I absolutely agree consumers, individuals, voters and investors all share in the blame; for voting the way they do, for investing the way they do, consuming, spending, complaining, and most important, to quote JFK, enjoying the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. To refer to Phyllis’ post, and this sense that “bigger is better”, Americans seem to feel that “bigger is smarter”; that we no longer need to question leaders or employers. That is certainly the downfall of democracy.

It does also make me think of the economic melt-down, not that it’s an easy target right now or anything, but those banks were lending our money; all the Americans who have bank accounts and retirement plans, and everyone who pays taxes. We are responsible for allowing the people we trust with our money to lose it and go out of business. As a whole, we have lost our connection, ownership and accountability to/of the system we’ve created, and tacitly “vote” for every day but not challenging it.

Thanks for calling me out, Raymond. I’ll look forward to hearing more from you.

Nick

Therefore, we need to make sure that we keep making sure that consumers are educated as much as possible, that they have many alternatives (small is much better for us), and that we keep bringing attention to global poverty so that everyone who votes in every form can make good decisions. Nick’s post is a great example of that, and I look forward to more!

In other communities it would take a willingness from citizens of the community despite general apathy and overall lack of resources to gain momentum resulting from marginalization, segragation etc.

Despite this, there is succesful economic models on various levels(worker co-ops, barter, particapatory economics) by affluent people in this country that, in times like these, will become appealing to more and more people. This falls in line with CSA and farmers markets.

It’s time, that we the people, try something different; a third alternative to state control and market control. That alternative is a cooperative economy that is controlled by the people. These boom & bust cycles cause real suffering to working and middle class people, all while increasing the gap between the haves and the have-nots.

But these cycles of distress can be lessened if we democratically control the places where we buy our groceries; the financial institution that we place our money; the industries where we work and much, much more!

It is time for the people to offer an alternative to the state and the market, to show the world there is another way to make “progress” while offering equality and environmental sustainability. This is the third way, the Cooperative way. And it is a system that Equal Exchange is currently working under and actively working to promote, along with it’s Consumer Cooperative partners, it’s Producer Cooperative partners, it’s Financial Cooperative Partners and it’s Worker Owned Cooperative partners. And it is through this Cooperative economy that we can help rebuild the world’s economies, starting from the ground up, and controlled by all of us!

This may sound idealistic, but at times like these, we need idealism, we need a light to guide us forward. We need to know that the solution can rest with us, and if we start creating institutions that are controlled by the people, that we can start building our own solutions, rather than waiting the rich and the bureaucratic to attempt to do it for us. The Cooperative way is this light, and if we work together, we can use this light to guide us through yet another economic crisis created by free markets and irresponsible governments. If you are doubtful that we can do it, you only need to look at the Farmer Cooperatives that Equal Exchange works with, or the Consumer Co-ops that they sell to, or even Equal Exchange itself, which is organized as a Worker Co-op, to know that not only is this possible, but it is growing with every passing day!

Thanks for your comment. I may post something to this affect, so keep checking in, but I agree with you wholeheartedly. I understand the sub-prime banking crisis required a timely response, but it discourages me to see that Wall Street and the US government reacted by further consolidating the banking industry. It seems to me that the enormity of Merrill Lynch, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns… was, if not entirely responsible for their demise, certainly a factor that exacerbated their reckless lending; banks with trillions of dollars in assets and millions of “share-holders” become less and less accountable to their individual customers (average Americans who need bank accounts and hope to retire one day), and perceive themselves to be more and more invincible. And it’s absolutely the reason the entire country is feeling the aftermath; including those of us who had nothing invested in Merrill Lynch or Lehman Brothers.

Bigger is not better, and the further removed corporations become from their clients, the less democratic and quite frankly, human, they become. I believe corporate consolidation is diluting the quality of the global economy across the board; most obviously in our food system, but also manufacturing, technology, and banking.

Now does seem like the time for sweeping democratic reforms to our economy, but I fear we cannot rely on Wall Street or Capitol Hill. We can only hope that a few thinking Americans see through the hubris and move their money into a credit union or community-oriented bank that values people and their customers over the market-price of their stocks and their Christmas bonuses.

In cooperation,
Nick