Former U.S. president Bill Clinton spoke eloquently on a topic close to the heart of The Vancouver Board of Trade at The Board’s PACIFIC ECONOMIC FORUM™ on Thursday – 21st century citizenship.
Receiving several standing ovations as he addressed a sold-out, 1,800 audience, Clinton said change for the good of common humanity can come about through Giving, also the title of his new book. “It has to be a part of 21st century citizenship,” Clinton said, explaining every civilized society is like a three-legged stool with the private sector, government and private citizens all living up to the responsibility of playing their part.
“A three-legged stool as a strong society requires not just a market economy that works, a government that works, but a civil society that works in which we all feel, whatever our station, that that is a part of citizenship just as much as voting is. Just as much as we are legally obligated to pay our taxes, we should feel personally obligated to find some way to be citizens in giving.”
And the private sector can play a major role while actually improving its bottom line in the process. “Should business people who have enjoyed a certain amount of success give some of their own time or money ?” Clinton asked. “I think so… And is that a good thing to do over the long run for the business environment? Absolutely.”
Clinton’s work with drugs for AIDS illustrated his point. The Clinton Foundation continues to encourage business to solve some of the world’s most serious problems by using a different method of making money without stifling the profit motive.
When Clinton first embarked on his AIDS work, 6 million poor people needed treatment with only 200,000 receiving the appropriate drugs. The pharmaceutical companies were selling the drugs like a jewelry store, using a low-volume, high profit margin model which should have been based on the high-volume, low profit margin of a grocery store. In the end, working with governments and stakeholders to increase demand, the Clinton Foundation managed to cut the cost of adult generic drugs from $500 to $120, children’s drugs from $600 to $60 – “a fall of 90 per cent in three years.” And the results for the pharmaceutical companies? According to Clinton, they are going to be making more money at $60 than $600.
So applying a business model to world problems can produce solutions. “If you’re running a business, you would be thinking about this stuff all the time,” Clinton said. “These are the kind of things that are always done in the private sector if you’re just doing private sector work, but in the giving sector, are almost never done.”
Clinton also advocated using a business model for tackling energy conservation, creating greater volume at lower unit cost for products such as LED lighting for parking lots using 10 per cent of regular energy, and developing new, efficient technology. “It’s AIDS drugs all over again, except this time we’re going to actually be creating untold numbers of jobs to do all this work,” he said.
In addition, these tried and tested private-sector models with predictable outcomes also inspire business leaders to participate in the common good, like Frank Giustra, president of the Radcliffe Foundation, who donated $100 million and half of his income for the rest of his life on launching the Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative last June. “There’s never been a model that would command the confidence of business people before,” Clinton noted.
But although Vancouver is “a model of what the 21st century can be,” we have to look at the bigger, global picture and ask ourselves why there are still conflicts elsewhere in the world.
“It won’t be rocket science,” Clinton answered his own question. “Where people believe their common humanity is more important than their interesting differences, they do better. Where people accept the scientific realities of the challenges we face and look for innovative ways to create a free market that addresses our social challenges and makes profit by dealing with our environmental challenges instead of running away from them, they do better.” Clinton gave the example of Denmark’s innovations to increase its economy by 50 per cent while energy consumption remains static. “And guess what? Their wages are rising and inequality is going down.”
The U.K. is also going to beat its Kyoto target two years early in 2010 by creating a whole industry to reduce energy consumption. “And all the new jobs and new businesses that have been created - they changed the way people make money. They didn’t ask people not to make money.”
The general notion of giving and improving society, the responsibility of both individuals and corporations, is all tied up with what Clinton sees as the three main challenges facing the world – promoting equality in income, education and health care; dealing with climate change and sustainability, and dealing with a modern-day identity crises as the world becomes smaller but conflict and terrorism continues.
“We have created an interdependent environment for ourselves in which we cannot escape each other… We can’t claim the benefits of interdependence without facing the risks.”
Clinton believes the risks can be minimized through actions that reduce equality, slow climate change and “build a community based on our common humanity or aggravate the identity conflicts which bedevil the modern world.” And giving plays a large part. It is essential to strive to build a good society in our own countries, with healthy, free-market economies, effective government, and “a vigorous private sector of citizen servants who are involved in the giving business because it is morally right, because it is enjoyable, because you can make a difference and because, frankly, it is essential to make the 21st century work well.”
Yet you don’t have to be wealthy to do it. During his talk, Clinton mentioned the website mycommitment.org as a portal for non-governmental groups looking for commitment. During the last month alone, 75,000 people have committed half-a-million dollars in tiny contributions along with hours of volunteer time where needed. “This is something we can all do,” he concluded. “The real thing is – you’ll be happier if you do it!”
Following a Q&A session, Board of Trade chairman Henry Lee presented President Clinton with a sculpture carved by Board sculptor-in-residence, George Pratt. The Kootenay marble Kermode bear, an animal unique to British Columbia, held a jade salmon. Pratt sent the message: “May the serenity of the spirit of this noble creature be with you in all your endeavours.”
Clinton recalled a previous gift carved by Pratt and commissioned by then Board of Trade chairman David McLean – a humpback whale, presented at the Clinton-Yeltsin summit in Vancouver in 1993. Of all the many gifts he receives, the former president made the point he still has the whale on display.
“I want you to know George Pratt’s humpback whale, which he did for me and Boris Yeltsin so long ago, was in the yellow oval room, the formal receiving room for state occasions in the White House,” he said. “And I saw it every single day for eight years. I kept it the whole time. And it’s now in the library where other people get a chance to see it. So I’m glad to have a replacement. Thank you very much. It’s beautiful. Thank you.”
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