REFER TO GREY: Contemplations by Robert Greigos © 2007-2024

These guys are on their way to Las Vegas. Their anticipatory expectations are to strike it rich. But more realistically, they'd be satisfied with an enjoyable good time that didn't break their budgets. Can we use this picture as a model for a new economy? I think yes.

A couple of pages back I spoke of stimulating the economy not by more spending, but by creating an innovative vision and inspiring story that would motivate consumers to want to work toward meaningful change in their lives. People wanting that change become a market. Meeting the demands of that market is a business opportunity. Businesses create jobs. Jobs provide the wealth needed to realize the change envisioned by consumers. And that is exactly what the guys in that picture above are doing.

Am I saying the inspiring story for a new economy should be based on a dream of striking it rich? No, I am not. The model of human behavior depicted above is real and viable. The dream of everyone striking it rich leaves a great deal to be desired. But, the problem with the notion "a great deal to be desired" is that it adds complication. And the problem with complication is that normal people get bored by it and lose interest. Potential markets dwindle. The economy fizzles.

Many would point enthusiastically to concepts such as "green", "sustainability", "energy independence", and "stemming global warming" as viable stand ins for "striking it rich". But the problem with those concepts is they have no concrete manifestation people can hold in their hands, like wads of cash or a gun. Normal people are concrete thinkers. For them "real" is concrete, not abstract.

What innovative vision and inspiring story can we citizens, in cooperation with the Obama administration, use to motivate a viable new economy that has concrete manifestations people can hold in their hands? Answer that question and there'd be no problem getting our economy working again big time.