>> President Kim: All right.
Good afternoon.
Good afternoon, everybody.
Can we turn these mike's off?
I'm honored to introduce New
York City mayor, Mike Bloomberg,
as the inaugural speaker
in the Dartmouth
Presidential Lecture series.
It is my hope that this
series will promote discussion
of current global issues
and supplement your
classroom experiences.
Back to these?
[ laughter ]
Got to be ready.
>> President Kim:
I'll turn this off.
OK.
>> President Kim: It is my hope
that this series will
promote discussion
of current global issues
and supplement your
classroom experiences
with real-life lessons
on innovation,
collaboration and leadership.
John Sloan Dickey,
the 12th president
of Dartmouth, consistently
spoke of the need
to embrace the world's
troubles as your own.
Through this proposal for an
innovative great issues course,
President Dickey enabled
students to reflect
on their liberal arts education,
through real-world problems.
The Presidential Lecture
series is the first step toward
adapting the great issues
concept to a new generation.
Yours. The speakers in this
series will not only inform you
about their own work
in confronting the pressing
global issues of the day,
but in doing so will provide
important examples of habits
of the mind that have been
key to their own success.
I invited Mayor Bloomberg
to speak at Dartmouth,
because as a businessman,
philanthropist
and civil servant,
he is living proof
that developing effective
habits of the mind, persistence,
independent thinking and
creativity, among others,
beget success and allows an
individual to make the world
or New York City, in his
case, a better place.
As mayor of New York City,
Mayor Bloomberg is at the center
of many of the most
important issues
of the day including
school reform, poverty,
global warming and gun control.
Mayor Bloomberg is also a public
health hero, a hero of mine,
enacting one of the country's
most extensive smoking bans,
working to combat tobacco
use internationally
and forcing restaurants
to put caloric information
on their items.
The founder of Bloomberg LP, the
financial information company,
Mayor Bloomberg has supported
the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health, the
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention and other
institutions and causes.
Although Mayor Bloomberg
attended Johns Hopkins,
I think his long time
companion, Diana Taylor,
who's with us today, member
of the Dartmouth class of 1977
and a trustee of the college,
has taught him what it
means to bleed green.
After his remarks,
Mayor Bloomberg will
answer questions submitted
by audience members.
If you have a question,
please write it on one
of the index cards given to you
and pass it to an usher in one
of the outside aisles.
They're along here
and also in Spalding.
Video of the lecture
will be available online
after the event.
Also, I encourage you to
take part in a discussion
about the lecture on
Dartmouth's Facebook page,
moderated by Professor Bruce
Sacerdote.
Mayor Bloomberg is one of our
country's leading visionaries.
He brings innovation
and imagination
to everything he pursues.
Please help me welcome,
Mayor Michael Bloomberg,
as the inaugural speaker
in the Dartmouth
Presidential Lecture Series.
[ applause ]
>> Mayor Bloomberg: Thank you.
[ applause ]
Thank you.
Thanks for that kind reception.
I'd like to think you came here
to hear some stirring
oratory and great wisdom.
But I know that some of
you are probably here
for the Boloco burritos vouchers.
[ laughter ]
You know who you are.
And it's great to, it is great
to be the first in a series.
I didn't know I was the
first in the series,
until I listened to Dr. Kim.
That means until the
next one shows up,
I'm the best you've had.
[ laughter ]
President Kim, I was a little
bit, I was appreciative
of the introduction, but
a little bit disappointed.
A couple of weeks ago,
Queen Elizabeth the II
visited lower Manhattan
and it was 103 degrees and
she still wore her trademark
white gloves.
So I want to know President Kim,
why you were not wearing
your infamous white glove.
I mean, if the queen can do it,
you'd think a president can.
[ laughter ]
Well anyway, white
gloves or not,
being here is a still
a great honor for me,
standing on the legendary
Dartmouth campus,
where the great American poet,
Robert Frost once walked.
Where so many governors
and senators and judges
and cabinet members
earn their degrees.
But to me, perhaps most
importantly and most memorably,
is where John "Bluto" Blutarsky
first uttered
the immortal words, toga, toga.
[ laughter ]
If you think I don't have Animal
House on my iPad, you are wrong.
That's the first
one I downloaded.
[ laughter ]
Now I do realize that Bluto
didn't really go to Dartmouth,
but knowing that I was coming
to the campus that inspired one
of my all-time favorite movies,
really was pretty exciting
and of course, I look forward
to eating a meal at home plate
and taking a dip in the
Connecticut River, but it looks
like those two options are out.
[ laughter ]
[ applause ]
Sorry about that.
[ applause ]
College today is very different
than when I went to college.
I also want to welcome all
the graduate students here
and everyone else.
This is an exciting
opportunity for me.
I've spoken at, before at
many college commencements.
But on graduation morning, most
students don't listen very well.
Because they're either
too excited, too terrified
or too hungover or some
combination thereof.
So I'm glad that I'll have the
opportunity to speak with all
of you as if you were, as
though you were in the middle
of your academic journeys
and really do look forward
to answering some
questions afterwards.
Just two months ago I gave
the commencement speech
at my alma mater, Johns Hopkins.
I entered my freshman year
at there 50 years ago.
I know, wow.
In the summer of 1960.
And I told the graduates that a
lot had changed on the campus.
But in, but a lot
had not changed
and really the biggest changes
from then to now are in America.
Back then the promise of
the American dream was still
out of reach for far too many.
There was no civil
rights act for minorities,
no voting rights act
for the disenfranchised,
no Medicaid for the poor and
no Medicare for the elderly.
But by the end of the 1960's,
all of that had changed
and it changed because
Americans, many of them young
like you and idealistic,
had the courage
to fight for their ideals.
Now we didn't have all
the answers back then,
but we asked the right questions
I think, on civil rights,
poverty, education,
women's rights,
environmental protection
and then so on.
And over time, unfortunately
I think, what's changed
in America is people have
stopped asking these questions.
