In a series of columns, I have tried to articulate just what Occupy Wall Street could do to move this nation forward. Meanwhile, our politicians engage in the politics of smoke-filled rooms rather than the economics of mutual empowerment. Our nation wants reform, and we all harbor hope that Occupy Wall Street can provide an impetus for change, hopefully based on some sensible principles.

First, we must accept that change must be productive for all. Economists employ the Pareto Principle that is almost universally condemned in politics of late. This foundation of economics advocates for action if the gains of change do not exceed the losses. A corollary states that we should proceed only if some of the gains of winners are used to compensate the costs to losers of any change or displacement.

This principle is not unique to economists. It is also shared by physicians, dating back to the Hippocratic Oath. First, do no harm.

Our hope for win-win solutions motivates our current disgust with politics as usual. National politics has degenerated to win at any cost, and sometimes even to political revenge and mutually assured destruction. Lost are solutions that increase the size of the economic pie and improve its fair division.

Distasteful partisan talk does little but widen the divide between our social classes and increase our cynicism. Yes, even billionaires know that reform is necessary. However, to demonize well-intentioned individuals of any ilk only makes compromise even harder to forge.

We must also put aside our worst self-serving human tendencies and do something for humanity and for our children and children's children. And, policies must work for all concerned. It is simplistic to assume, for instance, that all salaries should be doubled, except for those making lots of money, if we do not also propose how output can also be doubled. If we cannot divine how to make people more productive, populist but childlike economic gestures are bound to fail.

Only by investing more in our future, consuming less today, and sowing the seeds of greater innovation will we create the entrepreneurship, innovation and prosperity we desire for our children. We must return to the real investment economy that built this nation, and away from the false consumption economy of entitlements and an ever-expanding government sector that has so failed Greece and Italy.

Every one of our efforts should be directed toward a more efficient, more fair and more entrepreneurial future. Only then will we pull ourselves out of the hole that is growing ever deeper with each squandered year.

The art is in how to do this. The science is that we all actually have to give up something today to create something much more tomorrow. The Occupy Wall Street movement should be about sacrifices rather than entitlements.

Such reform will be painful.

For instance, economists advocate for more investment in innovations that improve our national capacities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. There seem to be fewer and fewer students interested and prepared to excel in these STEM studies. We send our kids off to our public universities wanting them to discover themselves. However, we spend taxpayer dollars on their path to discovery rather than our path to prosperity.

We should not frustrate individualism. But nor must we subsidize it. Instead, we should create full-ride scholarships for those students who are gifted in the fields we need that will renew our innovative prominence. Let us recruit high school students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics as actively as we recruit high school athletes. Let us not discourage those that want to indulge interests in other areas too. But, let us recognize a public education should be subsidized to the extent it yields dividends well beyond the individual.

I realize it would be controversial to differentiate education subsidies based on some higher economic principle. However, the principle would better align what individuals contribute toward our common interests.

Finally, let us have the expectation that our leaders will develop and articulate a strong and ambitious vision, and that they will serve us by pursuing that vision with unflinching steadfastness. Let us have the maturity to allow them to lead rather than to pander to our every self-interested whim.

And, let us, for the first time in almost half a century, put our future before our present, and our collective interest before our self interest.

If we can elect politicians who will treat us like the thoughtful adults we each strive to be, we all can reoccupy our nation's future. If we cannot do so, some will Occupy Wall Street, while others will Occupy the Waldorf Astoria lounge. Instead, let us unite in a shared future.

After all, an "I" for an "I" will diminish our vision.

Colin Read chairs the economics and finance department at SUNY Plattsburgh. Continue the conversation at www.pressrepublican.com/0216_read.