“The Challenges of Leadership in Our Times” Former CIA Director and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta discusses the growing challenges and turmoil facing the United States before a February 6, 2024 meeting of The Economic Club of Florida.Show Notes (for complete Show Notes, please visit https://economic-club.com/podcasts-and-summaries/)Leon Panetta briefly told the Club about his background including reminiscences of Floridians he had worked with in Congress in the late 1970’s and 80’s, Senator Lawton Chiles and Congressman Claude Pepper.  He recounted how his parents were immigrants from Italy in the 1930s and how they believed they could give their children a better life in the United States.  His father instilled in him the idea of service.“I really felt it was important to give something back to the country.  And frankly, what I'm trying to do here with the Panetta Institute is trying to develop a new generation of leaders for our country. And man, do we need a new a younger generation of leaders in this country,” he said.  “The rewards in public service are not money or power, or having a name on the door.  The purpose of public service is to improve the life of people in this country.  And I felt that I could help improve the lives of the people.”The former military Intelligence officer pointed to how recruitment across the military services is down.  “The reward in public service is a reward that goes to the heart of what our democracy is all about, which is that all of us owe a duty to country. But one of the things I'm sensing in young people is that they don't have that same drive that same sense of duty to country.”Mr. Panetta deplores the lack of public service in young people today, and throughout his discussion, he suggested ways to get them more interested and working on improving lives.“Looking to the future, what we really need to do with young people is establish a national service system that requires young people to serve this country, in some capacity, whether it's in education or conservation, or health care, or the military.  It would be a hell of a lot better for them to pay for college, working for this country than simply borrowing the money to go to college like they do now.”  That suggestion drew a big round of applause from the audience.He added, “If we don't build a good future generation of leaders, we will continue to have problems with our democracy.”  (for complete Show Notes, please visit https://economic-club.com/podcasts-and-summaries/)