bet big.” Of course there are still nerves and concerns, and by Jack’s own admission, “things aren’t perfect, especially when there are no regular paychecks or bankable guarantees.” But he understands the risk he is assuming, and he knows that it will be more difficult to take these chances as he gets older.
Read the rest of…
Zac Byer: Entrepreneurship and Education . . . A Much-Needed Marriage
By Grant Smith, RP Staff, on Thu Jul 14, 2011 at 10:00 AM ET
Texas Congressman Ron Paul (R-14) is not running for re-election to the House to focus on another run for the Presidency. One famous Republican strategist believes he could present a strong candidacy. [The Daily Beast]
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) proposes a solution to the debt-ceiling debate. While embraces on Wall Street, it has received a less enthusiastic reception on Capitol Hill. [Bloomberg]
Obama, the budget, and the art of political positioning. Or, “Politics as Kabuki Theater.” [Huffington Post]
Thanks to Rupert Murdoch, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown finally gets his “revenge.” [The Telegraph]
Austrian man is allowed to wear a pasta-strainer in his driver’s license photo. A pious follower of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, the man argued the pasta-strainer was religious headgear. [BBC News]
By Andrei Cherny, on Thu Jul 14, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET As most Americans return to work following Monday’s fourth of July holiday, so the nation’s political class also return to their jobs, following majority leader Harry Reid’s cancelling of the Senate’s scheduled Independence Day recess. Top of the agenda will be negotiations to avoid a crisis over the nation’s debt ceiling. But another issue should also top the agenda: the sluggish US jobs recovery.
The labor market has stalled again in recent months, while the debate over what to do about jobs has long been caught in a political cul-de-sac. The traditional economic tools of the right and left – tax cuts and government spending – have failed to offer much relief in a time when the economy is global, capital is mobile and a few extra dollars in a family’s bank account can go to purchase Chinese-made televisions and clothes at Walmart.
Injecting more money into the economy might have worked when we lived in a national, as opposed to a globalised, economy; when big businesses created most jobs; and when the paradigmatic workplace was the regimented assembly line. But America and other modern economies have entered what might be called the “new work order” – an economy where most workers are untethered from large institutions and bouncing from one job to the next. In this economy, each worker is, in effect, their own small business – responsible for guiding their own career and economic future.
 Although advocates of the top-down approaches of helping big companies or expanding big government may not realize it, we live in a bottom-up economy: today’s job creators are less likely to be industrialists throwing up factories than to be laid-off workers firing up their laptops in a Starbucks.
Research has shown that during the past generation, start-ups less than five years old have accounted for all net job growth in the US. The current challenge is that the recent economic slowdown is directly tied to a very real entrepreneurial slowdown. The number of new businesses with employees fell by more than 17 per cent between 2007 and 2009. The number of new employer companies in 2009 was at its lowest level since 1992. Self-employment rates have been falling in the past couple of years, even while a study this year from the Small Business Administration demonstrated that 65 per cent of the jobs created by start-ups between 1997 and 2008 were jobs that entrepreneurs created for themselves. As the study’s author put it: “Business creation is job creation.”
Read the rest of…
Andrei Cherny: A Jobs Plan for the New Work Order
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Wed Jul 13, 2011 at 3:00 PM ET
So that how it got its name! [comic]
Free to a good home. . . [Craigslist]
Chinese superheroes. Enough said. [picture]
The boy makes a fantastic point. [comic]
Great way to waste time. A little browser game called Hunting Arrows. [Hunting Arrows]
By Jeff Smith, on Wed Jul 13, 2011 at 2:15 PM ET  [Presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s fundraising underperformance] means a few things.
1) A lot of donors who supported Romney last time are jumping ship or dodging him.
2) As the heir to “establishment” frontrunner status, Romney should’ve been able to cultivate most of the 2008 McCain donors. That hasn’t happened.
3) Given how much Perry raised within Texas alone for a gubernatorial race, and given the oil industry’s success amid the national recession, there will be ample money for him to compete on a national stage.
4) The sheer number of people who continue to give money to Ron Paul, when they presumably have children who ask for toys, puppies, and other things, is mind-boggling.
