I read Michelle Singletary's columns on personal finance almost every Sunday in the Washington Post, operating under the assumption that eventually some of her common sense will bleed into my life without any awareness on my part.
This week, I read her column and immediately started thinking about the various downtown development schemes in play around Richmond these days.
It's time, Singletary suggests, to stop thinking of ourselves as consumers.
...We track closely the results of the Consumer Confidence Survey. Ever wonder why it isn't billed as the survey of confidence among the American people -- moms, dads, engineers, teachers, social workers, bus drivers, doctors, church-goers, etc.? It's not billed that way because we've come to gauge where we stand -- for good or bad -- by people's purchasing intentions.
As Richmond enters the Dwight Jones/Kathy Graziano era of city government, wouldn't it be an interesting moment to begin to change -- or at least add to -- the measures we use to gauge our success as a city?
What if, in addition to dollars invested and commercial square footage leased, Richmond's leaders began talking seriously about the outcomes of human investment? What if the Department of Social Services initiated a Social Master Plan that mirrored the Downtown Master Plan in its efforts to engage residents in a conversation about what mattered in their lives? What if the School Board and its dramatically new membership were to create a public process that brought parents and teachers and students together to invent a different future for our educational system?
What if our leaders began to invest as much of their time and energy in the creation (or empowerment) of citizens as they in the creation of capital?
