* Photo: Larry Fink * Michael Bloomberg is different. He's a politician without a party, a numbers geek in a job for orators, a local official taking on national issues like climate change and federal gun laws. He seeks out innovative solutions to complicated problems and then steps hard on the accelerator — an approach that leads to lots of success, along with the occasional wreck. Slacker students? Pay them for good grades. Junk food and cigarettes ruining our health? Ban trans fats and smoking in restaurants. Streets filled with trash and potholes? Let consumers dial 311 and kvetch to a massive call center — then dispatch the sanitation trucks. Bloomberg has two years left in office, and he says he plans to spend his retirement as a philanthropist, doling out the billions he made as a tech executive. But he might have another job in mind, too.
Wired: Let's talk about the 311 call center. People say it's the biggest technological accomplishment of the —
Bloomberg: 29,299 calls so far today.
Wired: But it's 1970s tech.
Bloomberg: It is technology from the '70s. But it's customer service from day one, from Adam and Eve. Could you email in? Sure. But most people carry cell phones, not wireless devices.
Wired: Ten years from now, will humans still answer the calls?
Bloomberg: I suspect you'll probably still have humans. You may need fewer. But in our lifetime, meaning 773 days, it's not going to change.
Wired: Paying students for good grades: That stirred some controversy.
Bloomberg: We give you a deduction on your mortgage interest to encourage home ownership. We pay you not to grow crops in your fields. There are a lot of things we do. Capitalism works.
Wired: Should you pay people to call in crime tips?
Bloomberg: No, because there would be an incentive to call in false tips.
Wired: What about paying someone who sees garbage on the street, calls 311, takes a picture, and files a nice report?
Bloomberg: We're getting that information already for nothing.
Wired: Or paying someone for having preventative medical care?
Bloomberg: You pay a young woman who is pregnant to visit a doctor before she has a baby. Sure. But if you're trying to save money, it's very different than if you're trying to help the world. For example, you might think that you could say, "Hey, it's great to pay people not to smoke, because if they smoke they'll come down with tuberculosis and cancer and we'll have to support them." It turns out the numbers are the reverse. People use so much more health care when they live longer.
Wired: Kids sit on the steps of the Brooklyn library trying to get Wi-Fi. Why can't we solve the problem that roughly half the people in this city don't have broadband?
Bloomberg: We will. That's what capitalism is all about. As there's demand, the private sector will come and fill it in. I don't believe that government is good at picking technology, particularly technology that is changing. By the time you get it done and go through democracy, it's so outdated.
Wired: People thought technology was going to revolutionize politics. It hasn't.
Bloomberg: I know. That's one of things I want my foundation to work on. People don't know who they're voting for; they don't know the politicians' qualifications. We continue to elect people who have no abilities whatsoever.
Wired: The mayor of New York City is independent, and the governor of California basically is, too. Is the country on the cusp of a movement?
Bloomberg: I don't know. There are fewer people registering in either party, that is true. Having said that, there are still a lot of structural things in place in this country to keep it a two-party system. The electoral college, for example.
Wired: Let's say you don't run for president. Would you want another independent to run?
Bloomberg: Somebody asked me about Lou Dobbs, who I don't agree with on anything. Should he run? If he wants to. If you want to run for president, run for president. If you want to run for governor, run for governor. If you want to run for mayor, run for mayor.
Wired: Will you run for governor?
Bloomberg: I'm certainly not going to run for governor. You know how cold it is in Oswego County in the winter?
Wired: So you'll run for president?
Bloomberg: I didn't say that. You said that.
*Nicholas Thompson is a senior editor at *Wired.
