What will the new economy look like?

Over on our Year of Hard Choices blog, there are some great new posts that take a stab at this question in a couple ways.

Jill Vaughan looks at the current agricultural economy in a micro way, and how the low milk prices affect everything in rural communities.

Ken Hebb of the Blackbird Cafe in Canton asks the big questions about where our economy is going. He says our economy tanked because all that great consumption was based on past equity (homes) or future cash flow (credit cards), and investments were – now notoriously – speculative. Here are the questions Ken asks:

Don’t think so much about why there are no jobs available, or why they will only pay you x amount. Think about how you can create value – think about the value you add to that business. Your creativity, not in the artistic sense, but in the economic activity sense is what will create the economic recovery that we all expect will come from someone else.

What are the things that we as a community can do to generate economic activity?

What are projects that we as a community can engage to make our economic future more stable and secure?

What do we need in the community for there to be economic well-being?

How can we develop these resources together?