What Obama Can Learn From Jay-Z - Quite interesting perspective
What Obama Can Learn From Jay-Z - David Samuels - the Atlantic
Jay-Z’s very original synthesis of high-consumption capitalism and democracy suggests a future career as the voice of the American gospel of wealth (or as the next Michael Bloomberg—a talented politician who acknowledges the distance between himself and his constituency, and turns the fact of that distance into an aspirational symbol of excellence.) As for Obama, as the slog of the election campaign showed, he has earned a significant measure of trust from the American people, who feel bewildered and threatened by the new economy but are resistant to heavy taxes and increased federal and state control over their lives. The idea that the president has something to learn from this tension, and from the synthesis that Jay-Z offers, shouldn’t seem far-fetched: While Americans may accept the great disparities of wealth that the new economy has engendered, they will not give up on their equal right to dream.