The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    Elusive Trope's picture

    Buy Local - The Next Step

    By Elusive Trope on Mon, 11/21/2011 - 12:30am |

    Here's a suggestion for those in the current Occupy movement: throw all the energy toward getting people to support the small businesses in their communities as the holiday season comes upon us.

    The mom and pop stores are not part of the 1% by any stretch of the imagination.  They are living month to month like the rest of us.  They are our neighbors.  Let's support them.

    This would undermine one the key attacks against the Occupy movement that it is anti-capitalistic, as opposed to being against an unfair capitalistic system.

    There is a Small Business Saturday effort out there. Maybe you have seen the commercials for it. 

    Let's keep our dollars circulating locally. 

    This is a fundamental point of attack in the effort to shift the cultural paradigm.

    Comments

    I've been doing my Christmas shopping by buying local, and also buying local food products for our holiday feasts (well--not so much feasts as a bit of self-indulgence in really great organic fruit, and something called pineapple-coconut mochi bread).  Live local, and GIVE local! 


    by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 11/21/2011 - 12:36am

    Thanks for what you are doing.  Maybe you can give the recipe for the pineapple-cocunut mochi bread - it sounds yummy.  Also thanks for the plug to give local.  There are so many charities on a local level who do things from providing the basic needs to those helping people access opportunities to advance that are suffering right now (in large part because of the current economic meltdown).  If we aren't going to tax ourselves, then we need to support the organizations that fill the gaps the government cannot.


    by Elusive Trope on Mon, 11/21/2011 - 12:42am

    While I'm sure that one can find a few hard-core socialists at OWS, it's my impression that most OWS activists enthusiastically support local economies. It's the big corporations they oppose.


    by Michael Wolraich on Mon, 11/21/2011 - 12:47am

    Exactly.  That is why throwing support behind small local businesses is so impactful from a messaging point of view.  More than just undermine the Karl Roves, it alienates the "anarchists" within the movement.  That is considering one wants to alienate the anarchists.


    by Elusive Trope on Mon, 11/21/2011 - 12:52am

    For better or worse, OWS isn't trying to undermine anyone to the left of Wall Street. As I understand it, the organization welcomes both anarchists and local economy activists.

    There are certainly anarchist working groups. I'm not sure if there are local economy working groups. If there are not, there should be.


    by Michael Wolraich on Mon, 11/21/2011 - 12:33pm

    Thanks. I read the link. Good idea.

    by trkingmomoe on Mon, 11/21/2011 - 1:18am

    Speaking of cultural paradigms I just purchased a large quantity of cheese. Despite attempts to explain the universe of cheese many folks don't realize that Cabot---a national brand---is actually a  co-op of dairy farmers, mostly from Vermont. Profits go to the farmers. Giving cheese for Christmas may seem untraditional but that's my way of supporting the "locals." 

    Trope, I think supporting the Mom and Pop's is a very good idea. I'd just like to lob in here that one of the greatest helps to the unemployed is in supporting the newer growth businesses---I list stores like Hanna Anderson as an example because a family member just ended a long period of unemployment by being hired by the company. Hanna Anderson is an up-scale clothing store for children. It's growing by leaps and bounds, well heeled Grandmothers fueling part of its growth. It may not fit everyone's definition of how to make the system more egalitarian---but when one of your own gets a job there, it's a win-win.  


    by Oxy Mora on Mon, 11/21/2011 - 10:33am

    but when one of your own gets a job there, it's a win-win. 

    Driving a Japanese car in the midwest, even though it was built in the midwest, I understand this sentiment. In the end it is about a circulation of the dollars.  Is the dollar, or a large percentage of that dollar, going to be re-spent in the same community? Or is most of that dollar going to some executive and shareholders' pocket in another community?  This does create a certain level of provincialism which can be not so good.  But (which i guess isn't a good thing) we need to focus on our local economic health. 


    by Elusive Trope on Mon, 11/21/2011 - 10:46am

    I have been following this 'movement'.

    It is interesting to me.

    It's like the store fronts in the old down towns vs. the malls that sit just off the 'newer' freeways.

    We seem to lose one biz every year or so. There must be five abandoned buildings in a five block strip.

    We will never see locally grown pineapples and such but there is only one 'national franchise' shop in the old down town--a subway shop.

    There are three local 'curio shops' as well as a candy store of all things.

    We have two Chinese restaurants, a Vietnamese restaurant and a couple of delis.

    There two national banks (First and Wells-Fargo); two local banks and a credit union.

    The real 'locals' of course hang out at one of seven bars and two liquor stores. hahahaha


    by Richard Day on Mon, 11/21/2011 - 11:18am