What's really happened is that
good intension's became confused
with good results and honest
dialog became confused
with political correctness
and religious convictions
became confused
with scientific evidence.
We've come a long
ways since then,
since I was a college
student, and we do have a lot
to be proud of, but
I think today we face
enormous challenges.
Some of them a lot greater
than we did back then.
Many of which I think we've
been much too slow to confront.
Immigration, education,
climate change,
rising health care costs,
the list goes on and that's
where all of you come in
and that's what I wanted
to talk to you about today.
As you study, think about
these and other issues.
I'd like to share with you some
of the lessons that I've learned
since I stood in your shoes
and I hope that when you think
of these things, you'll
find those ideas useful.
In organizing these lessons,
I thought I would take a page
from Dartmouth's book
by adopting your plan D
or D Plan, as you call it.
And I'm told D Plan
helps guide you
through the dizzying
maze of choices you face.
Well, here's the bad news.
In the real world,
unfortunately, there
is no D Plan.
But I'm going to give
you an alternative
and I will call it the B Plan.
No, it's not the Bloomberg plan.
That you can read about in
that thrilling autobiography,
Bloomberg by Bloomberg,
currently ranked number
157,179 on Amazon.com.
[ laughter ]
As a matter of fact, somebody
once said, the rarest book
in the world is an unautographed
copy of Bloomberg by Bloomberg.
[ laughter ]
[ applause ]
The B Plan, like the D Plan,
is divided into quarters.
And it contains some ideas
that I hope will guide
you on your journey.
So here we go.
First and foremost and most
importantly is, be independent.
You can be a democrat
or a republican.
As a matter of fact,
I have been both.
Or you can be anything else.
But never make the
mistake of thinking
that any particular
political party has a monopoly
on ethics or good ideas.
One of the things that
never ceases to amaze me
in government is how many highly
intelligent people are willing
to accept a party's
conventional wisdom,
without asking the
hard questions.
And they follow ideology and
special interests and the polls,
instead of following the facts.
We have a saying in city
government in New York,
that I think served us well for
a long time, in God we trust,
everyone else bring data.
And the reality is both liberals
and conservatives
have some good ideas.
The only problem is that too
often neither side is able
or willing to admit that the
other side might actually be
onto something.
Take immigration.
Liberals tend to talk about
our need for more immigrants
and conservatives tend
to talk about the need
to control our borders.
And you know what,
they are both right.
Our refusal to let
more immigrants
into this country is
sending jobs overseas
and threatening our long
term economic health.
It is what I call
national suicide.
At the same time, our
ability to stop the flow
of illegal immigrants threatens
our long term national security.
And this spring I helped launch
a bipartisan coalition called
the partnership for new American
economy, that includes mayors
and business leaders
who understand how important
this issue is and we'll try
to shift the debate
away from the extremes
and towards a common sense,
common ground solution.
This is perhaps the single
greatest problem facing our
country today and for the
record, there is no courage
in Washington to face
this issue, whatsoever.
It is not partisan, it is not
tied to one side of the aisle
or the other, at one end
of Pennsylvania Avenue
or the other.
The truth of the matter is, in
Washington they are so afraid
of facing this issue
that if you bring it up,
they literally leave the room.
So number one in my B
plan is, be independent.
The second part of the B
plan is, be innovative.
Being innovative starts with
having the guts to take risks
and whenever you try new things,
chances are you are going
to fail some of the time.
I certainly have.
One of the best things that ever
happened to me was a failure
in the first company I
worked for after 15 years
in 1981, when I was fired.
It was a job that
I absolutely loved,
but the very next
day I took a chance
and began a technology
company in the hopes
of making financial information
available to people right
at their fingertips
and also to get even
with those who fired me.
[ laughter ]
And living well is the
best revenge folks.
Never forget that.
[ laughter ]
And everyone told
me I was crazy.
Now, they probably were right,
but it was the best thing
that I ever did for my career
and if you fast forward 20 years
to 2001, everyone told me I
was crazy to run for mayor
when I fired myself
from my company.
And they were probably right.
But thank goodness, I
did not let that stop me.
I think in politics, too
many elected officials tend
to play it safe.
Because the conventional
wisdom is to try
and keep everyone happy and
that's never been the approach
that I have taken and I
believe that if you take
on big controversial issues,
people will respect you
for it over the long run.
And it really is the only way
you are going to get things done
and make a big difference.
So the key to being
innovative is to go
where others wouldn't
dare and I wanted
to give you a couple
of examples.
A number of years
ago I suggested
that we should ban smoking in
New York City in public places.
Not that I have anything
against smoking,
if you want to kill yourself,
you're perfectly
willing to do so.
I think it's really
Darwin at work.
You've got to be pretty
stupid to smoke if you look
at the medical advice.
But having said that,
if you want to do it,
I think you have
the right to do it.
What you don't have the
right to do however,
is to kill somebody else and if
you smoke in an enclosed place,
you are doing exactly that.
There was enormous
uproar, I had to force it
through our city council,
there were threats
of court challenges, people
picketed and threw things at me.
Everybody said that the
restaurants and hotels would go
out of business, nobody would
ever visit New York City again,
all of our citizens would
head over to New Jersey.
[ laughter ]
Christy Whitman, who was
the governor of New Jersey,
told me shortly there afterwards
that her son would not stay
in New Jersey and go to a bar
because he couldn't stand
smelling the smoke and the truth
of the matter is people
came into New York.
It turned out to be a God
send for the restaurant
and hotel industry and
the tourism business.
It helped us increase life
expectancy in New York City
in the last 8 years,
by 19 months.
One year and seven months of 8.4
million people living longer,
is really quite something
if you think about it
and smoking cessation was
a very big part of it.
And today, I don't think you
could find a restaurateur
or a bar owner or somebody
that worked in either one,
who would want to
roll this back.
