President Trump’s proposed baby bonus would have come in really handy at chez Guy Birken 15 years ago. Money was a bit of an issue for my family when we welcomed our first child in 2010. We’d moved to Indiana from Ohio in June of that year so my husband could take a higher paying job. Id left my own job as a high school English teacher. Our baby was born in late August, making it impossible to find a teaching job in our new town.
Our timing was impeccable that year. We also unwittingly put our Ohio house on the market one month after the federal first-time homebuyer credit expired, bought a house in Indiana right away, and paid two mortgages for 11 months until the old house sold.
As my husband likes to say, in 2010 we went from two incomes to one, from one mortgage to two, and from two people to three. (And yes, I am now considered a financial expert.)
But would a $5,000 baby bonus really help new parents on a national scale? Or is it just Trumps transactional solution to falling birth rates?
In honor of Mothers Day, lets look at the best ways to support new parents, working mothers, and our nations children. And it doesnt include a onetime cash payment.
Paying for a baby boom
The United States sees over 3.6 million births each year. If the government were to go forward with Trump’s $5,000 baby bonus proposal, Uncle Sam would be handing out over $18.3 billion to new mothers every year. While that would only be 0.019% of the $9.7 trillion federal budgetbasically, a rounding errorits important to compare that amount to other types of spending that affect American families.
Federal Agency2024 Spending BudgetDepartment of Health and Human Services (HHS)$2.5 trillionSocial Security Administration (SSA)$1.6 trillionDepartment of Education (ED)$228.9 billionDepartment of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)$88.2 billionDepartment of Labor (DOL)$66.2 billionConsumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)$167 million
$18.3 billion in annual baby bonuses may represent a tiny portion of the governments total budget, but that spending could be a relatively significant percentage of each of these departments budgets. Specifically, $18.3 would equal
0.73% of the HHS budget
1.1% of the SSA budget
7.99% of the ED budget
20.7% of the HUD budget
27.6% of the DOL budget
10,958% of the CPSC budget
Allocating that kind of funding to existing programs could potentially improve maternal and infant health, provide ongoing financial benefits, support public education, increase access to affordable housing, support employment goals, or protect children from unsafe products. Obviously, $18.3 billion cant do all of those things at once, but increasing the budgets of one or several of these departments may be a better use of the money.
Make motherhood feasible again
As helpful as five grand might be for any one family, the Trump baby bonus is the federal policy version of handing your wife a sawbuck the day after Mothers Day and telling her to buy herself something nice. Its not giving her what she needs or wantsand feels a little insulting, to boot.
American mothers are clamoring for help with the impossible financial and logistical challenges of raising a family in this country. Specifically, new parents need access to paid family leave and childcare. Spending federal money on these programs will do more to improve mothers lives than a one-time $5,000 payment.
Paid family leave
The United States is one of only seven countries without paid maternity leave. This means American women may have to choose between getting a paycheck and having a kid. While the Trump administration’s $5,000 baby bonus might help, the median weekly earnings for an American woman is $1,092which means the bonus would cover less than five weeks of leave.
Instituting a federal paid family and medical leave program could potentially encourage more births, since it could help solve the financial problem of affording parental leave.
In 2022, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that a proposed federal paid family and medical leave program would cost about $200 billion for the 10-year period between 2022 and 2031. As it was written, the program would allow eligible workers to take up to four weeks of paid leave after the birth or adoption of a child. Benefits would equal a portion of the workers pre-leave wages and would be paid by the federal government.
The CBO anticipated the program would significantly improve the mental and physical health of postpartum parentswhich would lead to increased employment and earnings. Although the four-week maximum leave time seems woefully inadequate, simply providing federal leave would make an enormous difference to a wide swath of American families.
Birth to kindergarten childcare
Returning to work after having a child is challenging (to say the least) without consistent and safe childcare. This is not nearly as simple as asking Nana and Pop-Pop to take care of the kids for free, especially considering grandparents are probably working, too. Nearly one out of every five Americans aged 65 or older is employed full-time.
And without free family options, childcare for young children is remarkably expensive. Anecdotally, every parent I know had a daycare bill that was higher than their monthly mortgage paymentand this is backed up by data from the Department of Labor, which found that American families spend between 8.9% and 16.0% of their median income on ful-day care for just one child.
The Biden-Harris administration worked to invest in childcare on a federal level, providing $24 billion in funding to childcare via the 2021 American Rescue Plan (ARP). The administration calculates that the onetime investment of $24 billion saved families $1,250 per child (representing a 10 percent reduction in childcare costs), increased the pay of childcare workers, and increased the employment of mothers with young children by about 3 percentage pointsleading to womens prime-age labor force participation hitting its highest value on record.
This meant the benefits were greater than just the $1,250 in childcare savings enjoyed by young families. Childcare workers made more money, employers kept more of their staff, and families maintained their financial and employment stability.
Unfortunately, all of these improvements were lost after the ARP expired.
Happy Mothers Day! Heres five grand
America has a cultural expectation that mothers will pick up the slack when children, fathers, or society needs something that theyre not getting. That means a national conversation about supporting motherhood to the tune of $5,000 a pop might feel like progress, even if its misguided. But a baby bonus feels a little like the exaggerated social media praise often heaped on mothersa showy expression of appreciation that requires little effort.
The truth is that encouraging more people to consider motherhood isnt a tough proposition if you provide the support they needjust as making Mom happy on Mothers Day isnt difficult if you listen to what she actually wants.
Offering actual support is harder than throwing money at the problem, but its the only path to a real solution.
Every year brings its own unique challenges for California farmers: water shortages, fires, finding laborers to do the work, bureaucrats in Sacramento adding new requirements and fees, and more. But the second term of President Donald Trump has made this year very different.
As part of deep cuts across much of the government, Trump’s administration chopped $1 billion from the U.S. Department of Agriculture almost without warning. This led to widespread financial pain that affected already struggling farmers and left hungry patrons of food banks in many parts of the country desperate for other sources of healthy food.
On February 28, California officials warned farmers who had grown food for schools and food banks that there was funding only for work done up to January 19, despite the fact that farmers had submitted invoices for work and harvests past that date.
California farmers quickly organized a phone call and email campaign over the span of seven days in early March to demand the attention of elected representatives and answers from federal officials. By March 7, their efforts were successful: They would receive pay for the fall and for harvests for the rest of this year. But their success was overshadowed by news that the program would stop at the end of 2025.
For Bryce Loewen, a farmer who co-owns Blossom Bluff Orchards in Fresno County, the first freeze in funding meant that the USDA failed to hand over more than $30,000 that it owed the business for growing food to help feed Californians who could not afford it.
There isnt really a good time to get stiffed for your work. But during winter, the slowest season on the farm, theres downtime, and California farmers like Loewen recently used that lull to fight to regain the money farmers were owed and help feed some of their most vulnerable neighbors.
