Scripts
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ladies and gentlemen the vice president
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of the United States JD
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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Vance good morning everybody how we
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doing it’s uh it’s great to be here
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thanks to uh to everybody for having me
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today in particular Ben and Mark and I
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just got to say hello to Ben um and
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Catherine backstage but I know I know
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apparently Mark has the flu right now so
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Mark wherever you are I think I had the
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same flu like a few weeks ago it sucks
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but uh I’m sure I’m sure you’ll get
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through it and it’s great to to be with
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you all and it’s great to talk about the
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importance of American dynamism and what
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our Administration is going to do to
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support so many of the country’s most
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groundbreaking and compelling companies
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I know that you guys are working hard
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every single day and I think it’s pretty
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good news right that as of a couple of
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months ago you have an Administration
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that’s working with you and facilitating
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your hard work instead of making it
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harder to innovate which is I think what
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the last Administration did though in
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defense of Joe Biden he was asleep most
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of the time I don’t think he totally
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realized what he was doing but uh
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certainly didn’t make it easier his
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administration did not for our
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innovators now as some of you may have
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seen and I talked about this with Ben
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backstage I spoke at a conference in
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Paris last month where my message to a
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group of CEOs informed foreign leaders
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was that we should embrace the future
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headon we shouldn’t be afraid of
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artificial intelligence and that
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particularly for those of us lucky
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enough to be Americans we shouldn’t be
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fearful of productive new technologies
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in fact we should seek to dominate them
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and that’s certainly what this
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Administration wants to accomplish I
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suspect that most of you in this room
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are of like mind and if you’re not I
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don’t know why the hell you’re at the
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American dynamism conference but I I
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received some push back from people who
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are worried about the disruptive effects
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of AI you one journalist suggested the
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speech highlighted the tension between
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the quote techno optimists and the
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populace right of President Trump’s
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Coalition and today I’d like to speak to
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these tensions as a proud member of both
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tribes and let me put it simply while
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this is a well-intentioned concern I I
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think it’s based on a faulty premise
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this idea that Tech forward people and
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the populists are somehow inevitably
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going to come to a loggerheads is wrong
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I think the reality is that in any
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Dynamic Society technology is going to
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advance of course and speaking as a
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Catholic I think back to Pope John Paul
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II’s opening lines of the ENC excuse me
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encyclical uh labor
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maxar quote through work man must earn
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his daily bread and contribute to the
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continual advance of Science and
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Technology and above all to elevating
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unceasingly the cultural and moral level
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of the society within which he lives end
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quote now I quote the Holy Father not
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only because I’m a fan of his but also
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because he rightly understood that in a
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healthy economy technology should be
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something that enhances rather than
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supplants the value of Labor and I think
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there’s too much fear that AI will
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simply replace jobs rather than
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augmenting so many of the things that we
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do now in the 1970s if you go back a
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little ways many feared that the
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automated teller machine what we call
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the ATM would rep Place bank tellers in
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reality the Advent of the ATM made bank
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tellers more productive and you have
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more people today working in customer
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service in the financial sector than you
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had when the ATM was created now they’re
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doing slightly different jobs of course
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yes they’re doing more interesting tasks
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also and importantly they’re making more
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money than they were in the 1970s now
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when we innovate we do sometimes cause
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labor market disruptions that has that
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happens but the history of American
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innovation is that we tend to make
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people more productive and then we
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increase their wages in the process and
