As the dust settles on another election, it might be worth reminding ourselves that we are called to vote every day of our lives with every dollar that we spend. Our economic franchise is at least as powerful as our political franchise and can change the society in which we live for better or for worse. Every dollar spent in the wrong way leads to a less just society; every dollar spent virtuously leads to a more just society. As such, our economic choices are always moral choices. With this in mind, I’d like to draw attention to a new initiative that calls for practical action by all of us to preserve and protect small, family-owned businesses. The 3 / 50 Project (www.the350project.net) is committed to showing ordinary people what they can do to save their local economy from the ravages of globalism. It’s very simple. Each of us should make a point of visiting three independently owned businesses in our locality and plan to spend $50 in each store every month. If just half the employed US population spent $50 each month in independently owned business, it would generate more than $42.6 billion in revenue. And here’s a point to ponder: For every $100 spent in independently owned stores, $68 returns to the community through taxes, payroll, and other expenditures. If this same $100 is spent in a national chain, only $43 stays in the local community; the rest is drained away. If the $100 is spent online nothing returns to the local community.
A healthy local economy needs healthy local shopping habits. It requires each of us to voluntarily tax ourselves in order to restore and renovate our own neighbourhoods. Spend locally. And remember that every dollar is a vote! Choose wisely, choose well. There’s a way of life to be won or lost.
This is very good advice. It should be more widely publicized. Something else: Support local farmers. NAFTA (an immoral piece of legislation) is responsible not only for gross injustices to American workers but also for much of the really dreadful produce in supermarkets. Are you weary of fruits and vegetables sold both green and rotten? That’s because they come from Paraguay or some other place. Produce must be harvested while still green because of the long transport and shelf life required to get to your local supermarket chainstore. Moreover, the workers in these countries are paid starvation wages, and (in case you don’t care about them and their families), the produce is not subject to USDA inspection. Any old kind of fertilizer will do, any synthetic hormone growth boosters, etc.
Meanwhile, your local farmer is going bust….
Buy as much as you can at your local farmers market. And if it’s December–do you really just have to have that watermelon from Costa Rica? Our bodies are as seasonal as any other part of nature.