Government failed Flint.
It's pretty tough to dispute that statement, knowing what we know about how the Flint water crisis came to be, and how it was dismissed and denied by bureaucrats and officials at all levels of government.
Entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist Joseph Sanberg believes we should work through the boardroom to help address working-class problems, not just wait for government to fix things.Sanberg is investing founder of the home-meal delivery service Blue Apron and co-founder of the online financial firm Aspiration. It lets people pay what they think is fair for their services.
Sanberg joined Stateside to talk about how we should use all of the tools in the toolbox, from politics and public policy to philanthropy, to solve problems. That said, he thinks we should start out by using business as a force for good.
"If you look over the past 30 years, the progressive movement hasn't utilized business as a force for good," Sanberg said. "Our interaction with business has been only in setting regulations. And setting regulations for business is really important. What also is important is the kind of businesses that exist."
"I think in particular, Gen-X and Millennials believe what business does matters," he added. "That there ought to be a different standard for business leadership. It ought not to be what can you do as a business person, it ought to be what should you do as a business person."
Listen to the full interview above to hear more about how people should be using their purchasing power to trigger change in society and about the business world's tendency to treat people as units of measure ... and why that's problematic when trying to solve problems.
(Subscribe to the Stateside podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or with this RSS link)