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I think all of us believe that’s a good
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thing now after all who would claim that
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man was made less productive by the
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invention of the transistor or the metal
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ath or the steam engine real Innovation
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makes us more productive but it also I
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think dignifies our workers it boosts
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our standard of living it strengthens
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our Workforce and the relative value of
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its labor and As Americans all of us
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should be particularly proud of our
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extraordinary Heritage I think it is
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American heritage of inventing things
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and of our nation’s status to this day
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as the world’s foremost driver of
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research and development but all of this
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the role that technology plays in a
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labor market and whether we greet
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Innovative breakthroughs with excitement
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or with trepidation depends on the
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purpose of our economic system in the
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first place and I think this is where
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the populists have an important point it
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should be no surprise that when we send
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so much of our industrial base to other
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countries we stop making interesting new
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things right here at home look for
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example at ship building now if you go
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back to World War II America constructed
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thousands of so-called Liberty ships to
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carry troops cargo and other things
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building them at a pace of three ships
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every two days three ships every two
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days now we build about five commercial
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ships across an entire year in the
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United States of America and as a result
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the United States today accounts for. 1%
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1/10th of 1% of global ship building
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China on the other hand now makes more
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commercial ships than the rest of the
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world combined in fact one of beijing’s
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state-owned firms built more commercial
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ships just last year than all of America
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has produced since the end of World War
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II so while we Remain the leader in
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technology and Innovation I think there
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are troubling signs on the horizon
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and I raise all this to ask does this
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sound like a regime I’m speaking of
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China that will pass up on the
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opportunity to use AI or any other
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technology to advance their own
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interests and further undermine the
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interests of their Rivals I think the
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answer is obvious and that’s why America
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we’ve got to be Tech forward yes there
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are concerns yes there are risks but we
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have to be leaning into the AI future
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with optimism and hope because I think
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real technological innovation is going
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to make our country stronger so de
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de-industrialization poses risks both to
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our national security and our Workforce
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it’s important because it affects both
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and the net result is dispossession for
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many in this country of any part of the
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productive process and when our
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factories disappear and the jobs in
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those factories go overseas American
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workers are faced not only with
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financial insecurity they’re also faced
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with a profound loss of personal and
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communal identity
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and so to come full circle on this
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tension alleged tension between the
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populace and the Techno Optimus I can
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understand a reaction of skepticism when
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we talk about the Revolutionary
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potential of new invention and
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artificial intelligence and all the
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other incredible technologies that you
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guys are working but I think that that
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tension is a little overstated and so
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I’m want to come back to what’s sort of
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dividing some of the tech Optimus and
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the the populace on our side I think the
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populace when they look at the future
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and when they compare it to what’s
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happened in the past I think a lot of
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them see alienation of workers from
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their jobs from their communities from
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their sense of solidarity you see the
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alienation of people from their sense of
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purpose and importantly they see a
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leadership class that believes welfare
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can replace a job and an application on
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a phone can replace a sense of purpose I
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remember a Silicon Valley dinner uh in
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in particular back when I was in in my
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tech days where my wife and I were
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sitting around talking to some of the
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leaders of of the important technology
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firms of the United States and this is