A farmers instinct is to fix things, Loewen said. And thats what we did.
Loewens farm is in the small town of Parlier, California, which has a declining population of less than 15,000. On March 1, Loewen called federal officials to try to change their minds about the funding cut. Farming is a business of slim margins, and Loewen was trying to keep his farm from falling into debt, he said.
Loewen was just one of many farmers in California and around the country who called and emailed officials that day. They asked why they hadnt been paid, and they described the economic benefit of the USDA funds to small farms and public health services and to agencies that feed people in their own communities who are struggling.
Loewen left messages and wrote emails to Rep. Jim Costa (D-Fresno); Brooke Rollins, the secretary of agriculture; and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York. Other farmers also contacted Rollins, their local representatives, and congressional and Senate leadership on both sides of the political aisle.
The impromptu campaign was somewhat successful. Six days later, the USDA agreed to pay farmers for their fall harvest and contracts for 2025, but not beyond.
The USDA did not respond to calls and emails from Capital & Main about why the cuts were made or why they were restored. Neither the USDA nor Rollins have publicly acknowledged hearing from farmers about the cuts.
In securing payments for slightly more than nine additional months, the farmers relative success might offer lessons for other groups targeted by government cuts as they seek to claw back some resources for crucial programs.
California may be world-famous for its beaches, Hollywood, and Big Tech, but many people dont realize that the states vast Central Valley supplies a quarter of all food to the United States. In the Golden State, agriculture is the backbone of many local economies, from the states southern frontier with Mexico all the way to its northern border with Oregon. This is especially true in the states agricultural heartland.
Yet many residents who live in what dust-bowl musician Woody Guthrie once referred to as the Pastures of Plenty cannot afford the fresh, locally grown food that surrounds them in the regions villages and towns. The Healthy Fresno County Community Dashboard, which publishes local health information, reported that 16% of the countys 1 million residents in 2022 were considered food insecure. Those rates were higher for the countys Black and Hispanic residents in comparison to their white peers.
Since 2006, the USDA has used the term food insecurity to describe the status that leads to weakness, illness, and harm to families who lack stable access to food. It disproportionately affects lower-income groups in the state. Food insecurity includes the inability to afford a balanced diet, fear that a homes food supply wont last, or having to eat less because one cant afford to buy more food. An insecure food supply causes physical pangs of hunger in adults, as well as stress and depression, particularly in mothers. Limited food intake affects brain development in children, prompting stress among preschoolers and affecting a students ability to learn basic subjects such as math and writing.
In California, 9 of 20 adults with low incomes reported limited, uncertain, or inconsistent access to food in 2023, according to a California Health Interview Survey.
Loewens farm helps feed some struggling Californians with the help of money through a $400 million federal program called the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program. The California Department of Social Services distributes the funds across the state through a program called Farms Together.
Farmers werent the only ones to feel the pain of the USDA cuts between late February and March 11, said Paul Towers, executive director of Community Alliance With Family Farmers. His organization helps distribute food from small farms to food banks and school districts. During a two-week period, food banks didn’t receive any such food, which left people who rely on that food aid to scramble for something to eat.
Thats two weeks of lost income for farmers, Towers said. And two weeks of no food.
Nationwide, 18 million Americans were food insecure in 2023, according to the USDA. Most of those people live in rural counties such as Fresno County, according to Feeding America, a national network of food banks and pantrie.
By March 10, news of the cuts was spreading. The online agriculture and food policy news outlet Agri-Pulse warned in a headline: Trump administration canceling local food initiatives.
On March 11, Fox News highlighted the cuts to farmerswho voted disproportionately in favor of Trump during his presidential campaignsin a live interview with Rollins. Americas Newsroom anchor Bill Hemmer asked Rollins to justify the $1 billion cuts in food security aid to schools and food banks. Rollins offered conflicting responses.
The cuts were to pandemic-era food programs and were aimed at new and nonessential programs, she said.
Rollins said the programs cost had grown but didnt offer any evidence to back that up. The initial iteration of the local food purchasing assistance, the Farmers to Families Food Box Program, was a multibillion dollar pandemic food aid project started during Trumps first term. But Rollins didnt share that detail.
Speaking of other cuts made the day before the interview, she added that authorities had canceled more contracts on food justice for trans people in New York and San Francisco; obviously thats different than the food programs in the schools, but it is really important.
The local food purchase agreement didnt, and still doesnt, favor food aid or food justice to trans people. It pays for farmers to grow food that goes to food banks and school districts.
Rollins didnt acknowledge that the cuts were overzealous or the harm that they might cause. As we have always said, if we are making mistakes, we will own those mistakes, and we will reconfigure. But right now, from what we are viewing, [the local food purchase assistance] program was nonessential. It was a new program, and it was an effort by the Left to continue spending taxpayer dollars that [was] not necessary, Rollins told Fox News.
On March 11, the Community Alliance With Family Farmers posted on its blog: The reinstatement of Farms Together is a victory worth celebrating. Through collective action, the voices of farmers and allies were heard, but the fight isnt over. Farms Together IS restoredthough only temporarily.
Our intent, Towers said, was to make sure Secretary Rollins heard directly from farmers that they were harmed by the cuts to these programs.
George B. Sánchez-Tello, Capital & Main
This piece was originally published by Capital & Main, which reports from California on economic, political, and social issues.
Arianna Huffington, author, entrepreneur, and founder of The Huffington Post believes in one key to success above all else: getting enough sleep.
When I get eight hours, I feel ready to handle anything during the day without stress and without paying a heavy price in terms of my own health and my own mental well-being, Huffington, the author of The Sleep Revolution, told NBC.
Heres how sleep can lead to greater success and happiness for you:
Huffingtons Personal Journey With Sleep
Back in 2007, Huffington was constantly sacrificing sleep to work 18-hour days. Then, one morning, she woke up on the floor of her home office in a pool of her own blood. Shed passed out from exhaustion, breaking her cheekbone when she fell.
It was a pivotal moment that reshaped her views on success and well-being. Rather than measuring success in just money or power, Huffington now advocates for a third metric of success, which includes well-being, wisdom, and giving back.
Shes since written two books on the subjects and founded a new company, Thrive Global, which helps employers improve their workers lives.
Why is Sleep Essential for Success?
In her viral TED talk, Huffington discussed how sleep allows us to shut down our engines, refresh our brains, and go into every day operating at peak performance, which is foundational for productivity, creativity, and decision-making.
Science backs Huffingtons views. For example, one study showed that new neural connectionsthe pathways between neurons that allow our brains to functionare formed while sleeping. It also showed better performance outcomes from sleeping and training together rather than training more in place of sleep.
