Distinction between Consumer Economics versus Citizen Economics.
We all know what Consumer Economics is -- buying everything from teh store, and viewing each other as either producers, middlemen or consumers. There's no mental space to think of one another as something besides either producers, middlemen or consumers.
Is it possible for us to view each other in a wholly different Economic role?
The Consumer, as we know, is a very passive creature, and if it cares about politics, it clamors for "enlightened politicians" and "enlightened CEO's."
The Consumer does not question or subject to close scrutiny their daily economic existence, because everything is handed to him or her on a silver platter. Therefore, it "works," and therefore "it is good." It is considered that it's not necessary to bother with it, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
Citizen Economics
Citizen Economics in days of yore was mixed between communal village economics, and capitalistic village economics.
In modern times, the communal village economics has been wiped out, and wholly replaced by urban capitalistic economics. It's not that capitalism or cities are "bad," but a balance has been lost. There is still a need for "village economics.
It will not be easy to restore "village economics," but it is both possible and there is a great potential to humble the corporations and the politicians.
If corporations and politicians see whole industries lose money because of it being replaced by village economics (e.g. agribusiness losing a significant chunk of market share to Community farms), there will be a scramble by the corporations to "co-opt" it and a scramble by politicians to garner votes and donations. This is a start.
Village Economics will change the "lifestyle," or the "culture" of it's participants in more ways than this. Less television will be viewed, fewer movies watched, fewer sports events will be attended, fewer name brand clothes will be coveted, fewer trips to Wal-Mart. Urban capitalists will scream in pain to co-opt and bring people back to the cineplex and the big box store and the sports stadium, or find some other way to "herd the citizen back into the consumerist corral."
People who participate in Village Economics will gain a voice, just as the Corporate Lobbyists already have a voice. There is a reason Corporate Lobbyists are THE constituency of the current government, or as George Bush said, "Some people call you the elite . . . I call you my base." The imbalance between communal village economics (now non-existent) and urban capitalistic economics (predominant, even monopolistic).
Village Economics can take care of food, child care, elder care, and transportation (car sharing), and that's just for starters. Unemployed and retirees can troll garage sales and Craig's List and www.freecycle.org for used consumer goods as scavengers. People can say to them, "I need a shovel" or "We need a crib for our baby" or "we need a refrigerator" and the scavengers either have them or start looking for them. Even if you end up paying "full price" for a second hand item, at least you didn't buy it new. Elderly women who do knitting and quilting can contact the "scavengers" and provide an inventory list.
Ever heard of the NAIRU? That stands for "Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment." The term was coined during the Nixon administration. That means that the elites running the American economy need to keep a certain percentage of people unemployed and desperate for work in order to keep the rest of the workforce “in line” and not bargaining for higher wages.
For the Federal Reserve elites, the Money Powers, “inflation” is a way of saying “higher wages are bad.” The goal is that you, the ordinary person, keeps spending and consuming, but you do not, under any circumstances, get higher wages. And that has been the game for decades. The national minimum wage is still 5.15 an hour! Flooding the country with immigrants and “outsourcing” is also in order to depress wages.
What we need to understand is that the relation between the Money Powers versus We the People is an extremely hostile relation. We the People have not caught on, and it’s the reason we haven’t even begun to fight back.
The only way we can fight back is to take up Village Economics. It requires personal initiative, and possibly even small investments of our dwindling disposable incomes. However, once it gets going, it’s a two fold victory; first, it saves us money, second it keeps money circulating among Us the People so we’ll be wealthier, and third it deprives the Money Powers of our money. Village Economics has the potential to cut off at least some of the oxygen to the Money Powers.
It will require breaking some of our ingrained habits and customs of individualism. Not cooperating with one another is considered “freedom” and even an American virtue. “Do your own thing,” remember that motto from the 60’s? Everyone doing his and her own thing has been a windfall for the Money Powers, and enslavement of all of the rest of us.
But it can be done. We have to relearn how to deal with one another, and remember our traditional values of honesty and fair dealing in dealing with one another and against the Money Powers. We don’t have to love one another, or even like each other. But we do need to overcome our laziness and standing inertia to work towards restoring Village Economics.