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probably in 2016 or 2017 and I was
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talking about my real worry that we were
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heading in a direction where America
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could no longer support middle class
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families working on middle class wages
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and importantly that even if you had
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enough economic dynamism to provide the
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wealth to ensure those people could you
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know afford to buy a house and afford
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their food and so forth that even if you
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replace the financial element of their
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jobs you would destroy something that
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was dignified and purposeful about work
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itself and I remember one of the tech
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CEOs who was there that you know CEO you
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would know his name if I mentioned it he
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was the CEO of a of a multi-billion
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dollar company he said well I’m actually
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not worried about the loss of purpose
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when people lose their jobs and I said
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okay well what do you think is going to
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replace that sense of purpose and he
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said uh digital fully immersive
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gaming and then my my wife texted me
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underneath the table and said we have to
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get the hell out of here these people
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are effing
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crazy now I don’t think that of course
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that CEO’s views are representative of
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of of most people in this room but when
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I think about the the a lot of the
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workers based on what they’ve seen in
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the past are very worried about the
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future because Frank their leadership
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has failed to serve them and then I
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think about this from the perspective of
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a lot of the tech optimists I think a
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lot of the tech optimists they see
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overregulation they see stifling
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Innovation I mean you guys are Builders
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they are Builders and while they may
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sympathize with those who lost a job
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they’re much more frustrated that the
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government won’t allow them to build the
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jobs of the future and they know that
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it’s hard as it is to build a business
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in digital media it’s still harder to
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build one in robotics or Life Sciences
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or energy in what we call the world of
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atoms they see a government that makes
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their lives harder and they must trust
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anyone who looks to that government for
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Aid and what I propose is that each
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group our workers the populists on the
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one hand the tech optimists on the other
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have been failed by this government not
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just the government of the last
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Administration but the government in
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some ways of the last 40 years because
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there were two conceits that our
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leadership class had when it came to
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Global ization the first is assuming
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that we can separate the making of
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things from the design of things the
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idea of globalization was that rich
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countries would move further up the
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value chain while the poor countries
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made the simpler things you would open
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an iPhone box and it would say designed
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in copertino California now the
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implication of course is that it would
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be manufactured in shinen or somewhere
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else and yeah some people might lose
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their jobs in manufacturing but they
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could learn to design or to use a very
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popular phrase learn to code but I think
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we got it wrong it turns out that the
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geographies that do the manufacturing
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get awfully good at the designing of
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things there are network effects as you
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all well understand the firms that
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design products work with firms that
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manufacture they share intellectual
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property they share best practices and
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they even sometimes share critical
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employees now we assume that other
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nations would always Trail Us in the
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value chain but it turns out that they
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got better at the low end of the value
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chain they also started catching up on
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the higher end we were squeezed from
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both ends now that was the first conceed
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of globalization I think the second is
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that cheap labor is fundamentally a
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crutch and it’s a crutch that inhibits
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Innovation I might even say that it’s a
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drug that too many American firms got
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addicted to now if you can make a
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product more cheaply it’s far too easy
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to do that rather than to innovate and
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whether we were offshoring factories to
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cheap cheap labor economies or importing
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cheap labor through our immigration sh
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system cheap labor became the drug of