In fact, we did it and
shortly there afterwards,
all of Europe followed and most
big cities in America followed.
Even in the tobacco growing
states today, the big cities
in Tennessee and
places like that,
have banned smoking
in public places.
It was not popular,
nobody wanted
to take their picture with me.
When I would do a
parade on Staten Island,
I got a lot of one finger waves.
[ laughter ]
But nevertheless, by
doing what was right,
it turned out that people loved
it and that gave us the ability
to go and take on other
public health issues.
Another place where we've
tried to make a difference
in this country and we've
not been so successful yet,
is getting rid of guns in the
hands of children and criminals.
There are federal laws that say
you can't sell guns to criminals
or to minors and then
congress passes laws
that make it virtually
impossible
for the police department
to enforce those laws.
The NRA is out there
taking no prisoners.
They support, there's a website
that you can go on and it says,
50 caliber gun, capable
of bringing
down a large airliner
at a mile and a half.
Now, I understand why people
might want to buy a guy
to go hunting or even
protect themselves,
but why do you need
a gun that can bring
down a large airliner
at a mile and a half?
And it is, makes no
sense whatsoever.
But again, congress
has explicitly refused
to address the issue.
As a matter of fact, the
leadership on both sides
of the aisle and both ends
of Pennsylvania Avenue,
runs away from anything
with the word gun it,
faster than they
run away from things
with the words immigration in
it and you will take a look
at every bill that is
being passed today,
there is always a
carve out for the NRA.
Nevertheless, while I may
be a target for the NRA
and I'm lucky enough to have
been on their monthly magazine
with a target behind me, it's
the kind of thing that you want
to take on when you're
out there.
Because if you don't
run big risks
and if you don't try big
things, you're never going
to accomplish very much
and you're not going
to like what you
see in the mirror.
Now, if you've been
following the B Plan so far,
you've been independent and
you have been innovative.
So my third thing
is, be generous.
Americans are the most
generous people in the world.
We give more of our time
and money than people
in any other country do
and it's great to see more
and more young people
choosing to volunteer
and join service organizations,
both in college and
after graduation.
One of the things that I've been
most proud of in New York City,
is how we reach out, reach in
our own pocket for the money
to do so, we reach
out and help those
who are less fortunate
than the rest of us.
In New York City, for example,
about 1 in every 3500
people live on the streets.
If you do the math with 8 odd
million people, it's 2500 people
that sleep on the
subways or under bridges
and virtually every
one we interface with,
we try to bring them
into shelters,
we try to give them counseling.
But they have either
psychological
or addiction problems and they
just don't want to go near us.
And the question is, how
does that stack up compared
to other cities in this country.
We're 1 out of every 3500.
LA is 1 out of every 96.
And the rest of this country
is somewhere in the middle.
The bottom line is, New
Yorkers are generous,
they reach into their
pockets and we have programs
to really help people rather
than just talk about it.
Now when I got out of college,
my generation didn't really
have a choice about service.
In those days we had the Vietnam
War and there was a draft
and everybody had to go.
Nobody went to Canada or
burned their draft card.
I don't care what they
say in the play, Hair.
The bottom line is, you
were called, you had to go.
And at the last minute, I hadn't
even bothered to look for a job
when I was getting out
of college, but it turned
out that my flat feet
kept me out of the Army.
Who knew? And so I spent
my time doing other things
in this country.
And I think no matter whether
we're fighting a conflict
in Vietnam or in Iraq or
Afghanistan, when you talk
about service, the
first group of people
that earn my admiration are
those in our all volunteer Army
and Navy and Marine Corps
and Coast Guard, Air Force,
that are out there
protecting us.
Particularly on college
campuses, where you say things
that you probably won't say
later on when you're an adult
and working for a living.
But when you, we have a freedom
today on our college campuses,
that is being paid for by other
people the age of the students
on college campuses, who
dedicated their lives,
put their lives at risk
even, to go overseas
and fight this country's
battles.
They've been doing it for the
last 235 years and every once
in a while on college campuses
it becomes fashionable to picket
against the war, picket
whatever war it happens to be,
picket against the troops.
You can picket against
the war, but the troops
that we send over,
whether they're drafted
or their volunteers,
those are the people
that are giving us
the right to picket
and we should never forget that.
When you get out of school, if
you want to help your community
or even while you are in school,
there are plenty
of ways to do it.
You can tutor a kid, you
can help plant a tree,
you can volunteer at a
hospital, you could spend time
in a developing country.
God knows places like Haiti
need volunteers to come in
and to help mitigate
this terrible tragedy
that the world has
basically walked away from.
There are lots of ways to help.
In New York City, we've
tried to formalize it.
We've started something
called NYC Service.
We hired a woman to run it.
I've got the Rockefeller
Foundation and then
for the first round and
then my foundation along
with the Rockefeller Foundation,
has given grants to other cities
around the country,
can hire somebody
to coordinate their
volunteer efforts.
And what we're trying to do is
to answer President Obama's call
for a new era or service and
actually match up volunteers
with organizations
that need them.
Matching skill sets
or abilities.
Some of the things we've done
in New York is we've
trained 51,000 I think it is,
New Yorkers, in CPR.
We've administered
160,000 H1N1 vaccinations.
We've sent 3 or 4000
care packages
to New Yorker's serving
in Afghan and Iraq.
We've painted something like
225,000 square feet of rooftops,
that reflect the
Sun and save energy.
We've formed an organization
to convince other
cities to follow along.
It's called Cities of Service.
You can go on the web and
find out some more information
about it if you are interested.
And I know there are lots of
service opportunities here
at Dartmouth and I would
encourage all of you
to take advantage of it.
Not only will it put a smile
on your face as you turn
out the light and the last
glimpse in the mirror,
I can just tell you, it is
great for meeting people
and when you get out
into the business world,
one of the things you will
find is that a great deal
of the networking and
contacts that you make,
are built around philanthropy.
