Restoration Roundtable


America's Crumbling Foundation And The People Who Might Fix It

More on TED: 'Entrepreneurs Would Feel Insulted'

By Jim Tankersley  //  May 17, 2012 | 12:24 p.m.
NJ's report Wednesday that a "TED talk" on widening income inequality was too controversial to be posted on Ted.com has created a modest stir on the Internet. Change.org has launched a petition urging organizers to publish the speech by Seattle venture capitalist Nick Hanauer. News outlets have offered to film the talk and post it. Several political and business blogs have picked up the story.

We'll have much more to tell you very soon about Hanauer, his message, and the powerhouse research that supports his radical idea that the middle class is essential to economic growth. In the meantime, here's a little more clarity on why TED curator Chris Anderson chose not to air Hanauer's talk.

It's the full text of an email Anderson sent Hanauer on May 7, explaining why he'd decided not to publish the talk. In it, Anderson takes issue with several of Hanauer's claims about inequality and the economy in his talk - read the full text here - including Hanauer's statement that middle-class consumers, and not businesspeople, are the real job creators in an economy. To Hanauer's statement that businesses only hire as a "last resort," Anderson replies, "I think a lot of business managers and entrepreneurs would feel insulted by that statement as given."

Here's the full email.


Read & Post Comments
Leave A Comment
The National Journal Group has the right (but not the obligation) to monitor the comments and to remove any materials it deems inappropriate.
Comments powered by Disqus
Follow National Journal
About Restoration Calls

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in his first inaugural address, told a country struggling under the weight of the Great Depression that the nation needed to take action to rebuild and rejuvenate itself. He said: "Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now." It was a time not unlike our own, where misbehavior on Wall Street fed a widespread credit and confidence crisis that swept like a tornado through the U.S. and global economy. And as in 1933, Washington again faces the time-sensitive task of diagnosing how its institutions are ill-equipped to fix the nation's problems, and then building a new system responsive to America's new needs. This project will tell that story, through the eyes of the Americans affected.

Introduction to this series >>