Davos 2011: My Chat With Arianna

In comparison to China and Latin America, where young people are moving out of poverty into the middle class, in the US we're seeing people sliding out down from the ranks of the middle class, creating a worrying trend of 'suburban poor'. Arianna Huffington hopes that the US can course correct -- to do so however Americans need personal, local and government projects to get back to work.

Arianna quotes Lloyd George who said, you cannot jump across a chasm in two leaps -- unfortunately the US seems to be trying to take baby steps across the void of unemployment. 'Where is the big move to renewable energy' we were promised? she asks. We need large infrastructure projects, a visa program which encourages entrepreneurs from around the world to move to the US and a payroll tax holiday. Let's throw ideas against the wall and 'see what sticks'.

Why aren't we treating this problem with the same urgency that we treated the financial meltdown?

We can fix this problem, but Arianna wonders if the political will is there.

Cross-posted from HubCulture.com.