美國名校勵志演講：經(jīng)濟與人文精神 by Richard C. Levin

5. The Economy and the Human Spirit-- Commencement Address by Richard C. Levin at Yale University

When I welcomed you four years ago,
you were exhilarated but apprehensive,
excited to be taking on a new challenge,
but more than a little intimidated -
awed by the imposing architecture of this place,
by the grandeur of this hall,
by the rumble of its great organ,
and by the dazzling accomplishment of your classmates,
who all seemed to you to belong here,
even if you were not quite sure about yourself.
Now, appropriately, you feel as if you own the place;
every corner of your college,
every face in the dining hall,
is familiar to you.
You have made close friends,
and you have memories you will never forget.
While all this happened to you
the world around you was flourishing.
And Yale was flourishing, too -
building and renovating at an astonishing pace,
adding new international programs,
and enhancing financial aid to make the whole experience
a lighter burden on your families.

Who would have imagined, four years ago,
that the world economy would collapse?
As you leave here, it is hard not to
think about this unhappy reality.
So, as an economist and as your president,
I would like to offer you my perspective on
what has happened and what it means for you.

The world economy is a mess.
In the United States, we have experienced
the sharpest reduction in gross domestic product
in five decades, and the ride is not yet over.
As many of you know all too well, jobs are scarce.
Within the past year,
the unemployment rate has increased from 5.0% to 8.9%,
and, unfortunately, it is more likely
than not to exceed 10% before declining again.

How did we get here?
Not, I believe, because of any inherent flaws
in the nature of the market system.
This is a very important point.
Indeed, the ascendancy of markets,
the relative demise of centrally-planned economies
over the past thirty years,
the opening of nations to freer international trade
and investment, and the rapid advance of science and technology
have led to unprecedented levels of global economic growth.
Even in the midst of this downturn
it is crucial to remember that more people,
both in absolute terms and as a percentage
of the world’s population have crossed the poverty line
in the past thirty years than in any previous period of history.

The cause of the current crisis is less fundamental:
we accumulated too much debt - mortgages,
credit card debt, corporate debt,
debt to support financial speculation,
and government debt. From January 1981,
when Ronald Reagan took office,
to September 2008 the ratio of total national debt -
public and private - grew steadily from 160% to
nearly 360% of gross domestic product.

As we have seen all too painfully,
when individuals have lots of debt,
declining asset prices trigger delinquencies,
defaults, housing foreclosures,
personal bankruptcies, corporate bankruptcies,
and bank insolvency.
Financial institutions lack the capital and
the confidence to make new loans.
Consumers and businesses reduce their spending.
Company profits and stock values fall.
Output and income decline, and wealth evaporates
because the promise of future earnings
that supports the valuation of assets
is no longer credible.
This is where we are now,
with our national wealth - personal and institutional -
down by more than 25%. Virtually every family
in this hall has felt the impact of
this disastrous sequence of consequences.

History teaches that all credit expansions
are followed by recessions or depressions.
It also teaches that recovery follows recession.
The right mix of government policies
can make recovery happen faster.
But, in the end, fast or slow, we will recover,
as long as the market is allowed to
direct the immensely creative and productive forces
embodied in emerging technologies
and in our educated citizens including you,
in particular. It will get better.
It is just a question of when.
Meanwhile, you may be wondering
why you had the bad luck to graduate now.
I know that the process of finding a first job
has been more difficult and stressful for you t
han for your immediate predecessors,
and I know that many of you do not yet
have definite plans for the year ahead.
But do not be discouraged.
There are exciting opportunities waiting for you,
and little reason for despair.
I want to reassure you and your parents
that the investment of time, energy,
and money that you have made in your Yale education
will be abundantly repaid.
It will be repaid in a material sense;
it will reward you with personal fulfillment,
and, most important, it has prepared you for lives
of service to family, community, the nation, and the world.

To put matters in perspective, remember
that you came here to reflect on the world around you,
to expose yourselves to new ways of thinking,
to encounter brilliant teachers,
to make use of extraordinary library
and museum resources, to develop the capacity
to think critically, to express yourselves clearly,
and to find, both in the classroom
and in extracurricular pursuits,
the passions that motivate you.
You have done all this and more.
By encountering classmates from all 50 states
and 41 nations, you have learned to appreciate
the diversity of human talents and perspectives.
Thanks to Yale’s extensive array of international programs,
the great majority of you have had a chance
to experience life in a different culture.
You are not just four years older;
by virtue of what you have learned about
the world around you and about yourselves,
you are immensely more capable of taking on life’s challenges.
You may doubt my conclusion at this bittersweet moment of separation.
But believe me, you are ready to leave.
And think of all the exciting possibilities
that are open to you.

Let us start by noticing that there has been
a dramatic change in our national agenda,
the most significant change of course
in nearly thirty years.
Whatever your political persuasion,
if you care about health care, education,
or the sustainability of the planet,
now is the time to get involved.
Think about opportunities to engage with these issues -
either in government or in the private sector,
whether for-profit or non-profit.
The years immediately ahead are going to
have consequences for a long time to come.

