In this installment, I’m starting a list of investments that might be worth making even if you don’t reap a monetary return, or even any kind of direct material return.
Here are a few examples:
-Plant rye, clover, or other regenerative groundcover on a denuded empty lot that has suffered wind and water erosion from excess mowing or other degenerative landscaping practices.
-Invest in a local farm.
-Invest in a local grocery store.
-Ditto: local welding shop.
-Sponsor a mural in a blighted ethnic/historic neighborhood.
-Devote time to neighborhood marketing — helping people find stable living arrangements by connecting them with owners of houses or apartments in your neighborhood that are currently unoccupied.
-Invest in your own training/education to gain knowledge and skills that you know will benefit your household and community even if it doesn’t produce a monetary return in the form of a higher-paying job, etc.
When deciding where and how to invest our money, we have to be brave. We have to remember that monetary returns are just one tiny piece of the equation. Money won’t do any of us much good if we allow our communities to continue to be afflicted by loss of tree cover; degraded soil; tattered social fabric; insufficient coverage of basic human needs; skills-drain.
What would be on your list? What would you add to the list above?