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Mark Trahant
ICT
What does a healthy economy look like? That depends who you ask. An economist might point to charts and data about where jobs are or how money is being spent. A politician would have a different answer, pointing to a program that’s designed to improve lives … or cut taxes for others.
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences took a different approach. The Commission on Reimagining the Economy asked, what if the economy was measured, and considered, based on how people are doing?
“An economy should be judged not only on its efficiency and productivity but on its ability to improve people’s well-being,” said the commission’s report, Advancing a People-First Economy. “A lack of economic security and opportunity fosters distrust of the political and economic system, a distrust that threatens the nation’s social fabric, its institutions, and the ability of those institutions to provide security and opportunity for Americans.”
A disclosure: I am a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and participated in the commission as a member. I also conducted listening sessions with small groups of people in Arizona, Montana and virtually.
One of the commission’s premises is the link between a healthy economy and democracy. David Oxtoby, the Academy’s president, put it this way: “We sought to ascertain and advance how Americans are doing, not simply how the economy is doing. That commitment enabled us to work across disciplines and divides to develop the final report and the data dashboard.”
This week on the “ICT Newscast with Aliyah Chavez” I talked to Megan Minoka Hill, Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, who was also a member of the commission.
The report is divided into three sections. “So the first section is focused on security. The second section is opportunity and mobility. And the third section is democracy,” Hill said. “And of those three sections there’s 15 recommendations and one is really focused on Indian country and the importance of self-determination and institution building in relation to nation well-being.”
The report’s 13th recommendation: “Support tribal governmental infrastructure to advance Native American self-determination.”
“Self-determination through self-governance is the only policy that’s ever worked in Indian country to sort of tackle some of these issues of economic and social well-being and Indigenous nation rebuilding,” Hill said. That’s a message – core thinking – that can “ help our neighbors and partners, whether in the federal government, the state government or even philanthropy.”
A second recommendation that could improve the economic well-being of tribal nations involves tax policy. The report’s 12th recommendation: “Revise the tax code to incentivize work and end tax policies that benefit the wealthy.”
Embedded into this recommendation, Hill said, is the idea that tax policy is an important idea.
Hill said tribal nations don’t have the full powers of taxation, yet must provide all the same services as other governments, from trash collection to educational curriculum. “And, so there’s this sort of of extra burden placed on tribal nations where to fund those things, they have to then utilize tribal resources from tribal enterprises and things like that.”
The report’s 8th recommendation is to: “Expand Broadband Connectivity for Rural, Tribal, and Underserved Urban Areas.”
The report says too many Americans, including those in tribal communities, still lack access to broadband and that is “vital to the economic health of these communities.” The report said: “While broadband access does not guarantee the vitality of a community, the lack of it guarantees substandard outcomes across all measures, from health and education to civic participation and economic opportunity.”
Another set of recommendations that could benefit tribal communities is the commission’s focus on economic security.
What happens, for example, when a social welfare benefit expires because the participant makes only a few dollars above the program’s income limits? The answer is to transform “a social insurance system with cliffs into one shaped like a gradual curve that eases people off via a scaled and appropriate gradient. We believe that no one receiving social welfare benefits should ever be made worse off as a result of earning an extra dollar.”
The report also creates a new metric tool, the CORE Score. This looks at data at the county level, measuring 11 indicators across four categories: economic security, economic opportunity, health, and political efficacy.
This data reflects mixed results, partly because using county-level data is not always helpful to Indigenous communities. But there are some interesting points. Apache County Arizona, for example, shows the income inequality on the Navajo Nation along with the political potency. This is a data point missed by almost every other measure. On the other hand there is no information from Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota, likely because the county itself has so little infrastructure. But it’s a start.
Several other recommendations in the report have an important, if not direct, call to action. For example a call to increase housing supply.
In two listening sessions in Montana I heard from people that see access to housing as a crisis, both in tribal communities and in cities where affordable housing is scarce. Indeed, the report says the crisis is nationwide.
“The lack of access to affordable homes is partly due to a historic housing shortage, as low supply and strong demand have caused prices to skyrocket. One 2022 study found that the United States is 3.8 million homes short of meeting its housing needs, a number that has doubled in the past 10 years.”
The commission recommends rethinking zoning laws and to create incentive-based tax credits to encourage developers to build more affordable housing units.
“Built into America’s reputation as a land of opportunity is the promise that, by working hard, people have a realistic chance to better their circumstances. But for centuries, non-White Americans were systematically locked out of this promise,” the report said.
To move that promise forward, the commission calls for a rethinking of education and occupational licensing requirements.
“Occupational licenses are required for employment in many professions, from beauticians and real estate agents to school bus drivers and security guards. Nationwide, roughly one-quarter of all jobs require a license of some kind,” the report said.
“Licensing erects barriers to job entry, hampers interstate mobility, reduces the supply of professionals in licensed fields, increases prices, and reduces access for consumers. It also negatively affects economic growth,” the commission said. “States should reexamine their licensing requirements and repeal those for professions that do not affect health or safety. States should also enter interstate compacts to recognize licenses from other states.”
I would add tribes to that equation.
The commission said there needs to be a better post-high school education framework.
“Although many high school graduates go on to earn a four-year college degree, well more than half of young adults today do not, including roughly three-quarters of Black and Latino young people and almost 90 percent of Native American youth,” the commission said. There are many ways that could occur, including partnerships with employers and community and tribal colleges.
The report concludes: “While the last few decades have been a period of innovation and growth for the United States, many people have not sufficiently benefited from these economic advances. Our analysis of how Americans are doing—rather than how the economy is doing—explains why many Americans feel it is harder than ever just to get by, not to mention get ahead. They sense that opportunities have not been opened to them or others like them. They feel burdened by the weight of historical and racial inequities. And they believe their communities have not been given a fair chance of thriving in the current economic and social climate. The real barriers and the perceived skews of economic possibilities have had profound effects at all levels of American life: on civic cohesion, family stability, educational ambition and attainment, even life span. Skewed economic opportunity may not be the only cause of political polarization and extremism. However, a widespread sense of being left out or ignored intensifies the tensions that always exist in diverse societies in times of rapid change.”
Read the full report: Advancing a People-First Economy.
Help ICT make strides in 2024. Our goal is to raise $150,000 by the end of the year with generous contributions from funding partners and collaborators like you. We’re thankful for your support, and we’re thriving because of it. DONATE TODAY!