1. Some thoughts about the Crossroads Opportunity
Presented to the
Smithsonian National Planning Meeting
September 19, 2017
Atlanta, Georgia
Charles W. Fluharty
President & CEO
Rural Policy Research Institute

2. Today’s Considerations
Our Current “Disruptive Milieu,” and Why it Matters
The Rural/Urban Tension in Place-based Policy
Systems Thinking re: Rural Futures
Some closing thoughts re: Crossroads

5. Promoting Growth
in All Regions

6. Contributions to aggregate growth depend on few hub regions…
…the fat tail is equally important - if not more - to aggregate growth…

8. “All great truths begin as blasphemies.” --George Bernard Shaw

9. III. Systems Thinking Re: Rural Advantage

10. Eight Forms of Rural Wealth / Health
Physical
Financial
Natural
Human
Intellectual
Social
Cultural
Political

11. Recent focus on wealth

12. Especially Rural Wealth

13. Characteristics of Comprehensive Wealth
Flows versus stocks (wellbeing versus wealth) Individual wellbeing is fundamentally a flow measure GDP is our most common measure of income flow But well being is dependent on wealth Wealth is a stock—the net accumulation of assets and liabilities

14. Characteristics of Comprehensive Wealth
Comprehensive wealth and multiple forms of capital 1. Financial capital Cash, deposits, stocks, bonds, futures contracts Claims on assets held by others 2. Built capital Buildings, machines, roads, bridges, parks, dams, transmission lines

15. Characteristics of Comprehensive Wealth
Comprehensive wealth and multiple forms of capital
3. Natural capital
Air, water, soil, forests, animals, minerals, etc.
4. Human capital
Education, health, skills, experience, etc.
5. Social capital
Social organization, networks, trust, markets, etc.

16. Characteristics of Comprehensive Wealth
Comprehensive wealth and multiple forms of capital 6. Intellectual capital Knowledge, books, patents, music, etc. 7. Political capital Political networks, and trust and access in these networks, etc. 8. Cultural capital Art, architecture, music, literature, sense of history and place, etc.

17. Characteristics of Comprehensive Wealth
Place-based versus people-based wealth
The bridge between place and people wealth is spatial distribution of asset ownership, liabilities and incidence of external benefits and costs
People-based wealth:
Place-based wealth:
cumulative value of peoples’ multiple capitals less liabilities
combined private, public and communal assets of a region regardless of ownership

18. Characteristics of Comprehensive Wealth
Role of the public sector in wealth creation Taxation and spending Local taxes are appropriations of local wealth National and state taxes are expropriations of local wealth Redistributes income Infrastructure Produces place-based assets through investments in infrastructure Regulation Strengthens or weakens property rights Redistributes property rights

19. Policy Implications
A superior basis for assessing economic performance Considers benefits and costs of non-market effects Considers the returns to investment in the environment, education, health, intellectual property and social capital Clarifies the concept of sustainability Sustainability is growth in comprehensive wealth Recognizes the complementarity among types of capital Environment and health, natural capital and intellectual capital, for example

20. Policy Implications
Importance of policies to encourage Education and good health Research Saving Investment Development strategies based on local assets Place-based wealth Attention to the distribution of income and wealth Across groups and places Attention to the returns to investment in public assets Relationship between public investment and private wealth creation

21. The Framework for Regional Rural Innovation
New
Narratives
& Networks
Quality of
Place
Collaborative
Leadership
Knowledge Networks & Workforce
E-ship & Innovation
Critical Internal Considerations
Wealth Creation, Intergenerational Wealth Retention, and Appropriate Wealth Distribution
Youth Engagement, Retention, and Leadership Development
Social Inclusion and Social Equity Considerations
Specific Attention to Social Mobility and Inequality

22. Three Questions: Innovating What? Diversifying How?
Transitioning Where?

23. Innovating What? How “We” Consider “Us” How We “See” Our Region
How We “Consider” Our Options
How We Support The “Connectors”

24. Diversifying How? In Our Vision of the Future
In Our Sense of Possibility
In Our Actions and Alignments
In Our New Collaborations

25. Transitioning Where?

33. IV. Some closing thoughts Re: Crossroads