Some of you are already responding to this call.
The number of you enlisted to serve in Teach for America,
the largest single employer of Yale College graduates,
has more than doubled in the last two years.
In America’s schools, there are promising signs
of reform all around, led by the spectacular success
of new approaches that instill confidence
and a drive for achievement in the most disadvantaged of our youth.
Whether it is the charter school models introduced
by organizations such as KIPP in New York City
and Achievement First here in New Haven,
or public school reforms associated with
a wide array of family services
as in the Harlem Children’s Zone,
we are seeing powerful evidence of improved performance.

As the new administration and some of our largest
foundations continue to embrace these new ideas,
more opportunities will arise to engage you.
You might think about following
in the footsteps of Yale graduates David Levin,
the co-founder of KIPP, or Dacia Toll,
the co-founder of Achievement First,
and contributing to the renaissance of primary
and secondary education in the United States.

Or think about helping to address the challenge of global warming.
In America and elsewhere around the globe,
there is going to be massive public
and private investment in new energy technologies.
This will create tremendous opportunities not only
for those of you interested in science,
engineering, or public policy but also for
those of you interested in business,
where you might help launch entrepreneurial “cleantech” startups,
or make established businesses greener
and more socially responsible.
In this arena you might take as your model Yale graduates
like Frances Beinecke, executive director
of the Natural Resources Defense Council,
or Kevin Czinger, whose company, Miles Electric Vehicles,
is one of several hoping to be first to the market
with an all-electric car suitable for
highway driving and daily commuting.

Or perhaps, as America adopts a new
and more collaborative approach to foreign policy,
you might think about building a career
that contributes to greater international cooperation
and understanding. Legions of Yale graduates
before you have pursued this noble calling:
from Sargent Shriver, the founder of the Peace Corps,
to Joseph Reed, longtime Undersecretary General
of the United Nations, to career diplomats like John Negroponte,
to our current Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Perhaps the Peace Corps, the military,
or the foreign service would be a good first step toward such a career.

I was vividly reminded of the abundance of opportunities
before you just two months ago,
when I convened a group of Yale alumni
in Silicon Valley to advise me on
how the University might take better advantage of
new media in carrying out its educational mission.
Around the table were Yale graduates
who have been instrumental in the founding
and development of companies such as Microsoft,
Palm, RealNetworks, Electronic Arts, and Facebook.

Having come to California fresh from
a series of gloomy meetings with Yale graduates
in the New York financial community,
I was astounded by the unbridled optimism
of those in the new media and technology business.
The prospects for investment, they told me,
have never been better. The cost of launching
a media business, thanks to the development
of widely available software platforms and tools,
is lower than ever, and the possibilities
for creative engagement with the user community
are unprecedented. So in addition to
contemplating a contribution in education,
or energy and sustainability, or foreign relations,
you might also think about new media,
where Yale graduates have helped to
create entirely new forms of enterprise
that did not exist a generation ago.
You can do the same.

I cite these specific paths not to limit your imagination,
but to encourage you to recognize
that opportunities are everywhere.
The education you have acquired here
has given you the breadth and flexibility
to take on the widest array of possible challenges,
and it has given you the depth and rigor
to make a meaningful difference
wherever you choose to apply your talent.

In 1930, at the darkest moment of the Great Depression,
the economist John Maynard Keynes wrote:
We are suffering just now from a bad attack
of economic pessimism. It is common to hear people say
that the epoch of enormous economic progress is over;
that the rapid improvement of the standard of life
is now going to slow down; that a decline in prosperity
is more likely than an improvement .

I believe that this is a wildly mistaken interpretation
of what is happening to us. We are suffering,
not from the rheumatics of old age,
but from the growing-pains of over-rapid changes.
The increase of technical efficiency
has been taking place faster than we can deal with;
the improvement in the standard of life
has been a little too quick.

Keynes went on to predict that the standard
of living in advanced capitalist countries
would increase by a factor of four to eight over the next century.
He was right; in the nearly eighty years since 1930,
the per capita gross domestic product in the United States,
adjusted for inflation, has increased by a factor of six.

Keynes’ source of confidence about the future
was a belief in the power of creativity and innovation,
expressed through the efforts of free,
well-educated individuals to apply scientific knowledge
and human ingenuity to the development of new technologies,
new products, and new services to improve material well-being.

The potential for material advance is no less abundant
in the United States today than it was in Keynes’ Britain
of eight decades ago. And, what is even more abundant today
is the potential for moving beyond material advance
to a better quality of life for all -
toward a healthier population, a cleaner environment,
a better educated and wiser citizenry,
a more peaceful world.

Women and men of the class of 2009:
You have within you the creative potential
to make a better world for us all.
Here at Yale you have learned to think critically and independently,
and you have the flexibility and resourcefulness
to make the most of any situation.
The world is all before you. Choose your direction,
and prove that this time of crisis is also a time of opportunity.
You can do it. Yes, you can.

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