(Cross-posted, with permission from the author, with Politico’s Arena)
By Stephanie Doctrow, RP Staff, on Wed Jul 13, 2011 at 1:30 PM ET Approximately 300,000 youth are sexually exploited in the United States every year. Read the emotional story of one young woman’s escape from a life of prostitution. [CNN]
One of the newest methods of helping children with autism involves tutus and plies. [Time]
The secret to triumph: it’s all in the head. [Newsweek]
For a dose of reality, check out this infographic depicting what it’s life to live on less than $2 a day in a developing nation. [Good Magazine]
By Stephanie Doctrow, RP Staff, on Wed Jul 13, 2011 at 1:30 PM ET Even though historic British tabloid News of the World printed its last paper on Sunday, the newspaper’s phone-hacking scandal continues to live on. [CNN]
Twitter’s worth fell about $3 billion since February, meaning your tweets are a little less valuable. There’s even a (not so) scientific formula to prove it. [Esquire]
Elizabeth Smart recently signed on to ABC News to serve as the network’s permanent “abduction expert” when such cases should arise. [NY Magazine]
In an age when politicians can tweet thousands of followers with the click of a mouse, eloquence and well-developed arguments are more necessary than ever. [Newsweek]
In honor of the last Harry Potter movie coming out this weekend, here’s a look back at ten years of journalists documenting the pop culture phenomenon. [Time]
By Grant Smith, RP Staff, on Wed Jul 13, 2011 at 11:00 AM ET The Politics of Generation Y Revisited On June 15th, my esteemed colleague, Zac Byer, published a thoughtful piece on generation Y’s place in the world. Most importantly, he zeroed in on Gen Y’s strong attachment to nostalgia.
Perhaps most insightful, he theorized that this attachment to nostalgia is potentially rooted in a generational fear that what lies ahead may not be as bright as what has already passed.
At risk of sounding like a pessimist, one has to wonder, “what if the pessimists have this one right?” What if Gen Y – financially speaking – is destined to end up as a new “lost generation?”
Let’s look at what is coming down the road: student loan debt that surpasses credit card debt; risk of inflation from multiple rounds of quantitative easing; the end of Social Security and Medicare as we know it; the list goes on and on.
Like the credit card shopper who splurges at the store, only to wind up with the bill months later, Gen Y is very likely to be the generation who receives the credit card bill in the mail from a previous generation or two. Unlike the credit card shopper who at least got to enjoy their products, Gen Y may get all of the tab, but none of the goods.
Read the rest of…
Grant Smith: The Politics of Gen Y Revisited – A New Lost Generation?
By Artur Davis, on Wed Jul 13, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET  President Obama has resorted to extreme measures to forge a compromise with congressional Republicans to raise the debt ceiling and avoid a national default. He has signaled a willingness to slash federal expenditures by an unfathomable 4 trillion dollars over a decade, and he is hinting that the pillars of Social Security , Medicare, and Medicaid will not be exempt.
A Democratic Governor in Minnesota has taken a sharply different route, opting to shut his state’s government down unless Republicans consent to a temporary surcharge on millionaires. Meanwhile, In New York, the iconic liberal empire, a Democratic Governor has jettisoned ten thousand teachers and state employees to save money and has slashed spending for child welfare and education; at the same time, he declared tax increases off limits and fought his party’s efforts to impose New York’s own millionaire’s tax.
Welcome to the muddled place that is Democratic ideology in 2011. Under the pressures of an economy that just barely dodged a depression, and swollen entitlement obligations at both the federal and state level, chief executives who are certified progressives are living in desperate times. They are responding in dramatically contrasting ways that are partly tactical, but ultimately reveal much about the coming fissures in the Democratic Party circa 2013-2016.
 The President at Smith Electric Vehicles At that point, Barack Obama will be one or the other: the second Democrat in a generation who saved his presidency partly by discarding liberal priorities and emphasizing a hawkish profile on deficit reduction, or a discredited figure who squandered an electric personal mandate and failed to fight hard enough for his principles. Under either scenario, a trainload of agenda items, from immigration reform to stronger collective bargaining rights and stricter regulation of carbon emissions, will have been buried.
Read the rest of…
Artur Davis: What is Next for the Democrats?
By Robert Kahne, RP Staff, on Tue Jul 12, 2011 at 3:30 PM ET
Incubus has a new album out. If you are a bigger fan of their soft, mellow, Morning View-esque albums, this new disc is probably right up your alley. Here is their first video[If Not Now, When?]
Beyonce‘s new album has been out for awhile now. It took me a while to try it out, but I really enjoy it. It’s super funky and fun. The best part? Andre3000 raps on a song. The things I would do for a new Outkast album are unspeakable. [Party]
Did you like the NBC show The Voice? If so, was Blake Shelton part of the reason why? If not, do you like Blake Shelton anyway? If you answered yes to any above questions, you ought to check out the new Blake Shelton album. Here is the first video. [Honey Bee]
The mellow songstress Colbie Callat is back with a new disc. In this song from the album, she talks about her desire to get married. [I Do]
New Sub Pop darlings Washed Out have released their first full length album. Its all synthy and weird, like a good Sub Pop album should be. [Eyes Be Closed]
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