I've included the comments thus far because people are really engaging with the idea in them.
Find it here: http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010114511/starving-beast-ten-things-you-can-do-take-america-back#comment-13294
--Kim
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Starving the Beast: Ten Things You Can Do To Take America Back
By Sara Robinson
November 11, 2010 - 8:47am ET
If last Tuesday showed us anything, it's this: We are not going to get America back on the right road -- the one that leads to a progressive, just, carbon-free, equal-opportunity future -- by political means alone.
That was an illusion, and it's time to give it up. We are up against powers so massive that their leaders rightly describe themselves as Masters of the Universe (MOTUs, for short). They've got so much money that they can buy off any politician in the world; and so much clout that they maintain branch offices right inside the West Wing. Because of their influence, our courts and our Congress no longer work for us. Our media no longer tells us the truth. Our votes are the prizes in corporate bidding wars. Our jobs are mere chips in a global poker game. Our doctors can only give us the health care corporate insurers willing to pay for, even when better choices exist.
Everything from the food on our table to the content of our kids' education is chosen for us on the basis of what will put the most money in the pockets of people who are already rich beyond the imagination of a Caesar. Increasingly, we have no say about anything that happens to us. Every choice we make is predetermined to deliver our money, time, and life energy into the service of this increasingly remote and amoral aristocracy.
It goes way beyond Washington. It's the whole rotten system. And if we really want that system to change, forget taking to the streets. (The MOTUs long ago learned to tune out public protests.) It's time to take our non-compliance to the next level. It's time to get serious about not participating in this system at all, until it either breaks or changes.
It will not be easy. The overblown corporate-driven economy exists because we allow it to -- and we allow it to because there's so much that passively cheap and easy and comfortable about being part of it. Compared to a lot of the world, we don't have it so bad; and the MOTUs are counting on that inertia to keep the money and power flowing their way. But it's beyond obvious now that we cannot change things unless we're willing to give up those comforts, and take matters into our own hands.
The good news is that if we're willing to do that, there are plenty of high leverage points in this system, places we can jam in a hard stick and whang on it and actually hope to create some change. And since we know now that Washington will be totally gridlocked for the next two years, this is as good a time as any to start.
A starting place
The ten suggestions below are just a starting place. (I'm thinking of turning them into a book, and would love your additions to the list.) But they all turn on two basic assumptions about where our leverage lies.
The first assumption is: Big national corporations and the MOTUs who profit from them only have money in the first place because we give it to them. So stop giving it to them.
The second is: People in government only have power because we give it to them. So, wherever possible and appropriate, pull that power away from the federal level, and bring it back to the local level, where we can keep an eye on it -- and where the best solutions to our most pressing problems are already being worked out.
With those two core assumptions in mind, here's what we need to do to defund the Masters of the Universe and get our country back.
1 Live within your means
Taking apart the systems that sustain our comfort is a risky business. The first task, then, is to insulate ourselves from those risks to the extent we can. And the first step is living within our means.
It's not that big a reach, though it feels like that at first. We just need to resurrect the values of our Depression-era grandparents, who gauged someone's status on the basis of their thrift and prudence rather than their extravagance. For them, it wasn't about what you drove or what you wore on your back; it was about what you had in the bank, and what you could give back to your community.
Buy a car you can pay for outright, or hang on to the one that's already paid off. Let go of the things you don't use -- the toys and trinkets that are just taking up space. Give up junk food and start a garden. Ask if you could get by with a smaller, cheaper house. And consider the possibility that, after you've pruned your life down to something more manageable, you might just be happier (and healthier) for it.
Having enough surplus salted away, plus some to share with others, gives you personal resilience in the face of hard times. It means you can lose a job or get sick, and still have a margin to fall back on. It also means that nobody owns you: America's bosses would treat us a lot better if more of us had a take-this-job-and-shove-it fund in the bank that enabled us to walk away from bad conditions or abusive treatment.