Studies have also linked inadequate sleep (whether thats extreme deprivation over a short period or slight deprivation over the long term) to worse reasoning, decision-making, and driving abilities, as well as mood swings, depression, and physical ailments like diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Arianna Huffingtons Top Tips for Better Sleep
Alongside championing the importance of sleep, Huffington has put out tons of advice on how to get enough of it through The Sleep Revolution and her Sleep Revolution Manifesto.
1. Create a bedtime ritual
Doing the same routine before bed each night will help signal to your body and brain that its almost time to sleep. Adding relaxing activities like a hot bath, a nice cup of decaffeinated tea, a good book, or a mediation session, will help even more.
2. Make your bedroom an ideal sleep space
Huffington advocates for keeping your bedroom cool (between 60 and 67 degrees), dark, and quiet. If possible, keep your smartphone out of your bedroom (or at least out of reach) and reserve the room for sex and sleeping only.
3. Avoid caffeine and electronic devices before bed
Huffington recommends cutting off caffeine around 2 p.m. and any electronic devices around 30 minutes before you lay down for the night. If you read in bed, use a traditional paper book or an e-reader without backlighting.
4. Wear dedicated pajamasnot workout gear
Wearing the same clothes to exercise and to sleep sends your body mixed signals.
5. Treat sleep as nonnegotiable
Rather than sacrificing sleep to spend time on other activities like work, social engagements, or recreational activities, Huffington says we should be doing the opposite. Schedule your life around getting enough sleep in the same way you plan sleep around your work schedule.
The Link Between Sleep, Happiness, and Mental Health
All the things that make life much harder are aggravated when youre sleep-deprived, Huffington said on The School of Greatness podcast. Youre more likely to dwell on your failures, fears, and anxieties or feel irritable and stressed.
By contrast, when you sleep enough, your brain gets the recovery time it needs, youre more clear-headed, emotionally level, and able to handle the challenges your job or life might throw at you. You also increase your daily opportunities to experience joy, which can improve your relationships and work performance.
Over time, all of these factors reduce your stress, make you more productive, and help you avoid burnout.
Debunking the Myths of Around Sleep
Work culture has a terrible tendency to glorify sleep deprivation. Theres the hustle mentality that says one should always be grinding. Theres also the sleep deprivation one-upmanship where people brag about how little sleep they get.
Today, so many of us fall into the trap of sacrificing sleep in the name of productivity, Huffington said. But in the U.S., inadequate sleep actually leads to 11 days of lost productivity per year per worker, collectively costing the U.S. economy more than $63 billion annually.
Prioritizing sleep is often associated with laziness, but making sure you begin every day at your full potential is actually a strategy for long-term success.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is enthusiastic about the companys pilot with Waymo. In Q1 prepared remarks, he said the launch in Austin has exceeded our expectations, noting that the 100 self-driving vehicles there were busier than 99% of the citys human drivers. The strong performance has Uber looking ahead to its next Waymo rollout in Atlanta.
But Waymo isnt Ubers only autonomous partner. Just hours before Khosrowshahis comments were released, Uber announced an expanded deal with WeRide, a global rival to Waymo. WeRides robotaxis will soon launch in 15 new cities outside the U.S. and China.
While Waymo may be Ubers marquee U.S. partner, the rideshare giant is making it clear it wont rely on just one self-driving tech provider.
Ubers expanding self-driving deals
In the United States, Waymo remains the dominant force in robotaxis, especially since Cruise has shuttered. Waymo’s autonomous vehicles are already operating in Austin and are set to launch in Atlanta. Waymos safety record and rider experience coupled with Ubers scale and reliability in the market have ensured that these vehicles are extremely busy, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi noted in his Q1 remarks.
But the Uber-Waymo relationship hasnt been without friction. When Waymo announced a Miami expansion without Uber in December, Ubers stock took a hit. In response, the company unveiled new American partnerships, first with Volkswagen in April and then with May Mobility in June. (Uber declined to comment for this story.)
Meanwhile, Ubers international self-driving investments are accelerating. Just ahead of Khosrowshahis remarks, the company announced an expanded partnership with WeRide, the Chinese robotaxi firm already operating with Uber in Abu Dhabi. The new agreement covers 15 additional citiesintentionally outside both the U.S. and Chinaand includes a $100 million investment.
The same week, Uber announced an expanded deal with Pony.ai, another Chinese autonomous vehicle company. While the agreement excludes operations in China and the U.S., it significantly broadens their collaboration across the Middle East. Just days earlier, Uber also announced a new partnership with Momenta for deployment across Europe.
To date, Uber has inked deals with 18 self-driving companies. Waymo may still be Ubers biggest U.S. bet, but globally, the ride-hailing giant is hedging those bets fast.
Who should lead the robotaxi revolution?
Not long ago, Uber was hoping to produce robotaxis, and not just commission them. The company invested over $1 billion into their own self-driving technology. But in 2020, it pulled the plug, selling its autonomous vehicle unit to Aurora, where CEO Dara Khosrowshahi now sits on the board.
Uber isnt alone among American companies that failed to crack autonomous driving. Lyft also abandoned its self-driving ambitions. Cruise, General Motors robotaxi division, effectively shut down after one of its vehicles dragged a pedestrian about 20 feet. Tesla continues to hype its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, but Elon Musks promised robotaxi still hasnt arrived.
That leaves Waymo as the leadingif not the onlyAmerican contender in the robotaxi race. Meanwhile, Chinese firms like WeRide, Pony.ai, and Momenta are rapidly expanding. Uber is poised to play a major role in this growing global market, serving autonomous rides to its loyal user base. For now, Uber isnt picking just one horseits betting on the entire field.
When India banned TikTok in 2020, YouTube responded by launching a short-form video feature with a similar user experience in the country. Less than a year later, that feature rolled out globally as YouTube Shorts, which allows creators to post 180-second-long swipeable vertical content. Today, YouTube Shorts has roughly 1.5 billion users and receives an average of 70 billion daily views.
With TikToks future in limbo in the U.S.a much-delayed ban is set to take effect on June 19Shorts is hoping that TikToks audience of almost 2 billion people will see it as a compelling alternative. YouTube is already the second-most visited site in the world, and the platform has spent years building a strong creator ecosystem. YouTube Shorts product lead Todd Sherman came on the Most Innovative Companies Podcast to talk working with creators, tweaking the Shorts algorithm, and competing with TikTok.
It’s been five years since you launched YouTube Shorts in India. Why did you create the product, and why launch it in India first?
I worked at Twitter when we had Vine and I recognized it as the beginning of something. Even though Vine didn’t continue forward, and other apps took its place, none quite had the same vibe. At YouTube, we wanted to get into short-form video. We felt like it was going to give a whole new generation of creators a voice and would also be really fun to watch short videos between moments throughout the day. India was an important proving ground. Theres a long tail of Android devices there and a lot of them are lower-end. Theres a massive group of creative people [there], and it has a really big population, so we wanted to plant a stake in that market.
