4 Things Obama Could Do To Foster America's Creativity | Bruce Nussbaum, Fast Company Co.Design

Boosting the middle class, researching clean energy, building better schools--all good stuff, But if you want real economic value, Nussabuam argues, promote creativity across the nation.

Writing in this column before President Obama gave his Statue of the Union speech on Feb. 12, Nussbuam made this hopeful suggestion:

President Obama reframes himself and America’s economic agenda by making creativity the centerpiece of his State of the Union. Obama makes raising America’s creative capacities his second-term goal. There is good reason to do this.

I agree! Nussbaum went to to say:

Creativity is the source of economic value. Creativity takes what money can’t buy and transforms it into what money can buy. We have spent decades focusing on efficiency, and it has brought us stagnating incomes and falling mobility for the middle class. It’s time to focus on creativity.

He explains each of these suggestions:

1. Make entrepreneurship, not big business, the centerpiece of economic policy.
2. Make manufacturing, not bioscience, the major recipient of federal R&D spending
3. Promote crowdsourcing. Release the Jobs Act from the SEC
4. Make art and shop courses central to education.

All good ideas. I especially like No. 4.

Nussbaum concludes:

Mr. President, reframing the country’s economic narrative can set the nation on a new journey toward prosperity. Amplifying America’s creativity is a story that engages all of us across the political spectrum.

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Nussbaum's column is featured today, Feb. 13, in my daily online paper, Garbl's Creativity Connections, available at the Creativity tab above and by free email subscription.