Return to
the Overcoming Consumerism
Index
Anti-Consumerism and The Alternate
Economy.
Most people find that the
economy no longer works for them.
Even after education,
gathering skills, training, hard work and paying their
dues, achieving success or merely comfortable survival
has become very difficult and in some cases, impossible.
The Precariat, those who have reached a certain
level of material comfort within The System, are often insecure and must
work multiple jobs and manic hours to try and preserve
it what they have, let alone not slip backwards into poverty.
Forces beyond our control have long ago changed
the underlying economic rules by which many continue to play in
the old game. Jobs that allow one to live a decent life are almost impossible to
find. Once common benefits have evaporated, healthcare costs for the Middle
Class have skyrocketed as quality of services have plunged and job security is
nonexistent for private sector employees. Greed, competition, individualism and
selfishness have become the hallmarks of the economy that treats us like human
wallets or walking health insurance codes, nothing more than resources to be mined for fees,
fines, payments and personal data.
Meanwhile, we're expected to continue
consuming and responding to advertising and paying our
taxes as before, but with the deficit made up by our free
time, our sovereignty and a willingness to take
whatever jobs comes along to the benefit of the New Money
Masters of the Economy. Growing real unemployment, the economic roller
coaster and imminent economic depression felt throughout the country means
that things will only get worse over time.
People often react to the inability to meet their economic and personal
expectations through expressions of anger, depression or substance
abuse. Others turn to crime and parasitize people through overt stealing or
theft by another name, such as multilevel marketing, the sale of questionable
value in merchandise or faulty services.
Smart people intuitively reject these
situations and are helping to develop an
Alternate Economy as both a healthy psychological and economic survival
mechanism, and as a means of protest.
One can participate in the Alternate
Economy in many different ways according to their taste.
The one commonality is that it serves that needs of
People and the Public-Good first, and weakens the ability of outsiders to
parasitize and control people.
Another advantage to it is that it
engenders a safer and more pleasant environment within which individuals
and families can live.
Third, is that smaller, more self-sufficient local economies,
largely independent of the global economy and just-in-time delivery of
merchandise and food are more likely to survive economic reversals.
Finally, When you use many of the
techniques that follow, much of your economic activity
becomes almost unseen and most importantly, unmeasured,
so that it no longer helps to validate the system that
has disenfranchised so many. You stop supporting
their game and vote against what they stand for at the
same time that you help yourself and assist others.
When retail sales numbers climb, as do
units shipped, dollar amounts sold, corporate profits and
stock prices go up. These statistics are then
parroted by the uniparty in power and its supporters as an
example of the alleged success of their economic policies in spite
of the negative effects that they have on real people and
the real productive economy over time.
When people become self sufficient in any way, such as growing and consuming
some of their own food,
fixing plumbing, repairing items, that is one more
item that is removed from the money economy, is not measured
and most importantly, cannot be taxed nor controlled.
The opposite of that is a nation of
renters living in apartments without building equity, buying everything
and having to rely on owners
to hire corporate handymen.
Some get militant about this by witholding their money as a form of rebellion and overt
political protest with the deliberate goal of starving the system that has
become their enemy.
Certain kinds
of spending are not reflected in the
retail sales numbers, such as buying or selling items for cash in
small businesses, garage sales, barter or paying
workers in cash.
Here's a website promoting the use of cash with printable tabs to
hand to merchants with cash and posters for them to print and display.
Keep Cash Alive
Here are hundreds of desperate stories of people in the Middle and Once Well Off
Class who suffered economic death as the changing rules of society made them
irrelevant, poverty bound and the wealth of our nation drifted upward to the top 1%.
Water flows downhill. Money flows up.
WE ARE THE 99%
How many of these people are now homeless, living in cars, or dead?
What happened to them now threatens the formerly middle class and even those who
appear wealthy, at least until their credit cards are canceled and their luxury car is
repossessed.
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Here are some examples of
The Alternate Economy at work:
People instinctually
abandon their patronage of big-box department and grocery stores
like Home Depot, Walmart and Safeway with their foreign and
Wall Street ownership in favor of returning their business to
small to medium sized stores. These emphasize personal contact
and service for the customer which the
mega-store-corporate-profit-center-model cannot provide, only
pretend to represent in its slick advertising.