In New York City, it
is the major thing
that pulls people together.
You look at a board of a
charity and you will see people
from all economic
groups, all ethnicities,
all parts of the city,
all economic groups,
working together.
And it helps your business,
it makes you feel better
and it can also help your
social life incidentally.
So I would urge you to do that.
And the final element of the
B Plan and this goes back
to my Boy Scout days
is, be prepared.
I know what you're thinking.
You're already prepared.
You've mapped out the
rest of your life,
the rest of your education,
post graduate work, residences,
fellowships, clerkships
and you're going
to have a long, meaningful
career.
You have all of your
plans already laid down.
That's not the preparation
I am talking about.
Because let me tell you, the
likelihood of you winding
up ten years from now doing
what you think you're going
to be doing ten years from now,
is probably less than 1 in 10.
The truth of the matter is,
you don't know what
opportunities are going
to be presented to you.
You don't know where
you're going to succeed
and where you're going to fail.
The careers that you wind
up in are invariably going
to be very different.
So what I would do is I
would focus on how I interact
with people, how I
approach problems.
I would get involved
in government.
If you want to go
into public service,
I would recommend you
first become a billionaire,
but that's another issue.
[ laughter ]
You're going to spend your
entire life doing something
different than what you think.
And the good news is
that Dartmouth is
preparing you for that.
Because while you think
they're individual subjects,
what they're really teaching you
to do is to think and to reason
and to build relationships
and that's what's
going to carry you on.
Now if this was a
commencement speech,
I'd add a few other things.
Be kind a courteous and
responsible and loyal and all
of those kinds of things,
but I guess the thing
that I really want to tell you
is, don't forget to have fun.
President Kim is not going
to like me for saying that,
but I remember having
nothing but fun in college.
I'm not sure I ever
learned anything.
As a matter of fact,
my academic record,
which I am very proud of, is
that I always made the top half
of the class possible.
[ laughter ]
You can tell about how smart a
group is when you use that joke
and then the time
from when you finish
until they start laughing.
It was sort of a C+ I'll say.
[ laughter ]
You've made it through the
winter having a great time here.
Diana tells me that this
is a great party school.
She said all she did was ski.
I'm not sure I believe that.
I think she probably
did more than that.
Drank a lot and probably
smoked a lot and all
of that sort of stuff.
[ laughter ]
But, you're getting
a great education.
Use it well.
Thank you for having me.
I would urge all of you, when
you are looking for a career
and if you can find a place,
if you have some choice
in the location,
pick New York City.
It is the most wonderful
city in the world.
It's the most diverse city
and it is a meritocracy.
It's not an easy
city to live in,
but it's a fun city to live in.
And it's, if you
want to be a big fish
in a big pond, it's
the big apple.
Thank you very much.
[ applause ]
>> President Kim: So, we have
people collecting questions,
but I get to ask
the first one so.
>> Mayor Bloomberg: OK.
>> President Kim: Mayor
I asked you a form
of this the first time we met,
but you know, I've been working
on social goals for most
of the last 25 years.
Health care and health care
in developing countries.
And the thing that I
notice is that when it comes
to our most important social
goals, health, social welfare,
education, that not only
do we often execute poorly,
but we seem to tolerate
poor execution,
sometimes even celebrate
poor execution.
That being on the
social side means
that it's OK to not
meet budgets.
And you have somehow made the
transition, so that working
in an environment where if
you execute poorly you're
out of business, you've
brought that sense
to the city government.
And so, I talk a lot here
at Dartmouth about needing
to build a science of
execution around social goals.
When you don't have market
forces disciplining poor
execution, you've got to find
out other ways to make sure
that the execution happens.
How have you done that?
>> Mayor Bloomberg: Well
accountability is everything.
We tend to, for example in
government, start programs
and we do the reverse of
what you do in business.
In business, if a product
line is doing well,
you move your resources
into that.
In government, we move resources
from programs that work
to programs that don't work.
Because nobody stands
up and screams for more
for the good programs, they
only scream for those programs
that are abject failures.
And it's because
the people who work
in those programs want
to keep their jobs.
And typically, government turns
around and changes the equation
and starts working
for the people
who deliver the service
rather than the people
to whom the service
is being delivered.
For example, public education in
this country, is generally run
for the people that work
in public education.
Teachers, principles,
custodians, whatever
and not for the students.
And you say, well
how can that be?
The bottom line is, legislators
want to get re-elected
and the teachers vote
and the students don't.
And you say, well what
about the parents?
You meet people all the time.
And you say, is your kid
going to a good school?
Oh yes, my child is
going to a great school.
OK lady, how do you know?
The teacher told me
it was a great school.
But lady, your kid can't read.
Well, but I like the teacher.
And that's unfortunately
what happens.
Public education is a
disaster in this country.
We have far and away the
best graduate education,
after high school, under
graduate and graduate school,
but we have a dismal,
we're way down in the list
of how good public schools
are throughout the world.
In a world where it's more
global and more competitive,
half the people in this
country are creationalists.
I don't know what kind
of a doctor you go
to if you're a creationalist,
but how could you go to somebody
that doesn't believe in science?
How can you teach kids that
science doesn't matter?
And yet we do that.
And there's nobody
screaming for it other
than in certain pockets.
People like the Gates
Foundation,
have given away a lot of money,
Eli Broad,
to try to help public education
and we've made some big progress
in our city, but there's
still a whole bunch
of New York City elected
officials, who don't want
to improve the public schools.
As a matter of fact, we're
trying to close 19 schools
and we've been sued
by some organizations
that represent poor
minorities in our city,
where these schools are failing
their kids and they're suing
to have us keep the
schools open.
It's counterintuitive,
but it all gets back
to how much the pressure groups
that can influence elected
official's campaigns.
And so the NRA, which is
totally unreasonable on guns,
it scares all the elected
officials because they say,
if we don't vote the
way we want you to vote,
we will get your
opponent elected
and the elected official
says hey,
this is the only way
I can feed my family.
