A Rhode Island…
…where there is an inclusive economy
…where there are excellent schools and multiple career paths
…where there is affordable, quality child care
…where there is affordable, accessible, quality healthcare
…where there is affordable, safe housing
…where there is reliable, readily accessible public transit
…where workers and business owners thrive together
…where, at the very least, everyone can meet their basic needs
…where we can prosper and thrive regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, disability, zip code, or age
…where all Rhode Islanders can have nice things
Heather McGhee begins and frames her book The Sum of Us around the question “Why can’t we have nice things?” She explains that too many of us look at life and the world and our cities and states as zero-sum games, where there must be winners and losers. Some people are even willing to lose something so others do not win more, and so they do not have to share.
If we want to achieve the Rhode Island imagined above, we must refuse to play the zero-sum game.
Instead of adopting a defeatist attitude and convincing ourselves that we must scale back our ambitions and vision for the future of the state, we must commit to finding the resources to create the conditions for broadly shared prosperity and insist that we can afford nice things in Rhode Island.
That is the vision above. What follows is a playbook for how we get there.
Not a list of policies, but a rethinking of how we do government in Rhode Island. This playbook aims to change how we think about the purpose of state government and the work of legislation and administration.
This playbook should serve as a guide to how state government can build capacity and make strategic investments, creating opportunities for a more vibrant and inclusive economy.
We begin by recognizing that we already possess the resources, talent, and imagination to invest in and build prosperity.
The five plays presented here require thinking creatively, building new relationships, and expanding beyond traditional policy silos. They are approaches for advancing constructive policies and governing for a better Rhode Island.