Thrive and Prosper’s 2025 economic outlook report offers no economic justice analysis, only support for business owners and entrepreneurs

In August of 2024 I wrote about the newly created Thrive and Prosper group, or as they like to refer to themselves as a movement. Here is part of what I had to say:

Thrive and Prosper is just the latest iteration of the talent development and entrepreneurial pipeline that will allow a small sector of the local population to make money and be successful. The problem with this tired old approach is that it is just another manifestation of Capitalism 101, where given the right opportunity, you too can be financially successful.

Of course, the problem is that only a small percentage of Grand Rapids will Thrive and Prosper, since wealth creation under this model always requires profit making from cheap labor and the extraction of natural resources.

Thrive and Prosper will only benefit a few people, who will ultimately have to play the game created by members of the Grand Rapids Power Structure. However, the few that will Thrive and Prosper will also have to abandon their communities, since you can’t thrive and prosper without causing others hardship, poverty and despair. Welcome to West Michigan Nice!

In December of 2024 I once again wrote about an event that Thrive and Prosper put on, where Doug DeVos was the MC and also presented his own perspective on Grand Rapids.

“We saw that in our own community, about 4 years ago. We saw that here, very unsettled. We started experiencing some of the mob, some of the rioting and some of the lawlessness that don’t really comport with a civil society.”

These comments from DeVos clearly demonstrate his class privilege, since what happened with the uprising in 2020 was rooted not only in how the police murder and repress Black communities, but how there is deep seated structural injustice and exploitation that people like DeVos are removed from and responsible for. The DeVos family is the best example of the growing wealth gap in Grand Rapids, where a small number of people are benefiting from the labor and suffering of the majority of the population.

In the new report from Thrive and Prosper they continue to push the same agenda. Here is a brief overview of their 2025 annual report.

Thrive and Prosper acknowledges that nearly half of the population of Grand Rapids is living paycheck to paycheck, but what they offer is more support for people who want to start their own businesses.

Thrive and Prosper highlights the partnership between the following groups – Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce, AmplifyGR, Construction Allies in Action, the Center for Community Transformation, Michigan Minority Supplier Development Council, Opportunity Empowered, Opportunity Ventures and SpringGR. All of these groups are pushing for business opportunities and support for entrepreneurs, but say nothing about economic injustice or structural and systemic exploitation.

• Thrive and Prosper promotes workforce development, but only if it is mutually beneficial to business owners.
• Thrive and Prosper embraces faith communities as a necessary component in promoting wealth creation. This makes complete sense since wealth creation has nothing to do with economic justice or a radical redistribution of economic resources across the community.
• Thrive and Prosper continues their Cocktails and Cross-Pollination approach to connecting people, which provides an opportunity for people to meet and discuss “opportunities” with the very people who have created economic disparities in Grand Rapids.

What Thrive and Prosper will not talk about or not suggest are the some of the following:

• Everyone should be paid a Livable Wage.
• People should organize a union to democratize their workplace.
• Tenants should organize a tenant’s union to challenge high rental costs and exploitative landlord practices.
• How hundreds of million in public dollars will be used for projects like the Amphitheater, the Soccer Stadium, the Aquarium and the Three Towers Project, but no comporable investments in neighborhoods.
• If the GRPD budget was reduced to the 32% City Charter amount of the annual budget, there would be at least $10 million a year that could be spent on meeting basic community needs.
• That Grand Rapids has the largest wealth gap in the entire state of Michigan.

When are the faith leaders in this city going to start quoting Dr. King or using similar language to hold the government accountable with spending priorities, where militarism is prioritized, but not community needs? “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”

Thrive and Prosper is just another economic con within the capitalist system. Some will benefit, while the masses struggle to survive.