Living with less also means fewer expenses, fewer distractions, and more time and energy for the things that matter. Which is good, because some of the other things we need to do will take a little more time, energy, and money than we've been used to spending.
Read more about this: Your Money Or Your Life
2 Stop using credit cards
Conservatives howl that sales taxes are a huge drag on the economy, since they take a little bite out of the value of every transaction. But you never hear them howling about the 3% sales tax we pay to the banks for every credit card transaction. There's a whole lot to be said about the perverse economics of this; but the short summary is that if we're going to defund the powers that are choking the life out of our democracy, the first thing we need to do is stop handing over 3% of almost every transaction we make.
The second is to stop paying out an even larger percentage of our annual income in interest. The average American household pays $1500 a year in credit card interest; in some households, it's much more than that. Bet you can find a better use for that money than the bank can.
If you can't manage life without plastic, there are still better options than sending your wages to Citi or Chase. Move your credit card to a local bank, which will invest its earnings in your town's economy. Use a debit card (which takes lower fees) for online transactions, and start doing everything else possible with cash. (As an added bonus: using cash gets your personal business out of the data stream, increasing your personal privacy as well.)
Credit cards are the single biggest hook the MOTUs have into us after our mortgages, student loans, and car payments. It's also one we have the most control over, so let's stop sending them that money.
Watch here: In Debt We Trust
3 Move your money to a local bank
Arianna Huffington deserves credit for putting the "slow money" movement on the progressive map. It's a powerful concept, because it directly defunds the people who are trying to buy our government.
The idea is simple: take your banking -- your savings, checking, mortgage, car payment, 401K and other retirement funds, and credit cards -- away from the bankasaurs, and give it to a local or regional bank or a credit union. These banks are often safer these days than the big boys, since they're less likely to get caught up in big finance scams. And, even better: they're far more likely to put your money to work financing local homeowners, businesses, and farms.
Keeping that money in the hometown economy is an investment in resilience for the long haul. It ensures that your neighbors will have good jobs, that house prices will remain stable, and that small entrepreneurs can find the capital to start companies that are far less likely to relocate. These small businesses usually return far more in spending, jobs, and taxes to the local economy than big out-of-town businesses do, so keeping your money close to home is one way to invest in a stronger community.
Read more: Move Your Money
4 Eat local. Eat organic. Cook your own.
More and more of us are aware that the processed foods that fill the center aisles of the supermarket aren't particularly good for us. They're full of sugar, salt, fake fat, fake flavorings, preservatives, and GMO frankenstuff. They come from factories thousands of miles away. And we're sometimes suspicious that the food safety isn't all it should be.
This is why farmer's markets, community-supported farms, and food co-ops can now be found in almost every corner of the country, with more coming on line each year. People want alternatives -- preferably fresh, organic fare produced by farmers who are close enough to get to know.
I love the fact that my food dollar isn't going to Cargill or ADM. It's not adding tons of petroleum-based fertilizers (those damned oil companies again) to the soil and the watershed. It's not paying to truck food two thousand miles to my store. Instead, it's going to Mike Finger, my CSA farmer, who lives five miles from my house. It's keeping our town's outrageous Saturday farmer's market alive and lively. It's providing hundreds of jobs for dairymen and women, cheese and butter makers, bakers, farmers, small meat operations, co-op workers, chicken ranchers, and all kinds of other talented folks in my community. And it's creating an alternative food stream that banishes the big corporations (and the big banks that fund them) out of my kitchen and off of my family's plates.
Read more: La Vida Locavore
5 Don't shop in big-box stores; support local merchants instead
We all know how Wal-Mart bleeds small town Main Streets dry, kills mom-and-pop merchants, decimates local tax bases, and replaces good-paying jobs with non-union McJobs that pay so low that people holding them still qualify for welfare and food stamps.
