The Architecture of Shared Prosperity

I have been thinking about shared prosperity for a long time.

But the question has changed for me.

I am less interested today in asking whether we care about housing, education, health, transportation, workforce development, small business, safety, or financial inclusion. Of course we do.

The harder question is whether we have figured out how those things connect—and where concentrating our energy might actually move several of them at once.

That question eventually led me back to something very basic: work.

Not just having a job. Dignified work. Work that provides income, stability, development, some measure of agency and, ultimately, a pathway toward building something that lasts. From there, the paper asks us to think about how human capital, social capital, financial capital, businesses, institutions and community resources connect around people rather than operating as isolated systems.

That is the idea behind my new paper, The Architecture of Shared Prosperity: Dignified Work, Focus, and the Question St. Louis Must Answer.

It is partly about St. Louis, but I hope it raises a larger question for any community: Are the pieces we already have organized well enough to produce the future we say we want?

I don't expect everyone to agree with everything I have written. In fact, I hope you don't simply read it and agree.

I hope you wrestle with it.

Read the paper, then come back to my social channels and tell me what you think. What resonates? Where do you disagree? What am I missing? And perhaps most importantly: what do you believe your institution—or you personally—controls that could become part of the solution?

I will be following the conversation at #ArchitectureOfSharedProsperity.

The paper is linked here. I would genuinely value your perspective.