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Western economies and I’d say that if
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you look in nearly every country from
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Canada to the UK that imported large
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amounts of cheap labor you’ve seen
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productivity stagnate I don’t think
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that’s a that’s not a total happen
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stance I think that the connection is
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very direct now one of the debates you
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hear on the minimum wage for instance is
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that increases in the minimum wage Force
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firms to automate so a higher wage at
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McDonald’s means more kiosks and
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whatever your views on the wisdom of the
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minimum wage I’m not going to comment on
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that here companies innovating in the
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absence of cheap labor is a good thing I
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think most of you are not worried about
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getting cheaper and cheaper labor you’re
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worried about innovating about building
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new things about the old formulation of
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technology is doing more with less you
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guys are all trying to do more with less
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every single day and so I I’d ask my
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friends both on the the tech optimist
12:59
side and on the populist side not to see
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the failure of the logic of
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globalization as a failure of innovation
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indeed I’d say that globalization’s
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hunger for cheap labor is is a problem
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precisely because it’s been bad for
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Innovation both our working people our
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populists and our innovators gathered
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here today have the same enemy and the
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solution I believe is American
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innovation cuz in the long run it’s
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technology that increases the the value
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of Labor Innovations like the American
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system and the interchangeable parts
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Revolution it sparked or Fords moving
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assembly line that skyrocketed the
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productivity of our workers that’s how
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American industry became the Envy of the
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world and that’s what I really want to
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talk about today why Innovation is key
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to winning the worldwide manufacturing
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comp competition to giving our workers a
13:51
fair deal and to reclaiming our heritage
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via America’s great industrial comeback
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and I believe that’s what we’re on the
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cusp of a great American industrial
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comeback cuz Innovation is what
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increases wages it’s what protects our
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homelands and I know we have a lot of
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Defense technology uh companies here
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it’s what saves troops lives on the
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battlefield and I know everyone here
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today largely agrees it’s why we have
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some of the greatest in inventors and
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thinkers and energy Precision Machining
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countless critical high value Industries
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just in this room and I think the the
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other thing that unites all of you is
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that you’re Builders and I and I use
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that word deliberty I was very moved by
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Mark’s Manifesto from a few years ago
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about America we are a nation of
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Builders we make things we create things
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each of you came to this Summit not
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because you developed some flash in the
14:46
pan application but because you’re
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building something very real you’re
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raising new factories you’re turning
14:52
profits back into R&D and you’re
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creating new good paying jobs for your
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fellow Americans and this is why I’m
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such huge fans of yours of Ben’s and
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marks and of the entire Endeavor that we
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recognize now in our Administration is
15:06
the time to align our work interests
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with those of all of you it’s time to
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align the interests of our technology
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firms with the interests of the United
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States of America at large now all of
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you in your own ways have answered that
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call after all there’s nothing forcing
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anyone to be in the room today each one
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of you could have set up headquarters in
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South East Asia or China I’m sure and
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you would have done quite well for
15:32
yourselves financially but you’re here I
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hope because you love your country you
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love its people the opportunities that
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it’s given you and you recognize that
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building things our capacity to create
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new innovation in the economy cannot be
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a race to the Bottom now America’s not
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going to win the future by ditching
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child labor laws or paying our workers
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less than Chinese or Vietnamese laborers
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we don’t want that and it’s not on the
15:57
table we can only win by doing what we
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always did protecting our workers and
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supporting our innovators and doing both
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of those things at the same time and so
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I want to talk a little specifics here
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the Trump administration’s great plan
16:12
