New Project: Chapter 28
Sometimes I feel overwhelmed. The task seems daunting – impossible even. How do we change a culture? How do we combat the insidious nature of mass media, corporate control, clandestine government, fundamentalist religion, and all the mechanisms designed to ensure we police ourselves into compliancy with everything that is against our own interests and that of most of the world?
It’s easier to abdicate, medicate, and be entertained. Easier to be numb than experience first shock, then pain. And yet, once seen, the enemy of human decency and social welfare cannot be unseen. The genie won’t go back in the bottle. Knowledge is first a weapon, then the tool necessary for change.
There is no way to take down the corporate elite en masse. Conventional revolution won’t secure our common interests or ensure the needs of the many. No amount of violence, protest, or boycott is enough to stem the evil that is neoliberalism and make the world okay.
But there is a path. Knowledge and generosity can build on the existing framework, creep over it like vines until it ceases to be itself. The moment we decide to stop giving corporations, government, and the wealthy elite power over us, we empower ourselves and each other. Equality – liberty, empathy, and economic independence – is only possible through a focus on collective well being.
Some will call me a socialist or communist. I am neither. I believe in democracy with my whole being, but the democracy I envision is one where popular vote matters and where social responsibility is inherent to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. No one is immune to tragedy. Innate intelligence, talent, and skills cannot protect us from illness, the death of a loved one, or a job lost to cheap labor in foreign countries. Rugged individualism is anathema to our self interests. It ensures continued loneliness, hopelessness, and despair and remains the greatest threat to our planet. If we could all just pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, we would have done it long ago. Hillary Clinton said, “It takes a village to raise a child.” More, it takes a village to sustain itself.
Homogenization – via food and discount chains, national banks and big box stores – destroys local culture and economy while robbing us of our common humanity. Cheap is an unsustainable illusion, possible only through tax breaks for wealthy corporations, commodity subsidies, and social welfare for underpaid employees. We pay these hidden costs and we pay dearly. While they impact our wallets, they also diminish our spirits and render us slaves to a system designed only to profit from us.
Corporations don’t care. People do. Most successful small business owners understand that business, to survive, must be relevant to the community it serves. Because of that, small businesses are vested in community endeavors, local non-profits, and local culture. Their prices may be a little higher than their corporate competitors, but that is because their costs are real. They are not subsidized by government. They have little access to low interest loans and can’t sell shares to raise cash. In addition, they can’t buy the quantities necessary to lower their cost of goods.
When we buy from them, we pay fairly for the goods and services we receive and keep tax dollars and wealth in our local communities. Big box stores seldom sponsor the little league team, local museum, homeless shelter, or food bank. They might have a charity component that gives a fraction of their income to education or research, but they’re not focused on building vibrant communities through personal involvement. Instead, they kill small businesses, divest us of our sense of community, and siphon profit away from local economies.
Government, regardless of who is elected, can’t stop them, but we can. After the 2016 election, national non-profits saw an unprecedented surge in donations. The ACLU, which raised twenty seven thousand dollars after the 2012 election, received 7.2 million in just eight days. In a rush to create a safety net against policies that might be enacted under a Trump administration, people gave what they could.
What if they had chosen to give locally instead? Could that influx of cash invigorate a stagnant local economy or provide for the underserved in local communities? Many liberals are quick to recognize need elsewhere, but fear to recognize it at home. While they pat themselves on the back and feel proud of their efforts to help the underserved, marginalized, and discriminated against, they ignore realities staring them in the face. Poverty is rampant in this country and it’s getting worse. Wealth and accompanying social services are concentrated in urban areas while rural populations are in dire need of healthcare, mental health programs, food security, and jobs. Travel the blue roads in any state and you will find shuttered downtowns, abandoned buildings, and faded signs from businesses long gone. In these communities, depression, drug abuse, alcoholism, and suicide are all too common. In fact, in rural areas child and teen suicide rates are more than double their urban counterparts, yet we continue to give our money to national agencies that concentrate their efforts in urban areas and buy from corporate giants rather than local stores.
In his article, How Half of America Lost Its F**king mind, David Wong said, “The recession pounded rural communities, but all the recovery went to the cities. The rate of new businesses opening in rural areas has utterly collapsed.
See, rural jobs used to be based around one big local business – a factory, a coal mine, etc. When it dies, the town dies. Where I grew up, it was an oil refinery closing that did us in. I was raised in the hollowed-out shell of what the town had once been. The roof of our high school leaked when it rained. Cities can make up for the loss of manufacturing jobs with service jobs – small towns cannot. That model doesn’t work below a certain population density.”
The loss of manufacturing jobs has certainly contributed to the destruction of rural economies. So have big box corporations. When a Walmart is allowed to open in a small town, it kills local business. Then, once local business is dead and there are no jobs, and no tax base with which to create them, and no income with which to support its business, Walmart does what’s in its best interest. It leaves and the town is destroyed. Every time we become dependent on one large entity for our well-being, we give away all the power we had to create and sustain local economies.
There are complex economic problems, to be sure, and I am not going to attempt to solve them here. However, we can take responsibility for much of what happens in our local economies. We can block big box stores from opening in our neighborhoods. We can raise funds to provide emergency relief and low-interest micro-loans to people facing temporary crisis. We can create spaces for local artists and crafts people to show their wares and revitalize declining business districts through those efforts. We can support local businesses that invest in the community and buy food from local farmers. Time banks are a way to trade goods and services without relying on credit or cash. There are many models that have been proven to work. Not all of them work in all locations and some towns may never recover from the damage done by big business and neoliberal policy, but we can make a difference if we start giving to each other instead of worrying about what we do or don’t get.
When I became head administrator for a local non-profit childcare agency, the organization was bleeding heavily. It operated after school programs at four elementary schools and couldn’t cover its expenses. The existing policy demanded that fundraising efforts finance all scholarships and lower tier employees be paid minimum wage. Turnover was high. Program quality was low. Enrollment was below subsistence level.
Immediately, I gave all employees a significant raise. Turnover slowed. I instituted a sliding scale payment plan and advertised heavily that no child would be turned away due to a family’s inability to pay. Enrollment went up drastically. As enrollment increased, I dedicated more time to training my staff. Turnover stopped. Enrollment hit peak capacity at the four schools and we opened additional programs at eight others. In a year, the organization’s revenue quadrupled and it operated soundly in the black. The math was simple. Instead of nine children paying $200 per week, I had twenty paying an average of $150 and increased revenue by $600 at each location. After the wage adjustment and a slight increase in cost of goods to support the additional children (but no additional labor), each site netted $400 per week and the organization netted $249,600. That allowed us to provide more financial support for those in need, open more locations, pay better wages, give free childcare to our employees, improve the quality of our product, and ensure the organization’s fiscal health.
This is not rocket science. It’s taking care of people. When we care in ways that matter, we are rewarded for our efforts. When we give people dignity and respect, they give us loyalty and support.
But efforts to support local businesses and non-profit organizations do more than improve local economies; they bolster spirits and create hope. When community comes together, individuals within that community feel less isolated and more empowered. The desperation so many feel is lessened when we share our strengths and vulnerabilities. As we build relationships, we create understanding and empathy, strengthen our ability to communicate, and develop trust. This, in turn, promotes a greater willingness to invest time, energy, and money where they matter most. When we give locally, we change local culture and become models for other communities. Little by little, neighborhood by neighborhood, our efforts creep like vines and improve the world.
