Guest: Dennis Wingo. Topics: Economic secular stagnation, space development & economic growth, space advocacy, leadership, & more. Please direct all comments and questions regarding Space Show programs/guest(s) to the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments and questions should be relevant to the specific Space Show program. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are a violation of our copyright and are not permitted without prior written consent, even if for your own use. We do not permit the commercial use of Space Show programs or any part thereof, nor do we permit editing, YouTube clips, or clips placed on other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted, but the quote must be cited or referenced using the proper citation format. Contact The Space Show for further information. In addition, please remember that your Amazon purchases can help support The Space Show/OGLF. See www.onegiantleapfoundation.org/amazon.htm. For those listening to archives using live365.com and rating the programs, please email me as to why you assign a specific rating to the show. This will help me bring better programming to the audience. We welcomed Dennis Wingo back to the show to discuss his recent blog article at https://denniswingo.wordpress.com/2015/08/05/secular-stagnation-and-spa…, Secular Stagnation and Space: A Way Beyond Our Current Economic Plateau." During the first segment of our 1 hour 54 minute program, Dennis started out by defining secular stagnation as used today but also as coined back in December 1938 by then Harvard economics professor, Dr. Alvin Hansen, in his paper titled "Economic Progress and Declining Population Growth" (see this link for the March 1939 publication of his paper, www.jstor.org/stable/1806983?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents). This discussion led to Dennis providing us with both a pre-WW2 economic summary of the U.S. economy, then a post war U.S. economic summary. The latter discussion had a special focus on the years including our early space program with a high degree of technological investment up to the present where new technology investment has been declining. Dennis provided us with economic stats and facts to support what he was talking about. Given the current status of our economy and work force, Dennis advocated for a substantial new technology spending increase with a significant focus on space development technology. Later, he included specialized job training but you will hear more about that later. During this segment, Dennis received many email questions by the listeners on the topics being discussed. Note that our discussion was much broader than just focusing and talking about space economic development. In the second segment, Ben started us off with an email claiming that the labor force and culture of the U.S. today was vastly different from that of the 50s -80s so looking for a solution that worked back then would likely not work today. Dennis spent most of the segment both refuting and responding to this question because it brought up the subject of vocational training which was prevalent during the early period but not now. Dennis explained why vocational training was so important and why it had been decimated. I once again shared my experiences lobbying the California legislature to pass workforce education (the new name for vocational training) legislation. Dennis advocated for the Do It Yourself (DIY) community which is growing around the country along with the Maker movement with events like Maker Faire. He also talked about meaningful vocational training for job training for young people not working or wanting to improve their work and career prospects. To support this, he cited older programs that did this and the success they brought to the people who participated and to the nation. He also talked about legal and legislative efforts to bring some sort of vocational training back to public education with modern tools, computers, and the technology of today, not the 50s. Dennis strongly supported the proposed Zero G Zero Tax legislation. Later in the segment, listeners asked him where he would start space economic growth and then what he thought the NASA budget would need to be to facilitate the level of economic growth being talked about on this program. Do not miss these discussions. Share your thoughts with us on The Space Show blog per above. Near the end of the program, several listeners emailed Dennis about changing the way space advocacy organization think because they typically do not present their advocacy case in terms of benefitting economic and industrial growth. Dennis had a lot to say about this. I suspect some organizations may not like it either! Another topic brought up was our current regulatory regime and environment and was it capable of supporting space industrial growth of the magnitude Dennis said was needed. When asked about international cooperation, he was very positive, especially with regards to European and Japanese technology. They have excellent technology and a passion to invest in technology, including space technology. As the program was ending, Dennis again returned to the theme regarding the need for genuine leadership in the country, regardless of political party or ideology. For the record, Dennis was equally critical of our political leadership regardless of party. Please post your comments/questions on TSS blog above.
Guest
The Space Show
