Mike O’Connell is a retired entrepreneur and former director of the Larimer SBDC. His career spans corporate leadership and small-business ownership (including a furniture manufacturing company). In retirement, he performs music around northern Colorado and southern Wyoming and presents a data-driven talk, “The Squeeze on the Average American,” exploring how policy choices and economic trends affect everyday Americans.

Episode Summary

Host Nick Armstrong talks with Mike O’Connell about “The Squeeze on the Average American,” a presentation built from public datasets and comparisons with other developed countries. Mike walks through charts on GDP concentration, U.S. healthcare spending versus outcomes, student debt growth, infrastructure underinvestment, defense spending, tax collection as a share of GDP, and wealth concentration over time. He argues that special-interest money and court decisions have distorted incentives, and he encourages local civic engagement (including supporting candidates, learning how city/county processes work, and using ranked-choice voting). The conversation also touches on small-business collaboration, practical uses of AI, and Mike’s life as a gigging musician.

Key Takeaways

• Mike’s presentation compares U.S. spending and outcomes to OECD peers: high healthcare costs with middling outcomes; rising student debt; and infrastructure needs that outpace investment.
• He highlights defense spending, persistent budget deficits (and interest costs), and relatively low tax-to-GDP collection as context for crowded public priorities.
• He urges residents to get informed and involved locally—supporting candidates, using civic education programs, and engaging on budget priorities—rather than relying on national fixes.
• Trends like shrinking union membership, automation, globalization, and AI are part of the middle-class squeeze and complicate simple policy answers.

Notable Quotes

• “The vast majority of our politicians… don’t work for their constituents anymore, they work for their donors.”
• “We spend a huge amount of money [on healthcare]… and we don’t get our fair benefit out of it.”
• “Significant healthcare and education costs over the last 40 years have been pushed onto the American family.”
• “We need people in office that are working for their constituents, not their donors.”
• “Significant trends… the loss of union membership, automation, globalization, and now artificial intelligence, have gutted the middle class.”
• Justice Louis Brandeis (quoted): “We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”

Resources

• Mike O’Connell (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeoconnellnoco/
• Contact: mikeoconn6@yahoo.com | 970-215-2300
• Local civic learning mentioned: City of Fort Collins classes; Larimer County 101; Poudre River Libraries programs
• Data sources referenced in discussion: OECD comparisons; PISA (student outcomes); ASCE Infrastructure Report Card (by name)