As America approaches its 250th birthday, I’ve found myself feeling more patriotic than ever.
These days, that can be a little awkward to admit. Public expressions of patriotism can be controversial, especially on the political left. Too often patriotism is condemned as a willful blindness to America’s shortcomings or a disregard for the many people our economic and social systems and our current politics do not adequately support.
I understand that concern. America has delivered its promise unevenly, and for too many people not at all. My patriotism does not come from believing the country has already become what it aspires to be. It comes from watching thousands of Americans devote their lives to helping it get there.
I am an immigrant. My family chose to build our lives here because we believed in a simple idea: that this was a country where hard work and talent would translate into opportunity. That ideal is not uniquely American. But America has long aspired to make it more real than most places. Like many immigrants, I do not take that promise for granted because I know how unusual it is.
America has never perfectly fulfilled that promise. Too many people still find themselves locked out of opportunities others take for granted. Too many communities feel left behind. Too many families work hard without achieving the economic security they were taught to expect.
Over the last twenty years, in my career helping to build the modern impact investing industry, I have had the privilege of working alongside people who are trying to change that by expanding who has access to fair financing to turn their hard work and talent into progress.
I wrote a new book, Investing in America, because I wanted more people to meet them. (It comes out xxx)
For years, I have admired their creativity, persistence, and commitment. But spending the last year gathering roughly seventy examples of investing in America left me with a renewed appreciation for both the people themselves and what they reveal about the country they are trying to improve.
Investing in America
By investing in America, I do not mean buying shares in public companies or onshoring manufacturing. I mean finding ways to bring fair financing to people and places that mainstream capital markets too often overlook to solve the national challenges that unite us. I mean helping workers buy businesses, families buy homes, students afford education, entrepreneurs start companies, communities build infrastructure, and innovators develop new sources of energy.
The people profiled in my book are relentlessly focused on getting things done. They are unusually effective at working with people who do not agree with them on everything. They are creative in bringing together capital and purpose in ways many people assume are impossible. And they are persistent, finding ways to mobilize talent, money, and political support long after others would have given up.
In El Paso, workers used financing to buy the landscaping company where many had spent decades working. In Detroit, investors, philanthropists, and government agencies are collaborating to expand homeownership. In rural North Carolina, local entrepreneurs are bringing broadband access to communities that communications giants ignored. In Utah, clean energy investors are helping finance new geothermal energy production that could provide affordable, reliable power for generations.
What impressed me most was not that these people had all the answers. It was that they refused to accept that America’s challenges were too large, too complicated, or too political to tackle.
The more time I have spent delving into their work, the harder it is to remain pessimistic. I see how many talented, determined people are working to solve our challenges. It is difficult to believe that a country containing this many capable and committed people is destined for decline.
An American tradition
On July 4th, we can also take a minute to recognize that this kind of community-building investment is part of our creation story. Most Americans know Benjamin Franklin as a Founding Father, inventor, and diplomat. Fewer know that near the end of his life he established revolving loan funds in Boston and Philadelphia to help young tradespeople become business owners.
Franklin understood that people need access to fair financing, like the loan he received to start a printshop shortly after arriving in Philadelphia as a young man.
Again and again throughout American history, individuals have looked at barriers to opportunity and asked how capital, entrepreneurship, civic action, and ingenuity could help overcome them.
That instinct helped Americans to become home owners, helped build community banks, credit unions, worker-owned businesses, venture-backed startups, and countless other institutions that expanded opportunity to new groups of Americans.
The people in this book are carrying forward this great American tradition.
The same country that attracted my family with the promise of opportunity, and delivered on that promise, continues to produce people determined to extend that opportunity to others. That tradition does not make me believe America is perfect. It makes me believe America is worth celebrating. And fighting for.
America’s greatness has never rested on a claim of perfection. It has rested on the commitment of each generation to narrow the gap between our ideals and our reality.
At a moment when Americans are dangerously divided, we face two urgent tasks: building a fairer economy that expands opportunity and learning how to work together productively again. The people investing in America are making progress on both.
As our nation approaches its 250th birthday, I hope more people will have the chance to meet them, which is why I wrote Investing in America.
I also hoped more people would discover that investing in America is not a spectator sport. You can move your deposits to a community bank or credit union that lends locally. You can invest through community lenders and loan funds that expand opportunity. You can ask your financial advisor how your investments are helping build the kind of country you want to live in.
You can reject the idea that America’s future is something that simply happens to you. The people investing in America are not waiting for America to become better. They are helping build the America they want to see.
When you choose to invest in America in these ways, you become part of that effort. You step into a long American tradition stretching back to Benjamin Franklin and through generations of entrepreneurs, investors, philanthropists, community leaders, and ordinary citizens whose investments have expanded opportunity for others.
My book is one grateful immigrant’s 250th birthday gift to the country that has given my family and me so much.