But it's not just Wal-Mart. Every dollar you spend at any big box store or chain restaurant is doing pretty much the same thing. The money you give them doesn't stay in town, creating decent jobs and supporting prosperous middle-class families. It's going to some corporate HQ in Far Yonder. And from there, in this new post-Citizens United world, a lot of it will be going to lobbyists, who will be using it to more fully corporatize our government.
Cut them off at the knees. Find and use local options wherever you can. Local merchants often carry a wider and more interesting selection (and can order anything they don't have in stock). They pay higher wages. They know their merchandise -- and special tastes of the local clientele. And they pay into the local tax base, supporting your own teachers and firefighters and cops.
And don't even assume that you'll be charged more. In some areas, you may pay 5-10% more in a local shop; in others, you may be surprised to find prices comparable to what you'll find over at the big box. A local restaurant may have better food at better prices, and pay their staff better as well. Not all of the mom-and-pops are good enough to deserve our support; but the great ones are irreplaceable assets in our local economies, and deserve all the support we can give them.
Read more: The Small-Mart Revolution
6 Make your own energy
In our economy, energy is money -- which is why the big energy producers have more money than anybody else. If we want them to have less power over us, we need to stop buying their product. And that goes for the big private energy utilities, too, which are the biggest coal users in the country.
Adding solar panels or geothermal pumps to your house isn't cheap (or even easy); but if you plan to be in the house for many years, it's an investment that's worth making. If that's not feasible, look into community power solutions, and encourage your town to invest in clean, local sources of power. At the very least, the odds are overwhelmingly good that your energy company offers a green power option where you can pay a bit more per month to subsidize the development of clean power sources for your region.
Whatever you can do to replace coal, oil, and gas as your household and community power sources adds a bit more leverage to the effort to remove Big Fossil from its powerful political perch.
Read more: The Renewable Energy Handbook
7 Buy used whenever possible
The Big Consumer Machine runs on our constant appetite for new stuff. One of the best ways to jam it is to simply stop buying what they're selling. It's better for our wallets, better for the Earth, and it takes money directly out of the pockets of people who are (literally) banking on our poor impulse control.
Over the past century, our massive consumer engine has manufactured so much stuff that odds are the perfect item you're looking for -- a sturdy winter coat for your kid, extra plates for Thanksgiving dinner -- already exists out there somewhere. And it's increasingly easy to find it, thanks to eBay and Craigslist and Freecycle. Why go to K-Mart when there's undoubtedly someone local looking to unload something that's one-of-a-kind (and probably better quality) for a fraction of the price -- and will help you raise the finger to the corporate consumer machine while you're at it?
Read more: The Compact
The Great American Apparel Diet
8 Buy American. Buy union.
If you've got to buy it new, and there's no choice but to buy it from a big chain retailer, at least make sure your money is going to support another American worker's family. Living without imported Chinese goods is almost impossible (as this woman found out); but again, going out of our way to make better choices is an important way we can shift the leverage in the entire system that's killing our democracy.
Buying American is good. Buying union is even better. Unions have always been our biggest, strongest, best bulwark against creeping corporatocracy. The more support we can give them -- and the more unionized workers we have -- the more leverage we have against the big money interests, and the more likely we'll be able to take our country back in the long run. If we want to restore the middle class, we need to be deadly serious about buying union-made stuff.
Read more: UNITE's guide to buying union-made goods
9 Cut your use of fossil fuels
There are a hundred good reasons to do this, but the big four are:
1) It reduces our dependence on foreign oil, which also reduces our need to spend 58% of our federal budget on defense. Since defense contractors are among the biggest lobbyists in Washington, defunding the military-industrial complex is an important strategic objective in taking our country back.
2) It cuts the profits of Big Fossil -- the oil and coal industries -- who are the biggest and most influential donors in Congress, period.
3) Your choices and investments will spur the market for clean technology options, which will accelerate our progress in moving toward a greener future -- again, at the expense of Big Fossil.
4) Over time, moving to non-fossil alternatives in food, transit, manufacturing, and so on will make your household and community far more resilient in the face of energy price shocks and climate change itself -- an important step toward empowering local governments over higher-level ones.
