After 16 tons of reports, what do you get? Another day older

They say you want a revolution in a company town. But do you really?

I wondered that as I listened Friday morning to the sincere members of the Nevada Vision Stakeholder Group as they met to hammer out the details of their high-minded and broad-ranging study of what ails our state. The group appeared thoughtful and well meaning.

For some reason attributable either to the love of their fellow man or their long-hidden sadomasochistic tendencies, 20 people agreed to take part in the Stakeholder Group at the behest of the Legislature in an effort to chart a new course for Nevada over the next two decades. In a state where "strategic planning" is a lounge comic's punch line, it's potentially revolutionary stuff.

The Stakeholder Group's plan faces mighty challenges, not the least of which is overcoming the pervasive syndrome that finds many residents feeling they're members of an oversized company town, where their quality of life is beyond their control and, as Tennessee Ernie Ford once sang, they owe their souls to the company store.

Its preliminary executive summary, prepared by Moody's Analytics as part of a $253,000 legislative expenditure, hits many familiar notes, at once praising the Nevada dream while reminding the reader of the ongoing Silver State nightmare. Component parts include sections on sustaining and diversifying business, attracting new business, meeting societal health and recreation needs, community safety, educational achievement and opportunity, and creating an "Efficient, Effective, Inclusive and Accountable Government."

Having lived in Nevada many years, it's hard not to be cynical about such talk. (Especially that "Accountable Government" stuff. Who writes their material, Jon Stewart?) Previous committees have met in earnest, compiled data, published reports, and watched those reports molder from neglect.

The Stakeholders Group draft summary is already being assaulted for calling for tax increases, tapping into federal funding, creating bigger government, and -- worst of all -- looking at things in a new way. In the company town, we dream small, fear the powerful, and are frightened of change.

The group partly restates the obvious: Nevada is broken. Its business climate, tax structure, public education system, and seething social ills are neither beacons to commercial diversification nor heralds of our winning quality of life.

But it also suggests a long wish list of things -- from a high-speed rail system linking Las Vegas and Reno to a super highway between Southern Nevada and Phoenix -- that will help make this a better place to live.

My favorite is Part Three: "Meet Needs for Food, Shelter, Health, Culture, and Recreation." Proactively encouraging adults to quit smoking, lose weight, and exercise more sounds great. Trouble is, we live in a place that promotes smoking, drinking, gambling, overeating, and a sedentary lifestyle.

It's not as if diversifying the company town's economy will be any easier than getting the population to quit tobacco and lose that beer belly.

To achieve any of these admirable goals, it will take an active and informed voting public and independent leadership in the governor's office and at the Legislature. Cutting government is easy. The hard part is changing it so it actually helps improve the quality of life.

Unfortunately, the track record of the Legislature is riddled with timidity and the suffocating influence of special interests. Legislators with big goals for Nevada have a history of serving in isolation.

The Stakeholders Group should be applauded for asking salient questions. But in the end, it's not that committee or the current gaggle of government leaders who will break the stranglehold of the company town and make Nevada a better place to live.

It's you who will either demand more or accept the status quo and continue to owe your soul to the company store.

Let's be honest. What are the odds?

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/smith.