So it all comes down
to that I think.
We're devoting our
resources in the wrong ways,
that's why we won't
focus on immigration,
tort reform, health care.
We passed a health care bill
that does absolutely nothing
to fix the big health care
problems in this country.
It is just a disgrace.
The President, in all fairness,
started out by pointing
out what the big problems
were, but then turned it
over to congress, which didn't
pay any attention to any
of those big problems and
just created another program
that is going to cost a lot of
money and it's, it's really sad.
Because they say they've
insured or provided coverage
for another 45 million people,
except there's no doctors
for 45 million more people.
And unless they fix immigration
and let people who come here
for medical education stay here,
those people are just
going to do the same thing.
They're going to have to
go to the emergency rooms
where they've been,
except that now it's going
to cost a lot more money.
>> President Kim: You take a
fundamentally different approach
though Mayor Bloomberg.
You, you know, you set
incentives in your company.
Are you setting incentives in
the government in the right way?
Can you just do things
by proclamation?
Is it policy change?
>> Mayor Bloomberg:
Well, government is, has,
we have a democracy and I
think what's interesting is
that people in business
think that in government,
nobody works very
hard and innovates.
And I can only tell
you that is not true.
We have an awful lot
of hard working people
who really are very creative,
who could make a lot more money
in the private sector,
but choose not to.
People in government think in
business you snap your fingers
and everybody jumps and
that is not true either.
What we've tried to do
is to set some goals out
and measure our progress
towards those goals,
but it is very disappointing.
We have a list of
every single thing
that we promised during the
first time I ran for office,
during the campaign and the
second time, four years later
and the third time,
four years after that.
And every year we update
the list and we say
which things are finished and
which things we're working on
and which things
we want to get to
but so far we don't have the
money or we're tied up in court
or we just don't have the
resources in terms of people
and then which things
are no longer needed
or turned out to be dumb ideas.
And you know exactly what
the press focuses on.
It's only that fourth category.
And in the end, the
press, if they won't write
about the accomplishments that
any part of government does,
it's harder to get the
resources for those things.
But nevertheless,
we've set our targets
and we're going to
blindly push on.
And I think that if you
and my advice to anybody
when they get elected is,
do the tough things first
and then you have time
to show that they work
and if you can show that
you've had some successes,
then you can do two things.
One you'll have the courage
internally and the support
to do more and two, you'll be
able to attract great people.
And that is true for
businesses or for government.
I'll give you a good example.
In New York City, when
I came into office,
we have in our school system,
1 million 100,000 kids.
We have 80,000 teachers.
Back in 2002, we had
12,000 teachers quit
or retire each year.
That's 15% turnover.
You cannot run anything
with a 15% turnover.
It's a disaster.
Just too many comings
and goings.
And incidentally, we could not
replace those 12,000 people
with certified teachers.
We just couldn't get them.
Today, something like 5000
quit or retire each year,
down from 12,000 and we have
between 50 and 60,000 applicants
from across the country,
to fill those 5000 slots.
Why? Because people getting
out of school that want
to make a difference, want
to go where there is change
and we're focusing on really
doing the tough things
and that's New York City
with our education department
and so they want
to be part of that.
They want to go to a place
that's fun and challenging.
That's New York.
And they want to go to
a place that's safe.
And so low crime really
is one of the things
that lets us attract
great people.
But we get people who could
make an awful lot more money
around the world, who have
world class reputations,
who want to come to be part of
something because they think
that we're really
making a difference.
Why are we making a difference?
Because they've seen
us do it in the past,
so they believe it
for the future.
>> President Kim: A question
from the audience is
about the education system.
What were your policy and
practical considerations
in deciding to appoint the
school board superintendent
rather than have
him or her elected?
What have been the benefits
and challenges of a new system?
>> Mayor Bloomberg: Well
the skills to get elected,
are different than
the skills to serve.
And I'm not suggesting we
shouldn't have democracy,
but there is something
to be said
for a democracy like
Singapore's.
In Singapore, you can't stand
for election unless you
have certain credentials.
You have to have run
something and have a PhD
and published and done this.
New York Times would
say, and you also have
to be the son of
the last leader.
But that's another issue.
Having qualifications
to run for office,
some people would
argue, is not democratic.
Everybody who's a citizen should
be able to apply, put themselves
in front of the voters.
Of course then we have
parties that prevent that.
But the question is, do you
really want to go and elect,
I'll give you a good
example, judges.
Why do you think that the
skills to go out and campaign,
have anything to do with the
skills to be a good judge?
Or the skills to get elected
to be any, have anything to do
with being a good
schools chancellor?
As a matter of fact, people
always say, well you have
to involve the parents.
Parents do have a
real responsibility.
They have the children
most of the time.
Teachers have the children
for maybe five hours a day,
five days a week, twenty
six weeks in a year.
The parents have them
all the rest of the time.
But the skills in the
classroom are very different
than the skills in the home.
And what you're supposed
to teach
in the classroom
is very different
than what you're supposed
to teach in the home.
And I don't think that if
you put the parents in charge
of the school system,
you will get the kind
of educational system you want.
You want somebody
who understands what the
world is going to require
of these children when
they grow up and how
to marshal the best science in
terms of teaching and to attract
and manage the people who
can provide that service
and that's a management
skill that has nothing to do
with either being a parent
or running for office.
I would argue that
having a mayor
for example, in a city, is fine.
You can argue that you
should have a legislature
to along with it.
I think a lot of the purists
would say that's a check
and balance on the mayor.
But if you look at places where
there are strong legislatures,
for example, California,
Illinois, New Jersey, New York,
you will find disasters
at the state level
where they have strong
legislatures.
As a matter of fact, take
a look at Washington.
We have, the president
can propose,
the president can conjole
and maybe influence,
but it's congress
that writes the laws
and allocates the money.
Are you happy with what
they've been doing?