There are a thousand books and ten thousand websites full of suggestions for how to move beyond the basics like changing out your light bulbs and recycling. But now you have another reason to do it: it's one of the best things we can do to defund the MOTUs who own our country.
10 Hire a better employer
Our choices as consumers matter, no doubt. But the biggest contribution we make to this system isn't in our spending; it's in our earning. The fact is that the best jobs in America in terms of salary and benefits are also too often the same ones that are most deeply involved in the corporatization of our government. And we need to confront and deal with the truth: when we give 40 or 50 hours of our lives to these enterprises, week in and week out, we are contributing far more to the problem than we can ever make up for by anything we do on our own time.
Of course, it's too much to ask people to walk away from a good-paying, stable job in the teeth of devastating recession. But as a long-term goal, we might be thinking about how to arrange our lives and our communities so that we can stop giving our time, energy, talents, and best efforts to the same aristocrats who want to enslave us. If we get out of debt and off credit cards, build up local businesses and create resilient economies, and learn to live a little smaller, we may in time, also be freer to make career choices that are better aligned with our values, and put our labor beyond the reach of the system that oppresses us.
As I said: none of this will be easy. But we've tried to create change while staying within our circle of comfort; and it hasn't worked. It's time to move outside that circle, and get on with the work of creating the future we want our children to have -- even if that means changing our most familiar and intimate habits and routines.
Still, you're probably already doing at least a few of these things, for all kinds of good reasons -- as economizing measures in hard times, as an effort to reduce your carbon footprint, or out of solidarity with your local community. But there's added motivation -- and even some sweet revenge -- if we bear in mind that the things that we're already doing to protect ourselves in the present and prepare for the next future are also some of the best things we can do to take our money, our lives, and our broken democracy back from the MOTU bastards as well.
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Individual action will go nowhere
By Mark Erickson | November 11, 2010 - 12:46pm GMTI'm sympathetic to your viewpoint and goals, and these ideas are mostly good things to do, but they are individualistic. Yes, if most people did at least a few things on this list, our society would be drastically different, but working people wouldn't have a smidgen more political power than they do now. And these individual decisions aren't mutually reinforced by anything but a tribal feeling "We're good people." That's not enough to sustain systemic change.
Example: dieting. Everybody knows deep down that extra weight is bad for you and the only way to lose weight and keep it off is eating less and exercising more. But people jump at the chance to skip the hard work through the latest fad diet. So what actually works? Self-supporting groups like Weight Watchers meetings. Individuals accountable to the group to keep them on the straight and narrow. So there has to be organizing, not moralizing. (I don't know if you've noticed, but people don't like to be told what to do)
You talk about leverage points, but who's holding the lever? The economic power you advocate can't be used to effect change. Buy union/American for instance. Let's say a large number of people in a community insist on buying union/American. Who negotiates with your local hardware store to say if you stock this more union/American product, which costs more, we'll buy just as many so your net revenue is the same? Nobody. Who enforces the agreement? Nobody. The local hardware store has to have faith - and significant marketing, probably - that people will buy just as many more expensive union/American products. Ain't gonna happen.
On the other hand, Card Check legislation would increase unionization and promote working people's interests. Yeah, it's hard, but it could actually work, too. To offer some more positive ideas, I'll mention two. Recreate ACORN. There are people in your community that know how to do this work. Get together and do it. Another is electoral change, my personal favorite. Ranked Choice Voting (or Instant Runoff Voting) would allow more progressive candidates to compete for offices without any danger of splitting the liberal vote and handing the election to a conservative. Besides developing candidates and sending a message to the Democratic Party, the main-stream candidate would likely co-opt some of the platform of the left-wing movement. And sometimes they'll win! And of course public finance of campaigns. Start with these two ideas at the city level and work your way up.
Again, I know your heart is in the right place. But this agenda isn't going create systemic change.
