The 21st Century Hero
01.06.2006 by Brian Mulconrey

Wednesday, January 6, 2016 � It was 75 years ago today that President Franklin Roosevelt, the "Father" of the US Social Security System, delivered his "Four Freedoms" speech. Freedom of speech and religion were familiar freedoms and, as the fascists marched across Europe and Asia, "freedom from fear" represented a natural longing. But Roosevelt's list went further than any American leader had ever imagined when he proclaimed "freedom from want" - a healthy peacetime life for everyone in the world.

Ten years ago today the US Social Security Trust Fund was on a course to run out of money as early as next year. And, in the most technologically advanced epoch in human history, the world watched in 2005 as tens of millions of children, women, and men died from starvation and easily treated diseases globally. On the surface, these two issues didn't seem to be linked. But, in December of 2005, Bono and Bill and Melinda Gates were recognized by Time Magazine as "Persons of the Year" and the world was given a rare gift - a new definition for heroism.

These new heroes developed a strategy for channeling their power - wealth and celebrity - to spread freedom from want to everyone in the world.  Inspired by this example a vast global network of citizen-heroes formed during the first decade of the 21st century. Their goal went beyond spreading "freedom from want" everywhere in the world to placing a "quality standard of living" within easy reach of everyone on earth. These individuals came from every walk of life, united only by their growing sense that their lives would be immeasurably enriched by integrating this simple goal into everything that they did. The first thing that became clear was that, to provide a quality standard of living to everyone in the world, it would be necessary to reduce the huge amount of waste involved in producing a quality standard of living at the turn of the century.

Once the challenge was framed as driving down the cost and waste involved in producing a quality standard of living, the link between "freedom from want" and the Social Security Trust Fund crisis became clear. In 2011 Social Security benefits were actually increased in the short run in order to secure political support for expressing all benefit formulas in terms of a "quality standard of living" index. Over the past ten years we cut the resources required to generate a quality standard of living in half twice. Over the next ten years, most economists think that we'll cut the cost of a quality standard of living in half every two years. At this rate, by 2020, we will have realized Roosevelt's goal of spreading freedom from want everywhere in the world while actually running a "real" surplus in the Social Security Trust Fund and building a wide range of huge new global businesses.

In his 2004 classic, "Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid", CK Prahalad outlined a strategy that came to be called "the Liberation of Moore's Law." In 1965, Gordon Moore focused the computer industry on doubling the processing power of a computer chip every 1-2 years. That capacity kept right on doubling well into the 21st century. Today we take it for granted that we can cut the cost of producing a quality standard of living in half every 2-3 years. But it was Prahalad's vision that translated this design principle into a market-driven action plan.

The 21st century hero may have been defined by the world's richest couple and the most celebrated musician in the world. But the network that grew from their example represents today the most powerful governance structure on earth with tens of millions of citizen heroes. There is good reason that hero stories are our favorite story form; they have survival value. When we stepped out against all odds to save the world, we saved ourselves.

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