You submitted your mottoes, more than 300 strong.
You voted on the six finalists.
So you, dear blog readers, are solely responsible for having chosen the United States’ new six-word motto.
The finalists were:
1. Consumption’s the Cure That Ails Us. (Submitted by Quin.)
2. We Will Get It Right, Eventually. (Herb)
3. We Are Too Big to Fail. (Jonathan)
4. The Streets Are Paved With CASH4GOLD.COM. (James)
5. Learn to Live Within Your Means. (Greg)
6. Wow, Can You Believe This Place? (Ms. Fortune)
In an incontrovertible landslide — it’s a motto we can believe in — the winner was:
We Are Too Big to Fail.
I think this would look really good inscribed on our currency and T-bills. Congratulations to Jonathan, the winner, who’ll receive his choice of Freakonomics schwag.
Here are the percentages gleaned by each of the six finalists:
We Are Too Big to Fail. (48 percent)
Consumption’s the Cure That Ails Us. (18 percent)
We Will Get It Right, Eventually. (10 percent)
The Streets Are Paved With CASH4GOLD.COM. (9 percent)
Learn to Live Within Your Means. (8 percent)
Wow, Can You Believe This Place? (7 percent)
Last year’s winning motto was “Our Worst Critics Prefer to Stay.” That would seem to have been proven true.
Hopefully this year’s motto will turn out to be just as true.
[NOTE: I discussed the motto contest on The Takeway.]
and 
. You can also watch it on 
The last three choices in the list were coinicidentally the last three choices among the audience. Choice architechture?
the bigger they are…
I’d to thank the Academy ….
I’m really disappointed that the cash4gold.com slogan didn’t win. It has a good bit of satire and cynicism all rolled up into a nice summary of current economic conditions.
Also, it has something else I love: pervasive advertising. It’s gotten so good that I hardly even Doritos when it’s happening.
wHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?
Boo. Weak.
Can someone supersize my SUV? A man of this American carriage needs a little extra wiggle room. Put it on my card…
Where’s the hope people?
Jonathan – Congratulations!
Stephen,
I was thrilled to find out I had become a finalist – I listened to the segment on the Takeaway this morning and was stunned to find out I had topped their voting list.
Thanks for letting me play!
BTW, although the motto can be read as a bit “preachy” as you discussed this morning, it was actually meant to be a bit more on the inspirational side. Several years ago I was heavily in debt, and struggling to make payments to everyone. By making some significant lifestyle changes my family was able to drag ourselves out of a deep hole.
The message was designed to share the realization that I came to about my own economic circumstances.
The advice can be applied universally to individuals, families, corporations and the Government. It requires tough choices, but applied correctly it DOES solve the main problem facing America today.
I greatly enjoyed your first book, and look forward to reading the second.
Peace,
Greg
If only we WERE too big to fail!