Al Gore Speech at PC Connection Headquarters in Merrimack

With that said it's my honor to introduce the vice president of the United States Al Gore. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Chuck thank you very much Chuck. Ken to Pat Galut David Hall the other distinguished guests who are here I'm very grateful for the opportunity to come here to PC connection's impressive new headquarters at post-road Plaza. I appreciate the kind words of that in that introduction and I appreciate the warm welcome that all of you have given to me. I'm especially pleased to be able to see this remarkable exciting new headquarters facility and to note that you've actually recycled an old under you strip mall and it's hard to believe when you walk around here congratulations it's fantastic.

It's beautiful. New landscaping the sky lit Galleria and a walking trail even a visitor center where your customers can search for PC Connection products on the internet. I was able to see a little display out there and a lot of exciting new products on the way and you guys are Zelnorm prepared to to sell a lot of them. I also understand that you have a special time capsule that includes memorabilia from PC connections past such as an ancient Macintosh from the early 1980s and I'm told that you're senior vice president Bob Wilkins is hoping that some future technology will enable him to be here for the unveiling ceremony and 2098. I'm.

I'm. I'm in favor of longevity for vice presidents. And. You know you talked about my role in technology. I'm glad to hear you say that this state incidentally is the number one high technology state in our union now. But somebody recently gave me an airline magazine article that listed 31 signs that technology has taken over your life. Some of you may have seen this one of the signs was if if you know your e-mail address but not your social security number. Technology may have over overtaking your life. If you rotate your screen saver more than your auto tires. Technology may have overtaken your life if you've never sat through a movie without having at least one device on your body.

Beep buzzer vibrate and number 23 this was actually on the list. Technology may have overtaken your life if Al Gore strikes you as an intriguing fella. I didn't get it. But. I'm here today for for two reasons. First of all to congratulate the employees of PC Connection on your truly stunning success. For these past 17 years and on the expansion that will create 200 new jobs for this region. And I understand 30 of you just started on Monday or any of those 30 here. Could you stand or raise your hands there in the back. Congratulations on those new jobs and we're really excited for you and it's going to mean it's going to mean a lot for the whole region.

And incidentally I do very much appreciate this service and innovation leadership award it really does mean a lot to me. And the second reason I'm here today is to issue a challenge. Today New Hampshire's economy is growing rapidly but we cannot take that growth for granted in a fast changing computer industry where the computing power of microprocessors is doubling every 18 months. Most of your wealth for mayor with Moore's Law. It's incredible to to comprehend that as powerful as these devices are now they're doubling in power every 18 months even as the cost declines. It's hard to get a handle on that. I was trying to illustrate that to a high school audience not long ago and I used a cliche one too many times where I said if automobiles had advanced as rapidly as computers by now a Cadillac would get a million

miles to the gallon and would cost only $75 and a student in the front row raised their hand and said Well yes Mr. Vice President but it would only be about that that long. And. So. You've got to be careful with those analogies. But. One thing that that we know for sure is that if you don't keep changing and innovating and stay ahead of this rapid process of change and improvement you're going to get left behind. This company has been successful because you've stayed ahead of that change and now you've got to work twice as hard to keep it going. And that means working smarter. Let's not forget and talking about this change what this state has gone through back six seven years ago New Hampshire was in the deepest recession that it had seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s. New Hampshire was losing

10000 jobs every single year during the last administration. Well the unemployment rate was 7 1/2 percent people were losing hope families were moving out of the state. Prospects looked grim. People had a kind of a dim view of the future. We put in some changes with your help that emphasized investments in people emphasized the kind of economic policy that jumpstarted growth. Now instead of losing 10000 jobs a year New Hampshire is gaining 12000 jobs a year. The unemployment rate's gone down from above seven and a half percent to only 3 percent. We're seeing families a much more able to create bright futures for their children and grandchildren more jobs available more opportunities to enable people to hold down those jobs. And this facility is a good example in 19 by 1993 when Alexander's shop and save moved out of post-road Plaza people started calling it Ghost Road Plaza.