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That's not true
By Sara Robinson | November 11, 2010 - 2:12pm GMTI'm writing this from a place that's actually an incredible proof of concept on the power of localization -- so powerful that books have been written on it, and PBS's NOW actually did an episode on it. You absolutely can save a local economy by clawing back the money that would otherwise flow right out of town; and these suggestions are built on the story of how Bellingham (and a number of other small towns) have done it.
One of the books above, "The Small-Mart Revolution" describes both the process and its potential in careful detail.
You're right that a lot of people will need to do this stuff. But a) we have to start somewhere; and b) a lot of people around the country have already started, in order to cut costs or shrink their carbon footprint. This is an emerging movement, but one with some real legs.
The main thing is to realize that we will have the system we have until we stop supporting it. There are many ways to withdraw our complicity; and we need to start by recognizing the direct link between where our money, energy, time, resources, and labor go and the fact that these people control almost everything. If even 15% of us drop out, that's a 15% shrinkage in their money and clout. And that may be enough to make the difference.
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» Okay, but you didn't limit your argument
By Mark Erickson | November 12, 2010 - 12:00pm GMTLocalization can be a difference maker in liberal small cities. Great. What about the other 95% of the population? (That's being generous)
Second, saving a local economy by keeping it local is nowhere near systemic change. My point is economic power is only relevant in situations like Bellingham and it is only able to be wielded in a narrow field of action. Only political power will change the system.
But to try to meet you half-way. I can fully endorse co-ops - not just for food - and municipally owned energy solutions. Why? Because they are organized, they have rules and obligations, and are accountable.
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Publish Your Starve the Beast Book and I'll Buy It
By Terry Hulsey | November 12, 2010 - 11:55am GMTDespite some qualms with your left-of-center proposals (e.g., I trust unions less than corporations), no one can underestimate the _practical_ nature of your 10 suggestions. There is no need to worry about a "critical mass" of involvement: Your own participation immediately rewards yourself and your family. There is just no need to think in political terms at all. Think: What _practical_ things can I do, now, and for myself and my family?
Forgive me for plugging myself, but I hope you incorporate another suggestion into your book:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/hulsey8.1.1.html
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Terry answered Mark
By Sara Robinson | November 12, 2010 - 2:16pm GMTThe thing of this is: the frustration and rage are pure populism that cuts across left and right. And these solutions have strong appeal on both sides.
Mark, Terry sounds like he's coming from the right wing (recommending a Lew Rockwell source would indicate this) - and he totally gets why the suggestions are powerful. The fact that localization movements are springing up in Maine and Kentucky and Idaho every bit as much as in Vermont and Oregon and California should tell you something. This is a prescription that neither side owns.
In fact, one of the things that astonishes me about this is that at the local level, there are no sides. Bellingham was settled by deeply conservative Dutch Reform farmers, who still dominate the politics -- these days, through heavy affiliation with the Tea Party. The progressive end is held up by the people around the university. But when we're talking about local businesses, or the food we all eat and the water we all drink, there simply is no left and right. There's only the problem of how best to keep these commons healthy. The progressives in town are creating markets that enable the farmers to keep farming like their grandfathers did, which fosters plenty of trust to plan a shared future on.
National politics is polarized. Local politics is far, far less so. At that level, what you have are populists protecting the commons versus outsiders trying to suck money out of the local economy. That's a very different battle, and makes for strange bedfellows who often end up becoming trusted friends.
Right now, we've all been screwed by both the government and by the corporations. Conservatives are focused on the former, progressives on the latter -- but we're both right, because they are increasingly one and the same thing. To get our country back, we need to knock both of them off their high horses; and these two leverage points offer us lots of ways to work together to do this.
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» Good points, but I think you're avoiding mine
By Mark Erickson | November 12, 2010 - 3:10pm GMTI would love to see the far right and far left bend around and meet in a new middle. There are obviously some issues that lend themselves to this partnership. But in political alliances, which can accomplish more than local economic ones.
