New Opportunities Needed
In Locales Across The Land

Americans have created so many opportunities for themselves over time that the country eventually became known as the Land of Opportunity. Today that is lost on many. Three of the towns in this study are doing everything they can to keep from drying up and blowing away.

The lone exception among the four is Concord, MA., which is doing just fine thanks to its proximity to Boston. Its good fortune is duly noted. Jack in Concord: The availability of opportunities is very unequally spread around the country in the current economy.

Those hurting most are typically those caught in the middle – by income and by geography. They constituted what was once the middle-class and/or they are located in the vast open spaces in the middle of America. As the economy shut down in the early stages of the pandemic, the long lines stretching into the distance at food banks nationwide dramatically revealed how many Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.

In a great many cases, that’s because good-paying jobs have disappeared due to all the familiar reasons: Automation, consolidation, globalization, downsizing, outsourcing, and off-shoring. And despite best efforts, those jobs are very hard to replace.

Bettis in Edgefield: So many of the avenues of economic development and economic prosperity have been going down the tubes. Manufacturing, agriculture. Used to be you could take the family farm and turn it into a prosperous enterprise. Very difficult to do that anymore.

Pat in Superior: We are doing everything we can to put on lipstick and make us look viable and attractive to those young entrepreneurs, but it is difficult.

“New Opportunities Are Needed In Communities Across The Land” is the ninth of “10 principles to unite America” that look both to the past and to the future, reminding us of what we hold dear as Americans and at the same time challenging us to do better. They stand out as common purpose for our nation.

Introduction to this project

Use of uncommon methods

Based on four very different locales

What to do about the exodus of jobs from so many small towns is stumping most everybody. Some would like to believe it is within the power of each community to fix their problem, or that it should be. The unfortunate truth, however, is that these economic doldrums are too pervasive, the causes too deep-rooted. Once flourishing towns are up against economic forces much larger than they are.

Carmin in Concord: I don’t think at the local level, communities have the resources to fix this. The problems are regional, national and international.

While local initiative will always remain imperative, the situation requires a response that is much bigger than any one town. Those who have ample opportunity need to keep plowing forward, but for everyone else opportunity needs to be re-envisioned. What impetus can be provided and by whom to bring jobs to the people, or people to the jobs? What new frontier will restore the aspirations to what for so long was a nation of strivers?

The general public isn’t sure where to go with this. When asked what the remedy might be*, 39% of voters favored attracting new jobs to distressed areas, 32% were inclined to identify new industries that bring new jobs, and 14% thought local industries should be protected by banning imports. The remainder said something else or not sure.

Mike, a retired economist and business school dean, in Concord: This is what leadership is all about, helping us to see the future and getting ourselves organized and prepared . . . to keep opportunity and promise alive for the citizens.

We fancy ourselves as the Land of Opportunity. Today, perhaps particularly in all those out-of-the-way communities across the land, new opportunities are needed.

* Our Common Purpose’s nationwide poll of 1,500 voters conducted by SurveyUSA in June 2020.