One Dad's Plea to the Prez Candidates

Dear Senators Obama, Clinton, and McCain,

Like many Americans, I have been following the presidential race very closely this year. Indeed, this is a crucial point in our great country's history. As you have pointed out, the next president of the United States will face unprecedented challenges and decisions around the security, prosperity, and strategic direction of this country. By now, we are all familiar with your policy positions on the familiar topics of the day, and there's no need to rehash those for the one millionth time again. However, as a concerned dad, I would like to hear more about your vision and proposed solutions on key strategic issues that will be most important when our children are old enough to vote 10-15 years from now.

Yes, we all know how this works - understandably so, only the most pressing (or well-lobbied) issues are dealt with in Washington. Those are the issues that lead to re-election. The longer-term issues are left for another day and another political leader to deal with. But some of these issues, while still only emerging on the horizon, will impact our children more than anything we've been talking about in this election. It's like paying for college tuition - having the foresight to start a little earlier avoids much bigger pain later.

So, I'm looking for a political leader who will tackle the emerging issues of tomorrow. I'm looking for someone who will have the political courage and foresight to fix these problems even though every day Americans don't "feel the pain" yet. Just as we hold down our infants as they get their vaccinations, I would rather deal with a little pain now than make our children face 100x that pain.

1. Invest in Preschool Education - Our country's future relies on the minds, hearts, and spirits of our young people, but this isn't a bleeding heart plea. Study after study shows that the 3- to 4- year age is crucial. Their brains are sponges, and if they learn how to learn at this crucial age, it puts them on different trajectory for a lifetime. In fact, research shows that economic returns for this kind of investment are huge (one 40-year study cited an 800% ROI). It's not difficult to figure out how these benefits would be played out. As a recent economics Nobel Laureate wrote: "Early interventions for disadvantaged children promote schooling, raise the quality of the work force, enhance the productivity of schools, and reduce crime, teenage pregnancy, and welfare dependency." We always talk about investing in our future - this may need to be at the top of the list. Yes, it'll cost us something, but so does sending my son to college - it's worth the investment.
   
   
2. Develop a China/Asia Strategy - If the 19th Century belonged to Britain, the 20th Century belonged to America. And all indications point to the fact that China owns the 21st Century. Yes, "Made in China" still has its baggage. Yes, we still see scenes of rural China where old Chinese farmers with no teeth or electricity pose for pictures with their sheep. Yes, they still have a lot of problems from our Westernized perspective. But make no mistake about it - China is the new superpower, and they're taking us off our throne. They've hitched a nice ride from us over the last 25 years, and rightfully so. But there will come a day where we'll need to hitch a ride from them as well. Despite all of our differences, how will we work with them to find creative and imaginative solutions to advance both our countries forward? Let's not let hubris get in the way of seeing this reality clearly.
   
   
3. Build upon America's key strength of innovation. Leveraging our strengths will be the key to our country's economic future. If you look at every successful organization in the world, all of them plow their resources into their strongest areas. For Apple, it's design. For Wal-Mart, it's cost efficiency. For GE, it's managerial talent. For Florida, it's the coastal geography. For America, it is innovation. Our culture of individualism and entrepreneurship, our world-class universities & brain trusts, our celebration of self-expression, and our supportive regulatory environment provide an advantage over other country's that is not easily replicable. We need to bring this strength to the next level. This is one of our key value-adds to the world. As the United States heads toward a "M-shaped" society, let's not stop at just creating any job for anybody. While those are important, I'm afraid that's too short-sighted. Let's create jobs that will be sustainable and valuable in the long run. We in this country have a talent for innovation - help us take it to new heights.
   
   
4. Make Social Security and Medicare sustainable - Every year, the Treasury Secretary will set up a press conference about how both of these programs are going to be insolvent by 2019 or so. We've all probably seen the disturbing trend where the ratio of workers to retirees is drastically falling. The next year, we'll see the same graphs and hear the same rants. Glenn Beck is right (no matter what you think of the guy) when he says this is like a $53B asteroid plunging down to Earth. We can just continue in this state of denial and make our kids pay the bill, or start doing something now. Yes, the Republicans want to reduce benefits. Yes, the Democrats want to raise taxes. I say let's find a compromise and do both. This is exactly like me saving for our kid's college tuition. I can put in $300/month starting at age 1, or wait a few years and be forced to put in $800/month, or just tell him college isn't worth it. The time is now. Let's not make our kids pay for our lack of foresight or courage.
   
   
5. Don't just solve the health care crisis, solve the health crisis - A big reason we have a health care crisis here is that we have a health crisis. Sure, our health care system needs fixing, but that's not getting at the root of the problem -- we are simply not living healthy lives. And those lifestyle choices are not just straining our individual productivity or our healthcare system - they are straining our country's competitiveness in the global market. In a few years, our healthcare costs will be 20% of every dollar spent in the U.S. Every Ford built in the USA has $1,800 of health care costs built into it versus $200 for a Japan-manufactured Toyota. How can we expect Ford to compete in the long-run? All the American companies we love and admire (and work for) could be single-handedly taken down by health care costs. We need to find innovative ways to push the cause of prevention (first step, don't call it prevention). Maybe we can learn something from the "truth" ad campaign that has got kids to smoke less. Apply those learnings to staying active and eating right.
   
   
6. Work to avoid a global water crisis - Oil don't got nothing on water. Granted that's a stretch for the USA, but not for many other regions in the world in the next few decades. In fact as we speak, half the world's hospitals beds are being occupied by people with waterborne disease. Water may very well be our children's "climate change" issue. As a world leader, what can we do to preemptively address this problem before it becomes the impetus for regional warfare and instability?

All of you are parents also. So, you know how to keep one eye on the short-term and one eye on the long-term. As parents, our kids are casting votes for our re-election every day. Nonetheless, for the sake of our kids, sometimes we're okay with losing a few votes to do the right thing in the long run.

Thank you again for serving our country. And best of luck with your hard-fought campaigns.

Tony Chen