Around five years ago, as YouTube Shorts launched, TikTok took off in the Unites States. How did you think about that product as you were developing Shorts?
A lot of people started paying attention to short form video when TikTok started to get scale. [But] I had been paying attention to it since Vine, and pushing for us to make progress there even before TikTok was a mainstream name. It’s interesting to take inventory of how short-form video evolved. At first it was just squarish videos with no algorithm and a really basic camera where you just held your finger on the screen to record segments. Then Dubsmash and Musical.ly really embraced the remix of the sound. They added the audio pivot page where you could see all of the other videos that were using that sound, but there still really weren’t great algorithms. What [TikTok developer and eventual Musical.ly acquirer] ByteDance did is they were applying machine learning algorithms to short-form video in a way that none of the other ones had been. I think the most impressive thing about the rise of TikTok is really their algorithm and how effective they are at finding videos that you want to watch, [while] also supporting creator growth. There’s always two sides to the algorithm. It’s how easy is it to get started and [get viewers] inspired, but then also how good is it at serving viewer needs? That continues to be a really bright spot for them. Something that is a huge commitment for us is improving the algorithm over time.
Does the Shorts algorithm operate the same way as the longer YouTube one?
There’s many things that are different in short form because you watch so many more of them. So you approach the amount of diversity across hundreds of videos across different topics or creators differently than if youre serving people 10 or 15 videos a day that are longer form. In short form, you can proactively introduce people to new things more easily, because the cost of being wrong is a lot lower.
Do Shorts viewers often click through to watch longer videos from creators they like?
That’s one way that happens. We also try to understand these videos through technology. We try to know how videos are related, even if one is short or one is long. We feed these [videos] into what we call an embedding space that [has] a higher dimensional video understanding capability. And so that means a short video can sit in this spot [where] it shares space with longer videos. Because of that, we say to ourselves, here’s all the videos that you enjoy about training dogs, and maybe [some of them are] short videos. Because we have that understanding, we can start to recommend longer videos related to that.
Does that work across categories?
I like dance videos that are short. I might not actually longer dance videos. Longer ones tend to be more about choreography and I have zero hopes of ever dancing in any respectable way. So from a personalized point of view, I only like one and not the other, whereas for dog training or science videos, I may like both. So the algorithm is personalized.
Last year, Shorts went from being one-minute long to three-minutes long. Why did you make that decision?
We’re always listening to creators. Sometimes when people are telling a story, it just feels like they’re hitting against this wall. I would go to creator events and ask them what is on their wishlist. Especially amongst people that have this narrative-style storytelling where they’re scripting and there’s a dialogue, they were asking if they could get a little breathing room. It led us to say, we think that we can expand this while still preserving the shorter side of videos. Around a minute and 45 seconds-long, videos tends to be more narrative style, where you have beginning, middle, and end. We want all those stories to be told on YouTube.
You recently changed the way views are counted on the platform. Why is that?
On long-form YouTube, most engagement comes from people explicitly selecting a video. They’re tapping or they’re clicking and then they’re watching. The vast majority of engagement is explicit.
When we started auto-playing things, we asked ourselves, when should we count it as a view? Should it just be immediately? No, we think we should basically approximate it to be equivalent to when somebody clicked or tapped. So we started adding watch time thresholds. Then we inherited that for Shorts. But when we looked at Shorts and what people were telling us, they were telling us they expect it to start counting views [as soon as] they see the video. [We would] talk to new creators, and they’re like, I got zero viewsno one saw my video. Actually, that wasnt true. A lot of people liked their video, but no one watched the video up to the threshold that we define as a view.
Within short-form content, most engagement is not coming from explicitly selecting a specific video. It’s coming from people swiping in the feed. So it’s a bit of a redefinition of view. We made the decision [to count all views as views no matter the threshold] because the fundamentals of the product are that when people view your video, they’re just sort of swiping into it.
What are your conversations like with Shorts creators?Thescale of Shorts is now that we sort of have to segment creators to kind of talk about them. [Some] long-form creators are effectively production studios with teams.
When you think about how they like to use Shorts, they love it as either kind of a creative outlet to try something new. They use it as a testing ground for new ideas. And if something pops off there, then maybe they’ll go and invest 80 hours making a longer video.
Who are your favorite creators to follow?
I really like Nile Red. He’s this chemist. We watch a lot of his shorts in the living room because he does these little science experiments, and I have little kids. We recently watched one where he tried to make coffee end to end. I’ve also been getting into cooking videos. I don’t know how to cook well, but there’s something I love about watching people quickly prepare a meal. Ian Fujimoto has great storytelling and a great personality. Theres also Nick Suarez who has a channel The Nick of Time where they involve their family in internet trends.
Booking travel has become a bit of a gameespecially if you want to get the best possible prices and avoid getting ripped off.
Thats because hotels and airlines have developed the lovely habit of futzing around endlessly with their rates. Depending on when, exactly, you go to book the room or flight you want, you might end up being charged way more than if you waited a few days or even hours for prices to drop.
The problem is that its damn-near impossible to figure out the logic behind it and know the right time to buy. And who among us has the time or energy to stay on top of that and keep checking back at all hours with the hope of magically stumbling onto a magnificent deal?
Well, my fellow savings-seeker, weve officially got a better way. Its a completely free-to-use service, with no downloads or installations involved. In fact, its right in front of your facejust waiting to be found.
Be the first to find all sorts of little-known tech treasures with my free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. One useful new discovery in your inbox every Wednesday!
Your travel-planning deal-seeker
Our tool in question is actually just a websiteone you mightve even visited before. But its got a simple-seeming new switch that massively boosts its usefulness and transforms what its able to accomplish.
The tool is none other than Googles hotel search site. The site has long been a handy way to compare hotel prices and reviews for any given date and locationand now, as of this month, it sports a single subtle switch that can save you serious money.
The switch automatically tracks prices on any specific dates and destinations youre considering. Once you flip it into the active position, Google will send you updates via email anytime prices drop with any hotels that match your parametersso that way, youll instantly know the second savings become available and you can zip over to complete your purchase right at that most optimal moment.
Youll need about 20 seconds to get things going.
Just head to google.com/hotels in any browser, on any device, and look for the newly added Track hotel prices options within the search area at the top of the screenafter youve put in a location and dates.
That new “Track hotel prices” toggle is the key to finding good deals.
If you arent seeing the switch right away, try clicking or tapping on a specific hotel in the resultsor try performing a different search and then coming back to your original search after. It can be a little finicky at first, but once the switch shows up once, it seems to stick around even as you change the specific parameters youre searching for.