Small-town localism only does so much. For instance, the Federal Farm Bill is probably the biggest factor in food consumption patterns. How are localization movements going to change that? Is there an organized lobby for local food production? You might have thousands of levers, but you have no place to stand.
Finally, I'll grant you liberal and conservatives can get involved in protecting small town local economies. But we're still talking small towns. Let say 10% of the population. How does this movement scale up to even a plurality of voters?
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Two things
By Sara Robinson | November 12, 2010 - 5:23pm GMT1. It's not just local. There are similar big-city efforts aimed at long-term resilience. Sustainable Seattle is one of the leaders in this; but you can find others in Denver, Boston, and elsewhere.
At the state level, 12 states are now considering instituting state banks like North Dakota has, which are a huge step toward defunding the MOTUs. These banks are owned by the state's citizens. All state investment money is put through them (pension funds, bonds, etc.), and re-invested in in-state enterprises. The profits return to the taxpayers, for further re-investment in the state. Wall Street sees none of it. It's money of the people, by the people, and for the people, all the way down.
North Dakota has weathered the meltdown better than any other state in the union -- and their state bank is widely considered the main reason why. Folks in ND didn't have much exposure, since their mortgages and their money weren't in the bubble to begin with.
So this is happening at all sorts of levels right now.
2. Over time, the farm bill becomes irrelevant if you've built up a resilient local foodshed. The whole point of a locavore diet is to get yourself off a processed food diet (which is built on subsidized corn, wheat, and soybeans), and eating more stuff that's produced by non-subsidized, purely free-market farmers. And this is happening, fast, all over the country, to the point where Big Ag is already trying to fight back by passing laws that harass these small farmers by regulating them out of business. (One farmer wrote a book about this campaign: "Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal.)
Fortunately, this harassment only seems to be feeding the backlash against the farm bill and its related subsidies. Regardless of their politics, people have a strong emotional connection to their food -- even more so to local food -- and that comes out hard when they see corporations screwing with their market choices. Over time, this should undermine the market clout of corporate farmers (and thus their ability to fund lobbyists), and erode the political constituency that supports them.
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Educate your children
By Sanford Silver | November 12, 2010 - 10:43pm GMTFind out what they're being taught about how the economy and politics works. Counter it with the truth if it's needed. Extra curricular activities that expose them to those local choices you encourage. Reading history books beyond the school issued. Taking them to local focus groups or political meetings sponsored by transportation districts and local governments to talk about current issues.
Above all encourage them to talk about what they learn with other kids. Use the peer pressure that normally works against change to get to kids whose parents won't give them the chance to learn.
And if at all possible give them travel. Experience other cultures and societies. See how what America does affects people from other parts of the world. Sponsor an exchange student of possible.
As you've said many times, Sara, and I've been saying for years, conservatism and the growing plutocracy it spawns can only exist in when the citizenry is ignorant of reality and especially ignorant of history.
Sanford Silver
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Great suggestions
By Sara Robinson | November 13, 2010 - 8:46am GMTSanford, thanks for this.
I don't have an education section in my book outline -- but you've convinced me that there should be one.
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education and consumption
By Mark Francis | November 13, 2010 - 10:53am GMTHow about educating kids as producers--of their own music, art, games, toys--rather than passive shoppers of gadgets and pop culture?
Changing that trend at its root would be good for both the local economy and the body politic.
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One more big thing
By Kim Cooper | November 14, 2010 - 9:17pm GMTThe one you have left out is to take back ownership: We have to start working for companies that are worker-owned and democratically run, where those "big profits" go back to the workers who did the work -- and thus the money stays in the community and is spread around far more evenly. This gives everyone prosperity and no one untoward riches, allows people to assume more responsibility for their work lives, and thus more control over their own lives, and also gives everyone more money.
No, it's not Socialism: the company is still a competitive market company, it's the internal workings that are democratic and fair.
Sara -- we are still working on writing a book about this. If you'd like to see my notes thus far let me know.
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