Living Well in Portland

An email from Portland State U colleague Ethan Seltzer started an interesting conversation I thought I'd share...

First, Ethan pointed me to this excerpt from Willamette Week: 

"[Musician]Liz Harris is about to quit her job. It’s not a stretch by any means to say it’s a risky idea; with the economy in the tank, Oregon’s unemployment rate over 8 percent and President-elect Barack Obama facing a possible $1 trillion debt, this is not the time to leave a solid, dependable position as a social worker—unless you’re really confident in your art.

“'It’s probably a bad time to leave,' she says over tea at North Portland’s Fresh Pot. 'But a big reason why I moved here is that not only can you afford to work only a little bit and do art, but it’s socially acceptable.'”

That provoked this response from another Portlander, economist Joe Cortright who has produced much of CEOs for Cities' recent research: 

"This raises a very interesting point.  If she quits her job and pursues her art, our measured per capita income will likely go down.  Does that mean that she is worse off or that our economy is worse or our quality of life is lower?

"Based on the way we report economic statistics, there's a pretty strong bias against leisure, art, and self-actualization, unless, of course, money changes hands.  Quit your job to make music--personal income and GDP are lower.  Stay at work at buy CDs--personal income and GDP go up.

"Go for a run in the park--no contribution to economic indicators.  Pay to join a health club and run on a treadmill--big gain to GDP.

"A lot of what we have recorded as economic 'growth' in the past few decades has been monetizing work that we never paid for in the past:  think about landscape maintenance, house-cleaning, and day care, all tasks that were formerly 'household labor' (which meant women did them for no or little pay, which JK Galbraith called 'women as crypto-servants.')."

Which then spawned this reaction from Ethan: 

"Indeed, the economic development officials deserve to be driven nuts.  I suppose every community throughout history has had folks with the sentiments of this person.  They just didn't represent a very big slice of the total, though their activities gave the rest of us a thrill.  What is interesting here is the prospect that she and her cohort represent a relatively bigger slice of the pie.  On one hand Portland won't become a Fortune 500 town.  On the other, perhaps Portland has a real shot at simply becoming a place where people can live well. 

"The real challenge in all this is to figure out how to cut a ribbon on human capital...  If only we could cut a ribbon on the ideas rather than the bricks and mortar...."

  

Ken Quest, January 16, 2009

Yes the dilemma for many people especially those over 50 is how to create an encore career. One that allows them to follow their dreams and earn enough money to live on similar to Liz. My particular dream is to find a way to "monetize" social capital for nonprofit organizations, allowing them to move away from Grants and fundraising and get on with their social service work. Right now I am looking at how to quantify SROI (Social Return on Investment)for a local small town Creative Arts Council. It is also a Re-Grant organization providing mini-grants for Arts-n-Education programs that foster life-long education in creative arts. Ken Quest Creative Senior of 74

Link: www.creativeseniors.org

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