Its placement may change, but the purpose remains the same.
Google offers a similar switch on its flight search site, too, by the way. There, you have to start a new searchthen the switch will show up once youve selected specific flights.
One quick click, and you can find the best prices on flights, too.
Either way, once you flip the switch, Google will email you alerts to let you know anytime prices change. (You will need to be signed into Google during the initial search, for obvious reasonsor it wont know your email address and be able to send you those updates!)
Alerts about price drops land right in your regular inbox.
Notably, you still end up making your purchase through the actual hotel or airlineor, if you so choose, a third-party reseller. Google itself doesnt handle any transactions or payments; it just scans all sorts of sources for the best possible prices, then links you out to the appropriate place whenever youre ready to buy.
Bonus tip: If you own an Android device, combine this site with the app-creating advice I shared in a recent issue of my Android Intelligence newsletter for a powerful one-two punch of on-demand efficiency!
Googles hotel search site and flight search site are both available on the webno apps or downloads required.
The services, including their price-tracking systems, are completely free to use.
And they follow Googles standard privacy practices, in which no personal data is ever sold or shared with any third parties.
Ready for more life-enhancing excellence? Check out my free Cool Tools newsletter for an instant introduction to an exceptional audio app that’ll tune up your daysand another off-the-beaten-path gem every Wednesday!
After a five year reprieve, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) is coming for defaulted federal student loans.
The ED has not collected on defaulted loans since all payments on federal student loans were paused as part of the Covid-19 emergency relief effort in 2020. Student loan payments resumed on September 1, 2023 for all 42.7 million federal student loan borrowers. The majority of borrowers resumed monthly payments at that time and have loans in good standing. However, some 5 million borrowers have not made a payment for more than 270 days, meaning their loans are currently in default. The ED refrained from collecting on defaulted loans until earlier this week.
Nearly 5 million more borrowers are currently delinquent, meaning they have missed at least one payment and owe a past due amount. If these borrowers dont repay the past due amount or otherwise make their federal loans current, we may see upwards of 10 million borrowersalmost one-quarter of all federal borrowersdefault on their federal student loans before the end of this year.
Unfortunately, the government has called in the heavies to enforce collections on defaulted loans. The good news is that the Department of Education wont send a leg-breaker named Eyeball to shake down borrowers for missing payments. The bad news is that government collections garnish your paycheck or Treasury payments instead of menacing you in a dark alley.
Whether youre in good standing, delinquent, or in default on your student loans, its important to understand what to expect from federal student loan collections. Heres what you need to know.
Garnishment hasnt started yet
If youve only seen the headlines about collections restarting for defaulted loans, you might assume that as of May 5, 2025, borrowers in default were already seeing money lifted from their paychecks and Treasury payments. But even though we have a WWE Secretary of Education, the ED cant pull a heel-turn without any warning.
According to Adam Minsky, an attorney who focuses on helping student loan borrowers and their families, it was only the Treasury Offset Program (TOP) that began this week. In other words, as of May 5, TOP began the process of identifying borrowers in default so they can be notified of the governments intent to offset, aka garnish.
As of Wednesday, May 7, TOP has sent initial notices to 195,000 federal student loan borrowers. But borrowers have a 65-day window to respond to the notices before any offset actually begins, Minsky says.
This means any borrower in default still has time to avoid garnishment even if they have already received a notice.
Challenges facing borrowers in default
Although no one is facing an immediate threat of garnishment, it can still take time to go from default to good standing, especially considering the logistics of federal student loan repayment.
To start, interest has been accruing on all defaulted loans since September 2023, increasing the total debt burden for borrowers in default.
Additionally, many federal student loans have been transferred from one servicer to another, leaving many borrowers confused as to who they need to pay.
Finally, Minsky also warns borrowers about Uncle Sams long memory. Unlike most other types of consumer debt, federal student loans do not have a statute of limitations, he says. That means they don’t expire, and the government can pursue defaulted federal student loan borrowers even if the loans are many years old. So maybe you should let go of your plan to grow a mustache and go on the lam instead of dealing with your defaulted loan.
However, there are some concrete strategies borrowers can use to get out of default.
Returning your loan to good standing
Jenny Twomey, manager of external communications at private lending company Earnest, wants to reassure borrowers that they can take control of their defaulted student loans. She recommends following these steps to return their loans to good standing:
Find your federal student loan servicer
The first thing you should do is figure out exactly who your current loan servicer is. And if youre embarrassed that you dont know, Twomey wants to assure you that youre in good company.
Its common for people to not know who is servicing their loan, she says. In addition to the giant game of hot potato that MOHELA, Aidvantage, and Nelnet seem to be playing with federal student loans, borrowers can lose touch with their loan servicer after moving, changing their email address, losing their password, or otherwise focusing on other stuff over the course of five tumultuous years.
There are a couple of ways to find your loan servicer:
Check your Federal Student Aid account. There should be a section called My Loan Servicers on your dashboard and that has your servicer information for you, Twomey says.To log into this account, you will need your email, phone number, or FSA ID username.
If youve forgotten your login, the Federal Student Aid site offers several methods for accessing or recovering your account.
Call or email the Federal Student Aid Information Center. You can contact this information center at customerservice@studentaid.gov or 1-800-4-FED-AID (1-800-433-3243)
Refer to your original loan documents. Your original loan documents will have your servicers listed, says Twomey. That will tell you who your servicer was to begin with.
Look at your credit report. Something thats not common knowledge is that your servicers are listed on your credit report as well, says Twomey. Youre entitled to a free copy of your annual credit report each year at AnnualCreditReport.com. Pulling up your credit report to find your servicers will let ou cross two financial tasks off your to-do list: find your servicer and review your credit report for errors.
Check your federal student loan terms
Once youve found your servicer, you will need to find all the details of your loan, including
your current loan balance
your interest rate
the length of your repayment period
the monthly payment
These terms can come as a surprise to borrowers, even if they havent missed a payment. Twomey says that a recent Earnest survey found that graduates expect to pay off their student loans in an average of 6 years, but the actual average repayment period is 20 years.
Knowing these terms allows you to make a plan for returning your loan to good standing.
Explore your options with your servicer
Minsky explains that loan servicers may offer a number of options for avoiding collections. You can contact your servicer to determine which of these potential strategies might work best for your financial situation. Just remember that each strategy has benefits and drawbacks, and not all of these options will work for every borrower.
Switch to an income-driven repayment
If your loan is delinquent, meaning your payment is less than 270 days past due, you may be able to ask your servicer to switch you to an income-driven repayment (IDR) plan. Your monthly payment on an IDR is based on your income and family size, meaning your payment may be as low as $0 per month. When you apply for IDR, your servicer may put your loan on administrative forbearance while your application is processed. Just remember that borrowers already in default cant apply for IDR.