Other advantages of the smaller
businesses are their human scale, local ownership, purchases from nearby
smaller suppliers and the
retention and recycling of both profits and taxes in the community through the
local hiring of teenagers and adults.
Money is spent, taxed, and paid to employees who spend it over and over again
up to eight times through the "local multiplier effect."
An additional advantage of this
smaller scale retailing is that the merchants can be more flexible
and stock products made regionally, the value of which is based on
inherent excellence, environmentally benign design and word of mouth
reputation rather than expensive advertising campaigns that hype the
image of mediocre lowest-common- denominator branded products made
for a world market in the most exploitive factory available at the
time. As American jobs in manufacturing disappeared in the 1970s, we first saw on the things we
bought "Made in HongKong," then "Made in Taiwan,"next "Made in Mexico" and finally "Made in China."
Next "Made in Vietnam" and possibly the proximate cheap labor slave pit,
"Made in Myanmar." Costco now sells clothing made there.
The superficial "savings" alleged to customers
in the purchase of the often large quantities of frivolous things
from the big box stores are more than negated by the destruction of good jobs and the
money going out of local communities to
distant corporate headquarters, or through the importation of low wage immigrant low wage workers who
take jobs from locals, burden schools and welfare systems, yet who collectively send hundreds of billions
per year out of our communities to their home countries.
This is a reason why small businesses are a threat to the economic rape and
exploitation model of corporate America. They build mega stores using tax deferments,
or property tax exemptions, get taxpayers to pay for traffic improvements,
sell goods at money losing prices until local businesses are gone,
then raise prices for the monopolized captive customer base.
These corporations bribed state politicians so that
economic lockdowns in the pandemic were deliberately
aimed at small businesses while favoring corporate stores that sold a few "essential"
food items, which then picked up and monopolized all the pieces of shattered
local commerce. A new twist on this is that "underutilized" properties with successful
small business located on them are rezoned by local governments for high density housing while
corporate chain stores are not.
Corporate CEOs actively
destroy as many Middle Class sustaining jobs as possible, replacing them with the
lowest pay per hour they can get away with,
strip communities of local control, disregard local decision making,
suck up tax benefits and pretend to benefit local communities with
performative window dressing like this:
Part of the Alternate Economy is favoring local businesses, that hire locally, pay wages to local workers and
management, often source locally and most importantly, keep the profits in town where the money will be
spent and will recirculate over and over as wages, purchases and taxes.
The health aspect of eating high quality organic food is acknowledged by informed people.
Boycotting fast food includes the national chain establishments that
masquerade as real restaurants such as TGIF Fridays, Carrows, Chilis, Olive Garden and
Denny's etc. Some of these mediocrities are now bankrupt. If a restaurant advertises on
national TV, it is a fast food terminal. It's feedstock will come from central warehouses.
It will most likely contain factory farm pesticides, growth hormones, antibiotics and genetically
modified ingredients, plus lots of preservatives, otherwise it couldn't last on the warehouse shelves, semitrucks
in the summer sun and then finally appear salable at its end distribution point.
In the Alternate Economy,
there is an emphasis on personal relationships. Instead of
everything being monetized with a price tag and "savings" being the
only criteria for choice of business one patronizes, The currency of
loyalty and reciprocity is used along with cash.
The guy with a truck becomes the
one to do the job instead of the national chain of junk haulers with
the 800 number. Instead of the corporate chain store at the mall, the
kids clothing resale shop can provide parents with what they need
in exchange for outgrown items. If no local resale shop, donate your childrens' clothing
to a neighbor in need directly. If for a lack of an alternative, you
must patronize the big stores, let their employees know that you are on their side and
that they are more important than the products or the prices of what they
sell.
Most workers when treated decently and
with courtesy will help you to no end. Often one way that people
interact in such situations is to give away products or services.
"Just take it" or "no charge" or "I'll give you the sale price" is
something that we hear a lot from corporate employees who enjoy
getting even with their employers and relish the interaction with
people that they've established a relationship with over
time.
The message that you should communicate to
them is "It's us against them-we're all in this together."
