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On the Air: Postcards from Main Street
I figure there are two distinct ways to learn about the economy of the future.
One way is to take a visit to Wall Street: either the actual street on the Number 3 subway line or, by extension, the metaphor for the
great and the powerful at the top of our financial system. The other way is to go to the other street, Main Street, and see what people are doing about the economy at the grassroots.


Call it Eco Tourism, only in this case, the "Eco" stands for "economy." I
took some time this year when the days were long and the air was warm to
take a trip around America to check out experiments on Main Street to
shove the economy toward serving the needs of people. Contrast this, one
economic philosopher told me, to the standard idea of the economy that
demands that we serve it.


Everywhere I turned, it was easy to find examples of hard-working people
trying to orient their economic efforts locally and regionally and to use
their commerce to build relationships with individuals even as they worked
to cement the bonds of community. Building a "relationship economy, not a
one-night stand economy," was the phrase I heard.
I found worker-owned
co-ops in Ohio and Texas helping people take more control of their economic
destinies as they build assets and resilience. I found a kind of
newfangled "chamber of commerce" in the state of Washington working to get
business folk and other engaged individuals to think long term about
jobs, their community and their environment. I found a very different
conception of banking in the Midwest, which you can hear more about on our Marketplace story on Bremer Bank, which has 100 branches in three Upper Midwest states.
Listen to the story here:
And in my home state of Maine,
people developed a system to trade hours of their skills, not dollars,
again to build a new kind of economy that tries to address some of our
most pressing and vexing challenges, creating jobs - or better yet,
livelihoods.


I have to say I met great people and had a ball on on this exercise in
Eco(nomic) Tourism. Some of the results are on the radio on Marketplace as
part of this Economy 4.0 project. And on television, PBS is airing my
Fixing the Future special.
When folks hear and see how much economic
innovation is going on, removed from the typical centers of finance, I
hope they will be inspired. However, they shouldn't be surprised. De
Tocqueville found fascinating experiments in democracy when he roamed our
country nearly two centuries ago. In the 21st century, it is the
experiments in the economy that are flourishing.
Watch a trailer for David Brancaccio's PBS series, Fixing the Future:
Watch the full episode. See more NOW on PBS.
Photo at top: Monument of old oil cans, Casselton, North Dakota. (David Brancaccio 2010).
David,
This is pretty awesome. It's encouraging that there are places in this country that realize that the best way to fix the macro-economy is by starting with the micro-economy.
I was just reading about the bailout in Ireland and the increasing gaps between rich and poor all the while wondering if the money we use to feed this gigantic black hole that represents the macro mess we're in can actually make a difference on Main Street. What we need is a different economic model and a different kind of currency. Your series illustrates just that.
Thank you for giving a hopeless cynic a little hope.