Student loan discharge: There are some specific situations where borrowers can have their loans discharged, meaning they are no longer obligated to repay the loan. If your school closed or lost its accreditation, if you have become totally and permanently disabled, or if you meet certain requirements when declaring bankruptcy, you may be eligible for loan discharge.
Loan rehabilitation: Under this option, your loan servicer will set a monthly payment amount equal to either 10% or 15% of your annual discretionary income, divided by 12. You must make 9 payments of this amount within 20 days of the due date over 10 consecutive months, which will return your loan to good standing. You may only take advantage of loan rehabilitation once. Up to 20% of each payment may be applied to collection fees, but these fees are not capitalized if you complete the rehabilitation.
Loan payoff: Paying off your loan in full will get you out of default, but most borrowers dont have 10s of thousands of dollars lying around for that purpose. That leaves two options for paying off a defaulted loan: consolidation and refinancing.Federal Direct Loan Consolidation allows you to combine multiple federal student loans into a single loan. While consolidation will not reduce your interest rate, it can potentially lower your monthly payments and it will make all of your federal loans current. You have to make three consecutive payments on a defaulted loan before you can apply for consolidation and you cant consolidate a defaulted loan that is already being collected through garnishment. This means any borrower who has already received a notice of garnishment from the ED has a limited window to qualify for consolidation.
Private refinancing is when you borrow a new loan to pay off your federal student loan. While well-qualified borrowers may be able to get a private loan with low interest rates and favorable terms, borrowers with a defaulted federal loan are unlikely to be considered well-qualified. Applying with a co-signer may help a struggling borrower qualify for a low-cost private loan, but it can be difficult to find a willing co-signer. Additionally, refinancing your federal loans with a private loan means losing federal borrower protections.
Take the heat off your defaulted student loans
The federal government may have restarted involuntary collections of defaulted student loans, but that doesnt mean youre doomed to see your wages, tax refunds, and Social Security benefits garnished.
To start, the Treasury Offset Program just started notifying borrowers of the intent to garnish this week. Borrowers have 65 days to respond before any money is withheld from their payments, meaning there is time to correct a defaulted loan.
Even if you have lost or forgotten your servicer information, you can find it by logging onto studentaid.gov, contacting the federal student aid information center, checking your original loan documents, or even looking at your credit report.
Once you have found your loan servicer, check your loan balance, interest rate, repayment term, and monthly payment. With that information in hand, contact your servicer to discuss what options are available for returning your loan to good standingincluding income driven repayment, loan discharge, loan rehabilitation, consolidation, or refinancing.
The gears of federal student loan collections grind slowlywhich means you can get ahead of them before your wages or Treasury payments are at risk.
The commercial jingle will never die. The classic advertising devices longevity is as impressive as it is surprising. Despite just about everything else in the advertising industry changing over the past two decades, it remains one of the few core tools many marketers still rely on. Its why when you read, Liberty, Liberty, Liberty youll be singing the Liberty Mutual tune in your head.
Kraft Heinz CMO Todd Kaplan knows this. He also knows that in order to really make a jingle stick, it helps if you enlist legendary artists to sing it. Which is why this week, the companys Lunchables brand dropped its reimagined version of the 2002 Buckwheat Boyz brainworm Peanut Butter Jelly Time, featuring Lil Jon and Twista.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Lunchables (@lunchables)
This is what Kaplan calls marketing that happens, and its part of a broader strategy across the company to find innovative ways to play with culture that actually impact the business. Its a strategy that has been led by Heinz, whose It Has To Be Heinz ork launched in 2023 has helped that brand grow by 6% and boost sales by $600 million. Now the company is looking for ways to scale that impact across all of its brands.
Passion Points
Consumers are overwhelmed with messaging and all sorts of advertising all day, so you can’t just approach marketing as advertising, says Kaplan, who joined Kraft Heinz last year after a 17-year run at PepsiCo, finishing as CMO of the Pepsi brand. When an ad comes on your TV, you’re typically looking at your phone. When a pre-roll ad hits you on YouTube, you hit the skip button. When an email from a company comes into your email box, it goes right to spam. Just because the marketing message was delivered doesn’t mean it was received, in terms of peoples engagement. So its about trying to find ways to prioritize high engagement moments, especially through passion points like sports, music and entertainment, for people to care more.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kool-Aid Man (@koolaid)
The companys marketing is on a roll. Just in the past month or so, its launched a Kool-Aid collaboration with Nike, seen that brand become a major (and hilarious) plot point on Seth Rogens Apple TV show The Studio. It tapped into March Madness with Ore-Ida by capitalizing on BYUs run to the Sweet 16 with leading scorer Richie Saunders, the great-grandson of the brands founder.
Just in time for Mother’s Day, this weeks Kraft Mac & Cheese dropped the Forever Macaroni Necklace. The brand knew about the generations-long tradition of little kids making macaroni necklaces for their moms, and took it to the next 14-carat level.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kraft Mac & Cheese (@kraft_macandcheese)
These are more thn just one-off projects, but part of a coordinated effort to get our attentionand affectionby combining the brand names we already know with unexpected forays into culture.
We talk about this idea of being culture in versus brand out, says Kaplan. A lot of brand advertising comes down to, My brand stands for x, and I’m trying to do Y, as opposed to really listening to culture, bringing it in, and finding those logical connection points.
Heres how Kaplan plans to keep it rolling.
Beyond awareness
Take a peek inside the kitchen cupboards and fridges of about 94% of American households, and youll find a Kraft Heinz product.
If every house has one of our brands within an arm’s reach, this isn’t about brand awareness and telling people what we are, says Kaplan. It’s telling people about why we matter and how we can connect with them.
Which brings us to mustard. On Kendrick Lamars hit 2024 album GNX, the track tv off featured Lamar yelling MUSTAAAAARD to shout out his producer Dijon McFarlane, also known as Mustard. Brands, of course, jumped on the moment. Heinz went a step further and teased a collab with Mustard during the Grammys on February 3rd, which will see a limited edition mustard flavor and packaging collab with the Not Like Us producer dropping this summer.
A condiment and culture? That’s a new idea for people, says Kaplan. We have the opportunity to find and tell these really rich and interesting stories, because you already have the starting point of people knowing who your brand is. They have a contextual use case for the product. So how can you build upon that in a really interesting way? Thats what’s quite exciting.
Agency and In-House
Kraft Heinz brands work with a laundry list of agencies, perhaps most notably (and awarded) in recent years has been the relationship between Heinz Ketchup and creative shop Rethink . But one constant has also been the presence of Kraft Heinzs in-house creative team called The Kitchen, which is behind work like the Mac & Cheese necklace and Heinz x DJ Mustard collab.