Many of you remember back to those days the whole community was in decline. Well today there is a new New Hampshire because today this state has the highest concentration of high tech jobs in the entire nation the Granite State is now the silicon state and you're leading the way today. Right here. For you. I like that phrase some people have accused me of being in a granite state. Thanks to your hard work. And innovation we are seeing dramatic progress and there really is no better example of this dramatic change in progress in New Hampshire than the story of PC Connection. It all started back in 1982 when Pat Jalib wanted to buy her own PC. We were talking earlier. She had to drive more than two hours from Marlow

just to find one. And she thought why not. Why don't somebody just sell them through the mail so nobody has to make that two hour drive. Well the rest is history. She started in an old woodworking mill and Marlow with that $8000 investment that must be the fastest multiplying $8000 investment we've ever seen from her personal savings. And in fact she had to wait two days for the telephone to ring once but since that two days it hasn't stopped ringing at all. And by last year that eight thousand dollar investment had become a $732 billion per year success story. And PC Magazine's highest rating business in its category two years running Congratulations PC Connection. Yes. That's. Right. And that gives all of you guys the credit. And I want to thank those

on the right for leading the standing ovation when I came in. And. You really are doing a great job in keeping New Hampshire's jobs engine humming. And because of what you and others have done in our country we are now celebrating what just became the longest and strongest peacetime economic expansion in the entire history of the United States of America. And incidentally it is because first of all we have as our president one of the greatest economic stewards our country's ever seen President Bill Clinton. His leadership has been good for the United States of America. It has it has also. Come about because of an aggressive pro growth strategy. Merging three elements that had never been used in combination before first of all fiscal discipline balancing the budget for the first time in 30 years bring an

interest rates down. Building confidence in our economy our currency and our future. Number two a a policy of investing in people and making the investments in research and development and education and training in a clean environment that enable us to seize the opportunities of the future. And third open markets so that we can sell our products to the 96 percent of the people in this world who live outside of our national borders as a result we've been able to replace what was a vicious cycle with a virtuous cycle. Lower interest rates more investment more jobs more growth which in turn fuels even greater investment in the future. Six years ago our economy our economy was rated fifth in the world. Now America is once again number one in the world. How do we keep that growth going. How do we keep creating a bright future for the coming generations. Well I think what we need is a five point

plan for America's economic future. First of all we must continue to maintain fiscal discipline. Today we have not only balanced the budget. We have changed what was the biggest deficit in history into what is now the biggest surplus in history. That is a dramatic transformation and it has tangible benefits for America's business and workers back keeping interest rates low and making it possible to see this continued surge of private investment in our equity markets and in America's future. Therefore my first principle is that barring an economic reversal a national emergency or a grave foreign crisis we must balance our budget or better every single year. Secondly we must use good economic times to tackle tough long term economic problems such as what they used to refer to as the entitlement problem. That phrase was used so people wouldn't have to say

Social Security and Medicare in the same sentence with big dramatic changes that might include unwise benefit cuts or tax increases. Well now that weve had such a strong performance in our economy we have an opportunity to invest in a future for Social Security and Medicare that extends the lifetime of those programs to make them ready for the senior boom. You know those of us in the baby boom are going to be part of a senior boom 15 20 years from now. And we need to prepare for that day. And now is the time to do it. You know the old cliche about the man who didn't fix the hole in his roof when it was raining because he didn't want to go outside and get real wet but he didn't fix it when the sun was shining because he didn't need to fix it then. Well the sun is shining in America and we need to take advantage of it to fix these long term problems that is why the president why President Clinton and I have proposed a bold plan to use the budget surplus to ensure the dignity of New Hampshire seniors and retirement.

Instead of draining it away on either more spending or some risky tax scheme. Now Third we must continue the hard work of cutting regulations and reforming and reinventing our government. So it costs less and works better by using the same kinds of management principles that PC connection's has used that the best run corporations in America have used to empower employees to get rid of unnecessary layers of middle management to eliminate the paperwork and unnecessary red tape to cut the red tape not sideways but to really gut it so there's less of it and streamline and and reinvent government. We call it our Riego program. That's that's Gore spelled sideways. I've worked very hard on that program. And it has already saved us $137 billion and we now have the smallest federal government since John Kennedy was present in the early 1960s. That's progress and we need to continue that progress.

Now for. Fourth we need to continue and upgrade our investments in what people used to refer to as human capital. Translated that means education lifetime learning skills job training we now live in a time when knowledge is the key strategic resource. Learning is the key strategic skill. Information is the engine driving our economy. You guys know that your living depends on it. But it's true in every business. You know a few years ago in 1996 the chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan made a speech in which he pointed out an interesting fact if you add up the total weight of everything that's produced and sold in the United States over the last 50 years the value of what we produced has tripled but the total weight. I don't know how they added it up but they did. The total weight has not gone up at all.