The public doesn't seem to be.
And so I would argue, now
keep in mind as an executive,
I have a vested interest in
doing this, but I would argue
that the publics safeguard
is every four years
at the ballot box and
you should pick somebody
who you think is very smart and
ride with them for the period
and the extent that you
have to allocate powers
between the executive branch
and the legislative branch.
Far and away, you
should give more powers
to the executive branch
if you want progress.
I feel the same way
about the governance
of the schools, just
in case you.
[ laughter ]
>> President Kim: Wonderful idea.
Wonderful idea.
[ laughter ]
>> Mayor Bloomberg: The
faculty here would love it.
>> President Kim: Great idea.
This is a wonderful question
from one of our students.
I have recently been bold,
asking the hard questions
and am now spurned by the
few who are threatened.
How do you yourself bounce
back from the fallout
of asking the hard questions?
The obstacles?
[Inaudible].
>> Mayor Bloomberg: Well first
thing, when they're not looking,
just walk up and cold-cock them.
[ laughter ]
And you could also let the air
out of the tires of their car
and you know, some
things like that.
I wouldn't suggest anything
more serious than that.
You know, to some extent you're
known by the enemies you have.
To some extent you have to
look in a mirror and say,
I know it's not popular, but
I know I'm doing what's right.
Sometimes you just
have to do things
that you don't think is
in your own interest.
I'll tell you a story.
I just thought about it.
The first day I ever campaigned
was back in the summer of 2001.
I decided to run for mayor
and I went to Staten Island
on this boardwalk
with somebody else
and I had never before walked up
to total strangers and said, hi,
I'm Mike Bloomberg
and it does take,
it's not a natural thing to do.
And it does take a long time.
After eight and a half
years of waving and parades
and shaking hands of everybody
on the street and every cop
and firefighter and
everybody on the subway
in the morning, you
get used to it.
But it's just not
a natural thing.
Anyways, this nice little
old lady, about this tall,
gray hair, looks up at me
adoringly and she said,
oh I'm so glad you're running
for office and I'm going to vote
for you and all of my friends
are going to vote for you.
And as a matter of fact, the guy
you're running against is going
to drop out because he'll
realize it is hopeless to run
against you and you
will be a great mayor.
And I'm thinking,
hey this is great.
You know, I'm going to get
this all over in one day.
And then she looked up to me,
very adoringly and she said,
and I'm so glad you're pro-life.
Now I happen to be so
adamantly pro-choice
that I don't' even
want to talk about it.
I am NARAL's
biggest supporter regardless,
regardless.
It doesn't matter.
It's what I believe.
OK? And for an instant I
thought, what do you say.
Here is a potential voter,
the first one I've talked to,
like to get elected, think
I could do a good job
if I did get elected.
Do you obfuscate, do
you change the subject,
do you speak in double speak?
That's what most
elected officials do.
If you go back and look
when they were running
and said I thought
they promised me X
and in fact they're doing Y,
you'll see that they
have a skill
that lets you say something
that everybody believes,
everybody hears what
they want to hear.
I voted for the war,
but not to fund it.
I'm pro-choice, but
not for women.
[ laughter ]
It's that kind of and
congress does it all the time.
They want to show that
they're tough on corruption,
so they pass a law that's
tough on corruption,
but there's a provision where
every city that doesn't want
to enforce the law
can just sign a piece
of paper and waiver out of it.
And we don't go back and
ask the follow up question.
What's the effect
of what you've done?
Or they pass a law, well there's
a reason why congress passes
2000 page bills.
That was the financial
bill they passed yesterday
or the health care bill.
It's because nobody
can possibly read it.
And so they can go back
to their constituencies,
no matter what their
constituencies are
and say, I protected you.
As a matter of face, some very
wise person once said that,
the job of an elected
official is to take money
from the wealthy, votes from the
poor and convince both groups
that they are the only
protection from the other side.
You should listen
to that, it's funny.
[ laughter ]
>> President Kim: Two
questions that are linked.
The first is from one of
our business students.
As a recent arrival from
the UK, I'd be interested
in hearing your perspective
on the financial
regulatory form passed
by congress yesterday is likely
to impact the relative
competitiveness of New York
and London, as financial
centers.
And related to that, what
happened with Labron?
[ laughter ]
>> Mayor Bloomberg:
The only time.
[ applause ]
The only time Lebron James ever
came up was, in a serious ways,
was when we looked at what
the taxes were on his salary
between New York City
state and Miami, Florida.
State and city taxes.
Dramatically different.
I don't know that that was
one of the differences,
but the amount of money
he's going to take home
in Florida is a lot greater
than it would be in New York.
So people would think
you can keep taxing,
there's a good example,
you cannot.
[ laughter ]
The only time anybody
ever yelled at me
on the subway was one guy
screamed at me, fix the Nicks.
I can do a lot of things,
but I can't do that.
[ laughter ]
And what's more, I
grew up in Boston.
I was a Celtic's fan.
[ cheering ]
[ applause ]
Thanks. It doesn't earn me
a lot of points when I go
to a Nick's game, but that's
neither here nor there.
In terms of competitiveness,
you can move from one place
to another, but it's not easy.
You can move for one
reason, but that doesn't mean
that there isn't another reason
that would consent
you not to move.
London or the UK, just passed
a very stiff higher tax,
temporary.
And if you believe that, I've
got a bridge I want to sell you.
So the tax incentives at the
moment would favor New York.
Regulation here, it
all is a question
of what the regulations
are actually,
which ones are implemented.
The way this bill is written,
congress has some broad ideas
and then the SCC and the
treasury and the fed,
have to write the actual
things that you've got to do.
That's where all the lobbyists
come in and if you want to know,
will they really change
things, just remember
that virtually every part
of our financial industry
has some oversight
by different committees
in congress.
And the reason I point that
out is, the people that are
on those committees, get the
funding for their campaigns
so that they can stay in
office and feed their families
from the industries
that they regulate.