Historically, the marketing industry, with agencies and clients, had this level of formality and, candidly, I don’t love how transactional a lot of it feels, where agencies pitch, clients buy, agencies sell, says Kaplan.
Instead, he prefers that all parties involved work as much as possible as co-conspirators in service to the brand. For The Kitchen, that means really embedding inside each individual brand.
Theyve done a phenomenal job of really embracing this kind of real-time speed, rather than acting like an agency, waiting for the next brief, he says. Now the brands have a person from The Kitchen in the flow and in the right conversation. So you’re in the formal business review, and you’re in the creative discussion, and you’re not playing catch up.
Ultimately, its that mix of traditional agency relationships, in-house teams, and the commitment to culture that has fueled Kraft Heinz brands work. That commitment comes with risk and reward.
You need to lean into the imperfections of the cultural moments, he says. You have to hop on it when you have to hop on it, or you might miss it. But also know that it’s not a strategy to just wait for the next cultural moment either. You want to create those moments as well. So it’s a balance.
For well over a decade now, consumers have been used to new iPhones coming out in the fall, like clockwork. However, according to a series of reports, Apple may be planning to change its iPhone release schedule drastically. The change could significantly impact when you can buy your next preferred model of the iPhone. It could also provide Apple with several key advantages in an increasingly competitive smartphone landscape.
A staggered iPhone release
Apple released the original iPhone on June 29, 2007. For the following three years, Apple released a new iPhone every June or July. But in 2011, Apple altered its iPhone release window, shifting to a fall launch date for the iPhone 4s. Since that date, Apples new family of latest and greatest iPhones has launched every fall, with the exception of the iPhone SE (which was historically not considered part of the latest iPhone family) and this years iPhone SE replacement, the iPhone 16e.
Yet, according to two reports this weekone from The Information and one from respected TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo2025 is the last year that Apple will launch an entirely new iPhone family of entry-level and premium phones in unison in the fall. Instead, beginning in 2026, Apple will move to a biannual iPhone release schedule, which will see the pricier premium iPhone models launch in the fall, and the cheaper entry-level and budget iPhone models in the first half of the following year.
You can still expect to see Apple launch the new iPhone 17 family in full this fall: most likely the entry-level iPhone 17 and the premium iPhone 17 Slim/Air (the exact name of the new, thin iPhone is uncertain at this point), iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max. But this will be the last year Apple releases entry-level and premium family members at the same time. (The budget iPhone 17e is expected to debut in Spring 2026 as is usual for the budget model).
Starting in 2026, though, things will change. Apple will launch the premium iPhone 18 series models, including the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and iPhone 18 Slim/Air, along with a new foldable iPhone 18 in the fall. However, the entry-level iPhone 18 and budget iPhone 18e wont be released until approximately six months later, in the spring of 2027.
This new staggered release schedule is sure to irritate some consumers, particularly those who enjoy buying the entry-level new iPhone model every September. However, the change will benefit Apple in several ways.
Chinese competition
The Information was the first to report on Apples planned release schedule changes, followed a few days later by a report from TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
Kuo suggested that one of the main reasons Apple was shaking up the iPhone schedule was to give the company an advantage in China, which is Apples second-largest market after the U.S. According to Kuo, Apple is facing intense competition in China, and since many smartphone manufacturers now release phones in China in the first half of the year, this leaves Apple at a disadvantage.
Traditionally, when competitors launch their new phones in the first half of the year, Apple is selling a phone that is already six months old. Thats not great optics from a marketing perspective. By moving the iPhones entry-level and budget e versions launch to the first half of the year, Apple can market new phones while its competitors are doing the same.
This benefits Apple not only in China but also around the world. Springtime has historically been one of Apple’s slower sales periods because the company does not usually have a major new flagship iPhone product launch at that time. However, by launching the entry-level version of the latest flagship iPhone series in the spring, Apple can boost its sales during this period.
Compelling consumers to buy pricier models
Having a fresh new flagship phone on the market isnt the only advantage Apple can gain from staggering its newest iPhone family launch across two different points during the year. The strategy may also encourage consumers who desire the latest iPhone to upgrade to the premium model instead of waiting another six months for the entry-level model to be released.
For example, someone who really wants a new iPhone 18 in 2026 will need to opt to purchase one of the premium iPhone 18 models, which is expected to include the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, iPhone 18 Slim/Air, and foldable iPhone 18. They wont have the option to buy the cheaper iPhone 18 or iPhone 18e until around six months later, in 2027.
Delaying the less expensive models by six months may compel some consumers to opt for the pricier premium ones instead, ultimately benefiting Apples bottom line.
Easing manufacturing bottlenecks
Finally, Apple could also benefit from a manufacturing perspective if it shifts to a biannual iPhone release schedule, as The Information pointed out (via MacRumors). Currently, Apples manufacturing partners around the worldbut primarily in Chinamust bring on tens of thousands of workers every summer to assemble iPhones for the fall launch.
Bottlenecks can easily occur in the manufacturing chain if enough workers aren’t available. However, if Apple staggers its iPhone rollout throughout the year, Chinese manufacturers may not need to staff up at the levels traditionally required. As a result, it is less likely that labor shortages will impact iPhone launch dates and availability. This may help Apple mitigate some manufacturing risk, which could otherwise delay product launches and thus hurt sales.
2025: The last year for a unified iPhone family launch?
Of course, it should be noted that Apple hasnt confirmed plans to transition to a biannual iPhone release schedule in 2026and the company will likely not announce anything until it unveils the new premium models that fall.
Still, the move does make a lot of sense for the company from both a marketing and financial perspective. Given that The Information and Kuo both have good track records when it comes to reporting on Apples supply chain plans, the change seems more likely than not.
What that means for consumers is that 2025 is probably the last year that Apple will launch the full family of the newest iPhones simultaneously, marking the end of an era of sorts for the iPhone.
Andrew Hoffman is a professor at the University of Michigans Ross School of Business. He has been writing and teaching about business and environmental issues for almost 30 years, having published 18 books and over 100 articles. His work has been covered by the New York Times, Scientific American, Time, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and NPR.
Whats the big idea?
We need to rethink business education. If we keep producing business graduates who care only about making their wallets fatter and exploiting a broken system, then were doomed. Its urgent that we reshape how we teach business in higher education so that we create a different kind of business leader. We can alter business for the better and fix the market by changing the graduates we produce that go on to run those businesses.
Below, Andrew shares five key insights from his new book, Business School and the Noble Purpose of the Market: Correcting the Systemic Failures of Shareholder Capitalism. Listen to the audio versionread by Andrew himselfin the Next Big Idea App.
1. Shareholder capitalism is broken
Todays version of capitalism is shareholder capitalism. It doesnt work anymore for the purposes for which it was designed. Im not saying we need to throw it out, but we must amend it. We need to fix it.
