You may have heard of Elkhart, Indiana. It’s nearby neighbor is South Bend, known as the last stop on the Chicago commuter train and home of the University of Notre Dame. But seemingly sister cities South Bend and Elkhart couldn’t be more different. President Obama visited Elkhart in February and is due to visit again soon.
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Downtown Elkhart from the Riverwalk.
- Image via Wikipedia
Why? Right now Elkhart is the “poster child” for our country’s economic woes. As of this writing the town is suffering from crushing 18% unemployment due mostly to the collapse of it’s main manufacturing sector. It is suffering from the dire effects of reliance on a single-industry economy.
In my opinion Elkhart suffers from the worst economic sin to befall a city or even an individual citizen: the unwillingness to rethink, re-imagine, and rebuild.
I know: as a teenager I lived in Elkhart.
My parents still live there. My mother works for the public school system. My father volunteers with a local group providing assistance to the unemployed. The city’s downturn affects everyone and everything: property values, education, civic pride. Economics drive social ills and unrest. Elkhart and its people suffer.
What happened? Elkhart, and towns like it across America got lazy the last forty years. They operated on a fixed set of economic assumptions which assumed American dominance. When things changed Elkhart refused to change with the times. Now, times are so tough the good citizens are finally desperate enough to reexamine their local economy and seriously talk about rebuilding anew.
Elkhart has a lot to teach the rest of America. Elkhart is a typical town in a country slowly waking up to new economic realities. Some people, cities, and nations avoid change at all costs. However, change is what is necessary to compete globally and strengthen economies locally.
So what does it mean to “rethink, re-imagine, and
rebuild” when it comes to your personal finances?
Rethink: A life without change or challenge is brutally
boring. The parts of your economic life that have worked in the
past may simply not work right now. What can you control? Your
future. It takes assessment of what matters and what you want out
of life. Maybe you need a change of career. Maybe you need a change
of skills. You need to rethink everything.
Reimagine: The first step towards change is imagining what
it will be like when things have changed for the better. Then, get
busy. It will take a lot of small steps to change your economic
reality.
Rebuild: Everyone has a starting point. First and foremost you need to be honest about yours. You’ll need to address your weaknesses as well as your strengths (in life, and in every economy, everyone has both!). Determine a direction and start taking necessary steps today to make real change a reality.
Remember: only you can control your economic future. But only by working with your neighbors can you change a city’s, or a country’s, economic future.
