University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
Broken
Book

Broken

How Our Social Systems Are Failing Us and How We Can Fix Them

Paul LeBlanc
Matt Holt Books, 2022
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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Engaging
  • Insider's Take
  • Inspiring

Recommendation

University president Paul LeBlanc offers a sweeping yet detailed indictment of US institutional failures to meet human needs, and issues a clarion call to repurpose organizations to better serve humanity. LeBlanc outlines how to put people at the center of ailing social institutions and business models, including the creation of more co-operatives and public benefit corporations. He also advances a pioneering employment scheme to address AI disruption: a “human work initiative” to match people with human-focused work that can’t be replicated by machines.

Summary

Social systems in the United States are failing the people they’re meant to serve.

Social institutions are falling short of their important mission to serve humanity. The United States spends astronomical sums on higher education, health care and criminal justice, for example. Yet those systems continue to come up short. Education fails the students it’s meant to educate; health care fails to care for patients; and criminal justice fails to rehabilitate prisoners.

In K-12 education, the United States spends the most per pupil among developed countries, yet outcomes lag behind. In higher education, the United States spends about $632 billion a year, yet still manages to saddle students with $1.7 trillion in debt – the highest debt load in any industry other than mortgages. And higher education still remains out of reach for most Americans. Roughly 60% of those over 25 don’t hold a university degree.

The same pattern reveals itself in health care. The United States spends more per person than most other developed nations, yet health outcomes prove relatively poor by comparison. Collectively, about $3.8 trillion is spent on health care annually, yet 28 million...

About the Author

Paul LeBlanc is president of Southern New Hampshire University, the largest nonprofit provider of online higher education in the United States. He is a recipient of the prestigious TIAA Institute Hesburgh Award for Leadership Excellence in Higher Education and has served on the Board of the American Council on Education. LeBlanc is the author of Students First: Equity, Access and Opportunity in Higher Education.

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