How might we tailor the government's economic stimulus package to match up with new ideas of success and failure?
Put it into education and teach young people not to fear failure so much? Or repeal or revise draconian bankruptcy act of 2005. In Providence, there is a Jenckes Street, presumably named after Congressman Thomas A. Jenckes — the father of modern bankruptcy legislation, which he fought to pass during and after the Civil War. He believed that public policy should not be driven by moral presumptions about craven debtors, but rather by the frank acknowledgement that credit, debt, and failure were indelible aspects of modern capitalism. Here we are, 150 years later, still learning that lesson the hard way.
CORRECTION Last week, we mentioned a $60,000 grant for Action Speaks! It came from The National Endowment for the Humanities, not the National Endowment for the Arts.
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