So if you think they are going
to kill the golden goose,
you don't understand government.
>> President Kim: One question
was what is the most important
problem in the country today
and how would you
go about fixing it.
>> Mayor Bloomberg:
Well I would argue
that immigration longer term
is that and public education.
I think the president really
deserves a lot of credit.
He and his education
secretary, Arnie Duncan,
to try to do something
about public education.
Although you can see congress
trying to water it down.
When you have a program that
distributes monies based
on states or localities doing
things, there's an awful lot
of states or localities that
don't want to do those things,
but they want their
share of the money.
And the way congress works is
whether it's homeland security
money or education funds or
agriculture or anything else,
everybody gets something.
That's the ways they
put together a coalition
to pass the laws.
And so, New York City may
be the biggest target.
Every time you catch a
terrorist, they've got a map
of New York City and not of
a corn field in Nebraska.
But let me tell you,
Nebraska gets it's share
of homeland security monies
just like everybody else.
We are unwilling to
really focus on education.
We are unwilling to really
focus on immigration.
What I would do is first I
would try to get the president
to do this so far
unsuccessfully, I would say,
go to congress and say, the
one immigration thing I want
to do right now is we'll pass a
law that will let anybody come
to this country,
if they're willing
to start a small business and
employ ten Americans and as long
as you keep employing
ten or more Americans,
you can keep your green card.
That would go towards two
things that people want.
One, bringing diversity to the
business community and two,
getting jobs for people
and congress probably
would listen to that.
Because they are
concerned about jobs.
They get beaten up for not
enough jobs all the time.
That would probably work.
I think anything else in
immigration, certainly nothing
until after November and
I'm skeptical that after
that this country
has the courage to go
into pass comprehensive
immigration reform.
We are desperate for the
doctors and lawyers and dentists
and scientists and
educators that we need
to improve our country to
create the jobs and yet,
I think the reality is
everybody is talking
about something different
with education reform.
Because where I say
we should bring
in those people we need for,
whether it's for agriculture
or for science or whatever,
there's an awful lot of people
that view education,
immigration reform
as bringing in their relatives.
And if we ever did get
immigration reform,
I think that we probably would
not allocate very many people
for those, very many visa's for
those that we actually need.
It is a very big problem.
>> President Kim: Right.
So again, let me read this
verbatim, it's important.
Being a New Yorker
and a proud supporter
of Mayor Mike Bloomberg,
when will you seriously
consider making a run
for the white house?
You would be great.
We need you and I'd work my
tail off to get you there.
>> Mayor Bloomberg: Well thank
you Diana, for that question.
[ laughter ]
[ applause ]
I am, number one I am
gainfully employed.
I've made a commitment
for the next 1263 days,
but who's counting.
And I, mayors don't go
on to other offices.
People would say higher
office, but I would argue
that perhaps the best political
job and the best chance
to individually change
society is being a mayor,
particularly of a big city.
Arguably being the mayor
of New York is the best
political job in the world.
We have our own foreign policy,
I've got the eighth
biggest army in the NYPD.
We've got a budget that's
bigger than most country's GNP.
We've got more people that
live in New York than live
in the second largest city in
the country they came from.
So New York is really different.
But mayors have to, unlike in my
examples of pro-choice but not
for women, mayors have to
explicitly say yes or no and be
on the record and then
have the press follow it
and deliver the service
the next day,
not just promise the service.
And you don't make
friends by doing that.
I am and every one
of my positions cuts
out half the country.
So I am pro-choice, I'm pro gay
rights, I'm pro immigration,
I'm against guns, I
believe in Darwin.
It's down to Diana,
my mother and me left
and I'm not sure
about my mother.
[ laughter ]
So there's not a chance
that you could get elected
and I have a commitment
to finish out this term.
So if drafted, I won't run
unless I really thought you had
a chance to win.
[ laughter ]
Once again, you've got
to think guys, come on.
No, no is the answer
and if the press is
in the back, it's not true.
I'm not running.
Make that clear.
[ laughter ]
>> President Kim: Beyond painting
rooftops and building parks,
what environmental or clean
energy related programs is New
York City working on and would
they work in other cities?
>> Mayor Bloomberg: Yes, sure
they would work in other cities.
If you're interested
you can go on the web.
Plan wise C has 127
different points.
One of them are working
with Bette Midler
to plant a million trees.
Trees clean the air and
improve property values.
Painting roofs.
We have changed our
building code,
so there's a real incentive
to upgrade your boiler
and your air conditioner.
We have worked very hard
to change the city's fleet
of vehicles and we
have tens of thousands
of vehicles in our city.
We have 300,000 employees.
We have a lot of police cars and
garbage trucks and fire trucks
and all of the inspectors
that go around have
to have their own cars.
We've gone to hybrids for
an awful lot of those.
We've made a commitment
to by the year 2017,
reduce our greenhouse gases for
city facilities and city cars,
by 30% and the overall
objective is
to reduce the whole
city by 2030.
But I've never asked
anybody to do something
that I'm not willing to do.
So we have the commitment
to get it done.
I'll only be in office
until 2013,
but we'll have made a big
start on all of these programs
and you should go on the web
and look at NYC, Plan NYC
and it's fascinating that
kinds of things that you can do
to reduce consumption,
congestion pricing.
We tried to do our state
legislature wouldn't go along
with that.
But we certainly have
to move more people
over to mass transit.
It's interesting, New York
City is exactly reverse
of virtually every other city.
Most cities, 80% of
the pollution comes
from transportation
and 20% from buildings.
But because so many people
from New York City walk
or take mass transit,
in our city it's 20%
from transportation
and 80% from buildings.
So a lot of programs that
make buildings more efficient
in terms of using less energy
or wasting less energy,
are high on the list and
will have a very big impact.
>> President Kim: So, in
closing, Mayor Bloomberg,
you've told our students
that they should party a lot,
swim in the Connecticut.