Part of this relationship is helping to safeguard their
jobs.
One way to do this is to adamantly
refuse to use job-destroying technology and artificial intelligence devices.
Avoid using an ATM card, instead get to know the tellers in your local bank,
and if there's no line behind you, take your time with them, hang out, gossip and enjoy
the transaction. This is the antithesis of the corporate efficiency
model that forces them to work harder and faster. The machines that
allow you to check out your books at the library, if accepted by the
public, will eliminate jobs of librarians.
The new Self-Checkout machines in
grocery stores will not lead to lower prices, only fewer employees, often without
decent union jobs and yet CEO salaries climb. The economics of automated
theater ticket and "food" dispensing machines have not led to lower
prices, only skeleton staffs and tiny satellite "auditoriums" with
atrocious sound and visuals approaching the home theater level. It is
important to let the workers and especially the management in these
situations know that you will not spend money in a business with few or poorly treated
employees.
i.e. " You know, if you were ever
to eliminate Ingrid's job nobody that I know will ever come back
and spend one cent here....."
Or, "You want my business? If you send your customer
service work to India, we'll boycott your company." Do the recorded survey's
that are often requested at the end of a call and let management hear
your comments. They will retain workers if
enough people voice their opinion about this.
Ask help line operators where they are. If in India or other overseas
operations, ask to speak to corporate headquarters in the United States for help.
When doing business on the
telephone, avoid automated phone systems in favor of talking to
humans. Try punching "0" for operator as soon as you are in the
system. Often "00" or "000" or other multiples of this will save you
from languishing in 'Voice Jail'. Another trick - and this is Really
hitting corporations below the belt -is to call their "New
Businesses" number, or "sales" number which are usually answered by
helpful stateside people ready to take your money.
Tell them you are a
"business customer and love their company, but you have a
little problem to fix and could they please transfer you to repair or
customer service, and stay on the line until connected" etc.
"But first, could could you please give me
that direct number?" Write it down and use it.
Join a credit union:
These are Non-Profit alternatives to banks, usually without fees,
charges, advertising etc. Insured and offering the same services as
banks.
Find
out about credit unions and or locate one near you
here:
Publicize the good. After
years of living in a place one develops a network of connections and
knowledge of the local economic scene. Your routines become easier
because you know which stores are great and which ones to avoid. Why not
share this knowledge with pleasant people from your
cohort?
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One of the
ways to do this is to create a printed list of your favorite
local businesses.
Imagine you have
just moved to or are visiting a town. You have no idea
where to shop, eat or get your car fixed other than the
heavily advertised corporate outlets that line the main
roads. What if you met somebody in the market or library
who offered you an informal printed list of their
favorite businesses with the location, hours and what
they thought was great about them, who the owners were
etc. You would be grateful to that person and would
benefit from their years of experience. You can
become that person. Create a list for your area.
Share your knowledge and help the deserving small
businesses that can't afford to advertise.
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Here are hypothetical examples of the kind
of information we put on our list:
- Joe's Organic Foods: 122
Greenway Lane 444-1212, 8:00 AM to 8:30 PM, 7 days. Home
bakery-their wheat bread is incredible, sandwiches and fruit
juices to go or eat in the patio. Large selection of small brand
Organic products and fresh produce delivered everyday from the
Willamette Valley. Owned by Joe Jones and his family since 1978.
Full benefits for full time employees-partial for part-timers.
Free delivery to shut-ins.
- High Creek Lumber: 1432
Railroad Avenue 444-3456, 6:AM to 6 PM Mon thru Sat, Sun 10-5.
High quality building materials and a through working knowledge of
carpentry and building. 1 day special orders of odd size lumber.
Free sawdust for your garden. Popcorn for "kids". Picnic table
behind office great place to sit and watch trains. Owned by the
Bensen Brothers since 1988. All employees have medical and dental.
When coming from the highway, pass the Home Despot and go an additional
two blocks to a real store.