There are many key concerns in the market, but two stand out in particular: climate change and income inequality. The market, as presently structured, is unable to address them. If we dont change course, we will not solve them.
While some people conveniently call these problems externalities or unintended consequences, theyre actually products of the system. In its current design, the market creates these problems, and the consequences could be catastrophic. We already see the cost of climate change and rising home insurance rates nationwide. We watched in horror as the Los Angeles fires raged, and they have now led to insurance issues. The total cost of climate change could reach as high as $22 trillion by 2100 if we do not do something soon.
Its best to think of climate change not as an environmental issue, but as a systems breakdown. To fix a systems breakdown, you must fix the system that caused it. That system is todays variant of capitalism.
2. Shareholder capitalism is failing business education
Todays business schools were designed for a world that no longer exists: a world fixated on 50-year-old notions of shareholder primacy and a greed is good mentality. Outdated ideas and models about the world and society have been ossified into the standard curriculum.
We need to change how we teach business. Simply adding an elective on climate change or income inequality while the curriculum remains focused on models that worsen these problems wont work. We must change the entire pedagogy, the entire curriculum.
3. Its time to rethink capitalism, business, and the market
Surveys show that young people, Gen Z, and millennials are becoming increasingly disenfranchised with capitalism. Its not hard to understand why, considering the debt load they carry and the difficulty they have in getting financially on their feet. They worked hard to get their degrees, and now theyre struggling. But when I ask my business school students, What is capitalism? they either dont know or take it as given.
We need to help students understand that capitalism is a set of human-made institutions. If it doesnt work, we need to amend it to serve the needs of present-day humans. We need to teach students how to be stewards of capitalism so that they recognize their role in making sure that the domain in which they practice their craft works properly. Shareholder capitalism is starting to groan, creak, and collapse under its own weight.
Students are blown away when they learn about Nordic capitalism, which offers a massive social safety net.
Unfortunately, all business students and almost all business faculty today are only familiar with one type of capitalism: todays shareholder capitalism, which arose in the 1970s and 1980s. They dont understand the capitalism that came before, in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. Back then, it was managerial capitalism. Business education must help graduates find their voice to become part of a conversation about which capitalism will replace shareholder capitalism. We can teach people that there are multiple variants of capitalism around the world. I do this in one of my classes. Students are blown away when they learn about Nordic capitalism, which offers a massive social safety net.
American capitalismshareholder capitalismis just one variant. Its very different from Nordic capitalism. Its very different from Chinese capitalism. Its important to understand what makes capitalism work. What is its essence? How do we keep that and improve it? What is the purpose of firms? I could walk up to any American and ask them to finish this sentence: The purpose of corporations is to? And their answer will be make money for the shareholder. Economically, that is true. Economists have clung to the idea that companies are there to make money for shareholders, but legally. this stands on shaky ground. If you want to sue a corporate executive because they didnt make shareholders more money, you will have to go through the Good Business Rule, which says that they acted in good faith with loyalty and due care.
The American Law Institute says the company can be designed for any purpose. Even Sam Alito, a conservative Supreme Court justice in the Hobby Lobby decision, said the same thing. Companies can be designed to do other things besides making money for shareholders. If a company fixates on shareholder value, it forces them to fixate on short-term thinking. Look at what Boeing is going through right now. They used to be a company that made the finest quality airplanes in the world, but after their merger with McDonnell Douglas, they started focusing on quarterly returns instead of their craft.
What if we go back to what Peter Drucker said in the mid-1900s? That the purpose of the corporation is to identify and serve a market. How much money it makes is a measure of how well it does so. That changes the order of things and makes for much healthier companies.
4. The relationship between business and government
The question of governments relationship to the market today has boiled down to simplistic dualities: conservative versus liberal, socialism versus capitalism, more versus less. We need to start thinking about what the right level of government in the market is.
Thats particularly true today as we see our country moving more and more into the land of industrial policy. In the Biden administration, we had the Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS, which are very much the government trying to steer the market in a certain direction. Already in the Trump administration, we have a heavy relince on tariffs, which is also a form of industrial policy as it is an attempt to protect domestic industries.
Too many of my students think that all lobbying is corrupt.
We can also start thinking about the role of business in policymaking. Too many of my students think that all lobbying is corrupt, when in fact, business has a strong role to play in making good policy. Few business schools have a course on lobbying, and fewer still have a course on constructive lobbying, meaning lobbying for public good rather than individual gamesmanship.
5. The need for a new kind of business school
We need to fundamentally rethink business school and what it teaches. We must stop teaching outdated models and ideas, such as that the firms purpose is to make money for shareholders. We must think about government less as an intrusion on the free market and more as an arbiter of it properly functioning. We must stop promoting the unrealistic idea that unlimited economic growth is possible. We must stop teaching that the environment is an unlimited source of materials and an unlimited sink for waste. We must stop teaching that efficiency is always good.
I have a colleague who says that we worship at the altar of efficiency if it lowers costs. For example, we have auto plants here in Michigan and it may be efficient to move them to another country, but what about the people left behind? Why dont we factor that into equations as well? Classic business school teaches that people are inherently selfish.
We teach that technology can solve all our problems. Just make a new product or widget, and well get rich, solve the climate crisis, and live happily ever after. It is not that simple. We must be much more imaginative to change our society beyond techno-solutions. Once we remove and replace outmoded ideas, we need to refill the curriculum with more attention to the whole student.
We must be much more imaginative to change our society beyond techno-solutions.
Research has shown that people who apply to business school typically score higher on the traits of narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. Research also shows that a business school education amplifies these traits. Graduates tend to be more selfish and self-monitoring than when they enrolled. I see that every spring when graduation time is coming near, and people are looking at salary offers. They measure their worth by how much money they make as compared to everybody else.
Its an awful way to imprint students, but there is also evidence that todays students are starting to ask questions. Theyre starting to push back on the curriculum and challenge the idea that business school is merely there to help them make more money, irrespective of who they are as a person. The challenge for business school is trying to take that mentality, cultivate it, and guide students to consider management as a calling. We need to move people away from the idea of their career as simply a pursuit for private personal gain and toward the vocation that is based on a higher professional and moral purpose. Then we can have an economy that serves everybody.
Its a challenge to bring the entire student to the education process and teach not just the heads, but their hearts. To teach not just the how of business, but also why they are doing this. This involves cultivating the virtues of wisdom, character, and purpose.
The market is the most powerful institution on Earth. Business is the most powerful entity within it. Business creates the buildings that we live and work in, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the forms of mobility we enjoy, and the healthcare system that keeps us alive. All these things come from the market. The market has done wonderful things but it is starting to stutter. To adjust it, theres an urgent need to nurture a new breed of business leaders who view business not only as a means for profitability, but also as a vehicle to serve society.
This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
