Tom Friedman Wants To Stimulate You

Tom Friedman was not in front of a television this morning, so Imus could not properly humiliate his guest, a New York Times op-ed columnist, for having laughed just a little too hard at something the President said at a luncheon in December.

"In a politically correct situation as that must have been, what possibly could he have said that was that funny?" Imus asked.

Unable to recall exactly what Obama had said, Friedman promised he'd have giggled just the same for the I-Man. "Just say anything!" he said. "I'll double over laughing."

Friedman was somewhat less jocular when talk turned to job creation, an arduous task.

"Everyone's talking about how we need more jobs, like jobs come from heaven, or you conjure them up by a government policy," he said. "Jobs come from, ultimately, entrepreneurs and risk takers coming up with ideas, with products and services that make peoples' lives either more productive, more healthy, or more entertained."

Inspiring innovation should be the focus right now, he insisted, not "just another government plan to get more people working on highways." In other words, there is no short term, "snap-your-fingers" solution.

He emphasized the importance of programs like one called NFTE (Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship), which prepares teachers in low-income high schools to teach entrepreneurship. Students devise a business plan, come up with a product or service to sell, and determine the cost of raw materials and how they'll produce the product.

"We still have this incredibly entrepreneurial culture, but you've really go to give people the tools and the stimulation to want to come up with these kinds of ideas," said Friedman. "And we just need to be doing more of that, everywhere, all the time."

Were he the President, and not merely laughing at his jokes, Friedman would gather the top ten innovators in this country around a table, and start taking notes. But he senses a negative message emerging in America, particularly from the tea party movement.

"There's no question they are upset about things they don't like, whether it's spending, or taxes," said Friedman. "But we're not going to dig out of this hole without a positive movement that's going to make the pie bigger."

It's a lousy time to be a leader, political or otherwise, because the focus of late has really been to "trim, cut and fire," in Friedman's view, when it should really be the opposite.

"If you jump off the top of an 80-story building, for 79 stories you can think you're flying," he said, quoting a friend of his. "It's the sudden stop at the end that gets you."

Imus laughed. We think it was real.

-Julie Kanfer