Henry Nothhaft

Consider the questions on so many peoples minds these days: Why is it that two-income families can barely make it today, whereas when I was young, a middle class family could usually do fine on just one income?

Why did America once have money for schools and GI Bills and interstate highways, while today our infrastructure is in a state of dangerous decline? And why does prosperity seem to be a fading memory for many, as even greater riches accrue to an ever smaller few.

Two reasons, in the first place, back then America led the world in scientific and technological innovation. Innovation accounts for at least 80 percent of the nations economic growth and increases in living standards. The second reason why life was prosperous is that those technological innovations were inextricably linked to high value manufacturing of new products and services.

Nothhaft will outline the key reasons for this state of affairs and offer implementable, practical solutions. Using many personal anecdotes to humanize these issues, he will highlight how the sole source of new job growth in the US-startups and small businesses-are being crushed by one size fits all government tax and regulatory burdens that prevent them from growing, going public and creating jobs.

Why Facebook is worth $70 billion yet creates less than 1/50th the jobs produced by previous generations of startups-and what this means to all of us.

How our underfunded patent office is costing the nation millions of jobs and thousands of innovative new products, services and medical treatments.

Why the offshoring of high-tech manufacturing is hollowing out the middle class and threatening the job creation potential and future prosperity of the nation itself.

Using his first-hand experience with the way America does business nowadays, he proposes several ways to restore American dynamism and creative vigor by restoring the link between innovation and wealth and job creation through start-ups.