for staging the Great American
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manufacturing comeback is simple you’re
16:16
making interesting new things here in
16:18
America great then we’re going to cut
16:20
your taxes we’re going to slash
16:22
regulations we’re going to reduce the
16:24
cost of energy so that you can build
16:26
build build our goal is to incentivize
16:30
investment in our own borders in our own
16:32
businesses our own workers and our own
16:34
Innovation we don’t want people seeking
16:36
cheap labor we want them investing and
16:39
building right here in the United States
16:40
of America and so if you allow it I’d
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like to talk about a few ways that the
16:44
Trump Administration is already pursuing
16:47
a pro-innovation economy that allows our
16:49
workers to thrive and our companies to
16:52
outcompete their foreign peers in short
16:55
an economy that is vibrantly America
16:58
first that serves Americans from all
17:00
walks of life and of every kind now
17:03
first president Trump is starting with
17:05
in his Dead series about rearranging our
17:09
trade and tariff regime internationally
17:12
we believe that tariffs are a necessary
17:14
tool to protect our jobs and our
17:17
industries from other countries as well
17:19
as the labor value of our workers in a
17:22
globalized market in fact combined with
17:24
the right technology they allow us to
17:26
bring jobs back to the United States of
17:28
America
17:29
and create the jobs of the F future just
17:31
look in the past few months at the auto
17:34
industry as an important example when
17:36
you erect a tariff wall around a
17:38
critical industry like autom
17:40
manufacturing and you combine that with
17:42
Advanced Robotics and lower energy costs
17:45
and other tools that increase the
17:47
productivity of US Labor you give
17:49
American workers a multiplying effect
17:52
now that in turn allows firms to make
17:54
things here at a price competitive basis
17:57
our president gets that which is why
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last month we posted 9,000 new auto jobs
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after many many years of stagnation or
18:06
even decline in the auto sector it’s why
18:08
just weeks in we already have new
18:10
planner production announcements from
18:12
Honda from Hyundai and stantis worth
18:15
billions of dollars and thousands of
18:17
additional jobs on top of the ones that
18:19
were already created now this takes work
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it took in the president’s first term
18:23
the president ripping up NAFTA and
18:25
creating a new US deal for American
18:29
manufacturers in North America but
18:32
there’s important work and we’re going
18:34
to do it now second second all of this
18:38
is why the president is approaching the
18:40
issue of illegal immigration as
18:42
aggressively as he has because he knows
18:44
that cheap labor cannot be used as a
18:47
substitute for the productivity gains
18:49
that come with economic Innovation and
18:51
so we’ve cracked down on illegal
18:53
immigration at the border where the
18:54
results speak for themselves last month
18:57
migrant Crossings were down 94% to their
19:00
lowest number all time and that happened
19:02
just in two months of serious border
19:05
enforcement thanks to president Trump’s
19:07
leadership last month for the first time
19:09
in over a year the majority of job gains
19:12
went to American citizens born on us
19:15
soil and that’s important for the first
19:17
time in over a year the majority of job
19:20
creation actually went to American
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citizens a third this Administration is
19:25
focused on reducing our input costs for
19:28
our m manufacturers and for everybody
19:30
else achieving energy and abundance and
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I know Doug bergham was here earlier
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will be here later is top of mind
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because when we look at some of the most
19:38
exciting applications of new
19:40
technologies we realize it’s going to
19:42
take a lot of power to keep them running
19:44
and we’re we’re thrilled to have our
19:45
friends from the United Arab Emirates a
19:47
number of the Business Leaders and
19:49
government leaders uh in town this week
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for meetings with our government and one
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of the things they consistently Hammer
19:56
upon is something that unfortunately too
19:58
of our European allies tend to get is
20:00
that if you want to lead in artificial
20:02
intelligence you have got to be leading
20:04
in energy production so we are going to
20:06
set the pace there and we are going to
20:08
lead from the front now we are already
20:10
seeing the good news is signs of
20:12
progress even just a couple of months in
20:14
gas and diesel prices are dropping the
20:16
cost of a barrel of us crude is way down
20:19
and last Wednesday the administration
20:21
took major steps to make energy even
20:23
cheaper and liberate our companies from
20:26
stifling environmental regulations
20:28
now that is great but of course there’s
20:31
a lot more work we have to do over the
20:33
next four years getting the tax bill
20:36
right is especially critical for all of
20:38
you and for all of your workers we know
20:40
how important it is to restore 100%
20:42
bonus depreciation for Capital
20:44
Investments as well as full expensing
20:46
for R&D again we want people to invest
20:49
in America and we’re going to make sure
20:50
the tax code reflects that in order to
20:53
build on the success of the original tax
20:55
law meaning the tax law from the
20:57
president’s first Administration
20:59
our Administration is working to broaden
21:02
some Provisions that are critical to the
21:04
industrial base like expanding full
21:05
expensing to cover Factory construction
21:08
for business owners including
21:10
manufacturers making the 2017 tax cuts
21:13
permanent will provide further
21:15
confidence and predictability to invest
21:18
in new technology and Equipment hire
21:21
more American workers and grow all of
21:23
your businesses and we have a lot more
21:26
to do but the country is already
21:27
starting to see the payoff of this
21:29
administration’s bold economic agenda
21:33
for producers and consumers alike
21:35
inflation is finally starting to come
21:37
down core CPI last week dropped to its
21:40
lowest number since April of
21:42
2021 and when it comes to the labor
21:44
market last month’s jobs report showed a
21:47
massive reversal 10,000 new
21:49
manufacturing jobs created where the
21:51
previous year we had lost over 100,000
21:54
manufacturing jobs as you may have heard
21:56
the president say in less than two
21:59
months since he’s took office he’s
22:00
already secured more than $1.7 trillion
22:03
do in new Investments across the United
22:05
States that’s hundreds of thousands of
22:08
new jobs in manufacturing AI other hard
22:12
tech sectors and more so we think
22:14
there’s a lot to be excited about
22:16
there’s a lot that we’re excited about
22:17
and we certainly hope that you guys are
22:19
excited too but the fundamental premise
22:22
the fundamental goal of President
22:24
Trump’s economic policy is I think to
22:26
undo 40 years of failed economic policy
22:31
in this country for far too long we got
22:34
addicted to cheap labor both overseas
22:37
and by importing it into our own country
22:39
and we got lazy we over regulated our
22:42
Industries instead of supporting them we
22:44
overtaxed our innovators instead of
22:46
making it easier for them to build their
22:48
great companies and we made it way too
22:51
hard to build things and invest things
22:54
in the United States of America that
22:56
stopped 2 months ago and it will
22:58
continue to stop and will continue to
23:01
fight for American workers and the
23:03
American businesses that hire them and
23:05
that support them so I want to thank you
23:07
all for two things number one I want to
23:09
thank you all for doing what you do
23:11
again you could have chosen the easy
23:13
path every single person in this room as
23:15
the president would say you’re all very
23:17
high IQ you’re some of the most talented
23:19
people in the United States of America
23:22
you chose to build a business right here
23:24
in the United States of America and for
23:26
that I’m grateful but the second thing I
23:28
want to say is that I think you’re not
23:30
just building your own business I think
23:32
that you are part of a great American
23:34
industrial Renaissance whether it’s the
23:37
war of the future the jobs of the future
23:40
the economic prosperity of the future we
23:43
believe that we must build it right here
23:46
in the United States of America so thank
23:48
you all for building thank you all for
23:50
building in America and thank you all
23:52
for building the kind of society that I
23:54
want to raise my children in God bless
23:56
you all thanks for having me
23:59
be
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