Innovation Economics

The concept of circular supports has presented economic alternatives for historically disadvantaged Americans since the nation’s early beginnings.  As such, innovation must be embraced not as a new thing, but as another underused community asset at the center of future economic growth.

Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, free blacks whose goal was to serve the spiritual, economic and social needs of Philadelphia's African-American community, modeled this concept as The Free African Society of Philadelphia.  The FAS developed as part of the rise in civic organizing following United States' independence in the Revolutionary War.

Today, the Colonial American model presents an opportunity for nation healing.  It potentially addresses the 21^st Century reality of an historically disadvantaged America and promoting a more useful environment for governing.    That it survived generations of great compromise suggests evidence of a resiliency to be factored in sustainable American futures.

African Americans represent 13% of the U.S. population and 19% of unemployed Americans.  We are disproportionately represented on welfare rolls, in educational advancement and in the nation’s prisons.  Yet, African Americans are uniquely endowed to forgive debt.  

The U.S. national debt is $14 trillion dollars and change
Source: http://www.usdebtclock.org/.


Give or take a hundred or so, that’s about $47,000 per citizen shared by 308,564,383 people.  By race, 79.96% of all Americans are white; 12.85% are black; 4.43% are Asian; 0.97% are Alaska native; 0.18% are native Hawaiian; and, 0.18% are other Pacific Islander.  Two or more races combined are estimated at 1.61%.

Strategy for Increasing Community Assets

Youth Achievers USA Institute, a national 501c3 public charity, and parent corporation for TheEnterpriZe, explores opportunities for reinvesting in American youth as “assets, and therefore not liabilities to their community.”

The United States Government (45 CFR, Chapter XXV, § 2520.30) defines “community assets” as information that strengthens our ability to meet community needs.
 

A proposed strategy invites scholarly discussion centering on Asset Accumulation in the African American Economic Community.  The strategy demonstrates equity in 13% of the U.S. population through the manufacturing of community assets.
 

http://www.youthusa.org/Money-n-the-Bank/Money-n-the-Bank.pdf

In an era where access to global information impacts economic growth, useful information is perhaps the most undervalued asset among historically disadvantaged Americans.  What enterprise creates jobs and sustains growth in these sectors?

• Healing
• Feeding
• Housing
• Learning
• Earning
• Living
• Giving

Equity involves a change in mindset from consumer to producer.   The primary sector of the economy extracts or harvests products from the earth. The primary sector includes the production of raw material and basic foods. Activities associated with the primary sector include agriculture (both subsistence and commercial), mining, forestry, farming, grazing, hunting and gathering, fishing, and quarrying. The packaging and processing of the raw material associated with this sector is also considered to be part of this sector. 

12 U.S. government agencies affiliated through the Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs, value Positive Youth Development as an intentional, pro-social approach that engages youth within their communities, schools, organizations, peer groups, and families in a manner that is productive and constructive; recognizes, utilizes, and enhances youths' strengths; and promotes positive outcomes for young people by providing opportunities, fostering positive relationships and furnishing the support needed to build on their leadership strengths.  

Can America’s need for 21^st century jobs, met by innovation economics, restore value where you live, learn, work or worship?