What does that mean. It means that the the news value that we've been pumping into our gross domestic product has been in the form of intellectual capital information knowledge thinking the kind of the kind of thinking that you bring to work with you every single day. We're replacing a lot of the the mass of products with information and with the just in time inventory we're replacing wasted time with better control of information and since time is money when we have more job training more education higher skills we are able to make more money as a nation and distributed to employees and have it in the form of higher living standards. So we have to invest in education and job training and lifetime learning. That's what I focused on earlier today in Nashua where I spoke about the growing shortage of skilled workers in today's economy

and the kinds of investments that the president and I have been proposing. Some of them already passed in order to remove all the barriers to lifetime learning so that everybody can take advantage of it. Because PC Connection has been such a leader in this area. Incidentally I'm very proud to announce today that President Clinton is appointing Pat gallop to our 21st century workforce commission. Congratulations. Well. Some of you knew that Pat was under consideration and in competition with a lot of dynamic men and women all over the country for this role.

We met earlier at a business leaders meeting a few weeks back and of course she represented herself and you very well at the economic summit that then President elect Clinton and I had in Little Rock back in late 1992 during that transition period. This group is a new leadership group of top business executives labor leaders educators and community leaders charged with the task of finding new ways to dramatically expand lifetime learning and pad. I look forward to your ideas and your energy and your recommendations now. Fifth America must remain engaged with the world. We must resist narrow appeals to isolationism and protectionism. The products that you sell go all over the world and the components come from here. All over our nation and all over the world we are in a global marketplace. And in order to compete effectively we have to have access to the vast majority of

customers that are in other nations. That means we have to break down the barriers in the form of unfair Terria tariffs and other obstacles that other countries place in the path of our products. A sense this state is now the eighth top exporter of high tech products to the entire world. Among all 50 states it's obvious here that the continued growth and prosperity that we're counting on depends upon opening up more markets overseas. The state's exports have now grown by 89 percent just since this administration up to $2.1 billion and those exports now support 25000 good jobs here. And as we open the doors to global trade wider than ever before. We also want to create a trading system that includes strong safeguards for workers for health and safety for children and for a clean environment and America is determined to lead the way in the world economy we have a

responsibility to help reverse the financial crisis that has started in Asia and has threatened other parts of the world economy which could if it tended to cause trouble in the markets that we depend on to sell our goods. And with so many of the world's nations in recession right now the best way we can do that is by keeping our own economy growing steady and strong. Well ladies and gentlemen in closing it's obvious that here at PC Connection we have a shining example of the new economy that we have worked so hard to build. I congratulate you on your achievements here and on the bright future that is in prospect for you. It is a an economy that's built on innovation on the skills of our people on the limitless horizons of a strong economy. On the courage of investors who are willing to invest in what used to be an old facility and is now a

renewed facility in the heart of this part of Merrimack helping to bring back more economic activity to this part of this community instead of just adding to the sprawl problem. It is a great example in so many ways and we have to stick to the strategy that is working. Why would we ever go back to the failed approaches of the past that led to that deep recession and a lack of hope. We have to keep on a strategy that works and upgrade it and aim our nation toward a bright future with new competitiveness in the 21st century. And I thank you and congratulate you for giving such a great example for how we can replicate this kind of success all across America. Thank you very much for your hospitality today. Gratulations. To. Us.

This. Is. One. Thing. I. Going to go. Mr. Vice President with Dick Gephardt deciding not to make a run for the nomination do you believe that your own bid for your party's nomination is home free.

Well I don't I don't want to. Anticipate what Congressman Gephardt announcement will be this afternoon. I'll say this we are strong friends close friends strong allies with the same goals for the future of our country. Whatever decision he makes and announces later today he will play a key role in helping to build a bright future for our country and I look forward to working closely with him as a friend and partner. When you ask you for your support and you're running for president. Well I'm not going to get into private conversations. We're very close friends. We're strong allies. We have been working together. Whatever role he chooses to play he's going to be a key to to creating the kind of bright future that we deserve in this country. And I wish him very well with whatever you wish Mr. Vice President and

the president. Likes. It. Is