Rather than chasing lessons from nations that look nothing like us, what if the answers were already here—hidden in the communities that had managed to become breakout stars? We're told to build a welfare system like the Nordics, create high-speed rail like the Japanese, develop renewables like the Europeans. But our nations are too dissimilar, our cultures too different, our legislative systems too far apart. Comparable communities within the US hold the keys to move from poverty to prosperity. ​​