>> Mayor Bloomberg:
Toga, toga, toga, toga.
>> President Kim:
Toga, toga, toga.
[ laughter ]
But, let me let you redeem
yourself by with this question.
[ laughter ]
We talk a lot and we've
been talking a lot
about particular habits of
the mind, you mentioned it,
independence, innovation,
persistence.
What is your, one of
the habits of your mind?
Since a persistent habit
that you've cultivated
over the last years
of your career,
that you think has been
most important to you
and what direct advice would
you give these students in terms
of habits that they should,
they should cultivate?
>> Mayor Bloomberg: I went
to Hopkins to study physics
and it turned out there
was a German requirement.
So after 30 days I
became an engineer
where there was no
language requirement.
And I think looking back,
an engineering background was
perhaps the transformative thing
in my life.
Because, in science and it would
have worked if I'd have stayed
as a physicist too, I suppose.
In science you have to be
able to look in a mirror
and answer the question.
You can't just say something and
believe it, you have to be able
to show people that
you're right.
The essence of science is
that somebody else independently
can verify what you claim
you saw.
And that discipline of not just
taking people's word for it
or not just automatically
falling
into what's generally accepted,
has forced me to step back
and say why and to question.
And if you question
why we're doing things,
I think you'll find yourself
targeting your energies much
more efficiently,
appropriately and much more,
in a much more satisfying way.
So if somebody says, well
this works, well that may be
but you know, stop and think.
Does it make any
common sense to you?
Listen to what people
are telling you to do.
Think about what they
say in the newspaper.
Does it make any sense?
Do you want to be part of it?
Could you do it better?
So it's that mental
discipline of questioning,
which I guess is the scientific
method you could call it.
There was a great story,
there was a great letter
to the editor, I think it
was the chairman's letter
in the Smithsonian Magazine
about five or six years ago,
where the chairman
of the Smithsonian wrote a
letter saying he had a lot
of friends who had studied
liberal arts, who were proud
of the fact that
they knew nothing
about science and
bragged about it.
But he had other friends who had
graduate degrees in the sciences
and they never bragged about
their lack of knowledge
of Shakespeare and I've
always thought, that tells you
that the sciences force you in a
way to the discipline forces you
in a ways to really reflect,
to look at it and make sure
that you want to go
in that direction
and that you understand
the implications of it.
And I guess in addition to that,
it's just, it isn't not caring,
it's just being confident enough
in yourself that gets back
to your question, the guy that
said I take on popular positions
and nobody likes me for it.
The question is not that
they like you for it,
the question is do
you think it's right.
It is great to be
loved by everyone
but the thing that's
most important is
that you respect yourself.
I'm not suggesting you go out
and yell and scream at others
and deliberately try to provoke.
Sometimes discretion does
make sense to not say things.
Because you don't want
to hurt other people
and you could respect their
views or not respect their views
but they do have a
right to their views.
I'm getting tied up in New York.
There's a group that
wants to build a mosque,
replace an old building two
blocks from ground zero.
And there are some
people that think
that this should be prohibited
and that we should investigate
where the monies that they
hope to raise will come from
and to have some restrictions
on what they can
preach in the mosque.
And I have said so many times
I'm getting tired of it,
not winning a lot of
friends in doing so,
but I just think it is
the most outrageous thing
that anybody could suggest.
Here we have 9-11, the actual
site where some people felt
that our freedoms to practice
our religion were so abhorrent
to them that they were willing
to take 3000 people
and their own lives.
If there's any place
that we should be proud
to show the world that we are an
open country and an open city,
if somebody wants to
practice their religion,
whatever that religion is, they
should have the right to do it.
And I happen to think this
is a very appropriate place
for somebody who wants
to build a mosque.
Because it tells the world
that America and New York City,
which is what I'm
responsible for,
really believes in
what we preach.
We all say freedom of religion.
Well it's not just freedom of
your religion, it's freedom
of everybody's religion.
And I don't think this
country wants to go
in a direction of questioning.
[ applause ]
A lot of people that didn't
applaud you'll notice.
I happen to feel very
strongly that those values
that I was taught in Civics 101,
102, that my parents taught me,
if you want freedoms, you've got
to give other people
their freedoms
and this is a perfect example
of standing up and those people
that died on 9-11 actually
died so that we can
and the people I talked about
going overseas and fighting
and dying for us,
they're doing that so
that we can practice our
religion and if you care
about religion, you
should make sure
that the government doesn't
get involved in religion.
>> President Kim: Mayor
Bloomberg, thank you so much.
You know, the impotence for this
lecture series came from one
of our presidents who in
1946, in August of 1946,
he was the director
of public relations
in the state department, when
nuclear weapons were dropped
over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
That month he was announced
as the next president
of Dartmouth College.
So when he came here he said
on his very first convocation,
to all the students.
The world's troubles
are your troubles,
but there's nothing wrong with
the world that can't be fixed
by better human beings.
And he set a tone for
us and that's the tone
that I've tried to
recreate here.
Which is, we here at
Dartmouth are in the business
of building those
better human beings
who will tackle those problems
that you've tackled
so effectively.
You honor us by being the
first speaker in this series.
I think you've set a tone
for us and on July 29 th,
I will be giving the second
lecture in the series,
where we're trying to
view science in a way
that I think you'd like.
We're trying to understand,
what is the science of learning
for people from 18
to 22 and older.
And how can we bring that
to Dartmouth College?
For example, we know
that physics lectures often
aren't very effective,
but we still do them.
It's part of our habit and
there are all kinds of ways
of building habits of the mind
like persistence and innovation
and creativity, that
science has taught us how
to take those forward.
So you're a great example of
how you've used your habits
of the mind in so many wonderful
ways and I just want to thank,
join, get the represent the
entire Dartmouth community
and thank you for coming.
[ applause ]
>> Mayor Bloomberg:
Thank you very much.
Thank you.