- Millie's Cafe: Route 6 at
Williams. Since 1972. 444-8978. Breakfast only 6 AM to 10 AM 7
days. Huge waffles with organic strawberries, real organic whipped cream,
Huge pancakes any size stack you want 50c each. Organic maple
syrup. Eggs any way you like them, toast and Strong Organic
coffee- that's all Millie serves. Teresa, the lady that works
there on weekends is going to take over from Millie in a few years
and is buying the business now. The menu will Not Change! Hard to
find, go 3 blocks past McDonald's on Railroad and turn left on
Wright, go one block then right on Williams.
Notice the accountability in the
information, the personal experience and touches? This is what people want and hunger for
in their commercial transactions.
*Pay small merchants in cash as
this saves them the 4 to 6% transaction fee that they have to pay to
the credit card company or their bank. Always pay cash to individuals
as this saves them the delay of cashing checks and the growing
practice of large banks like Bank of America or Wells Fargo to charge
$10.00 or more, to non-customers to cash a check.
* Use the mainstream economic
system against itself: Making all one's purchases with credit
cards and paying the monthly minimum is giving away your money and is
economic suicide. If you cannot find local businesses and shop in corporate stores,
use credit cards
with no annual fee, which give you cash back, and make sure to pay your balance off
each month using
the bank's money for a month at no charge.
*Learn what amount of income you
can earn tax-free and work to just get under that amount. Depending on your age,
filing status, and dependents, for the 2023 tax year, the gross income threshold for
filing taxes is between $12,950 and $28,700. If you have reported self-employment income,
you’re required to report your income and file taxes if you make $400 or more.
The rest of one's needs can be met by barter and exchange of labor in certain areas
with low expenses. Get off the economic treadmill or at least slow it
down for yourself and others.
*Obtain things used as a first option before
purchasing new. Thrift stores, Craigslist and other online fora are a treasure trove of
inexpensive or free items.
Some of the honorable
Skills of
Poverty that can improve your
life.
Consumerism is based on getting people to continually
buy useless and near useless things that they don't need, as well as
accept and embrace ideas that are destructive to them which
financially reward the seller. There will always be people that mindlessly churn
new debt and consume. Use them to your advantage. They can provide a
steady stream of "last year's model" into the used merchandise market that you can take advantage of.
Almost Everything that one needs other than
food, energy and services is probably sitting unused and unwanted
somewhere, in thrift stores or taking up dozens of square feet in
someone's home.
Do them a favor by advertising ISO, "In Search Of" items for free,
or exchange some useful barter item to them that you no longer need, or buy
it for a modest price, all of which which de-clutters their life and saves you money.
Conversely, if you haven't used something in the
last year or so, seriously consider destining it to someone by the
same means above. How often have you yearned for an item you got rid of?
Contrast that with the ongoing psychic and actual energy expended in moving,
cleaning, and thinking about the clutter in your life.
Getting the things that you actually need and use by the means above
is even better than avoiding consumerism in the first place. Just
giving things away to those who will use them is highly liberating
and very subversive of the system because every item that is sold or donated
is potentially one less thing they buy new, and represents savings to
the buyer and the giver, sometimes in the form of a tax deduction, thus keeping
money in people's hands instead of sending it away to foreigners or
Wall Street. No thrift stores in your area? Put useful things on TOP of the garbage
can or alongside the dumpster before trash day so that others can pick them up and use them.
The Achilles' heel of the above is the difficulty
of locating or advertising these things. Craigslist, Freecycle and local
community bulletin boards are a good start. Thrift stores or second hand shops
are ideal for giveaways as they have the organizational ability to
market the things to people that often rely heavily on them. A good
thrift store with a healthy donor base can also provide one with
practical clothing and most of the household items that one could
need for pennies on the dollar. The key to using these is to
determine where they are, if their typically accepted donations match
your taste level and patrolling them often. The Salvation Army is the best
organization and relies on volunteers and minimally paid staff while doing
the most for America's poor and unfortunate.
Localize your interests.
One can work for an extra month just to earn the
after tax dollars to pay for a "vacation" which involves expensive
parking at the airport and risking your life in an aluminum tube that
flies halfway around the world, as you breath novel viruses and bacteria.
Or, you can save that month of work and just explore and do day trips
of your own region, county or state,
sleeping in your own bed at night or staying in authentic local
lodging. The post 9-11 airport strip-searches, skin cancer backscatter
radiation machines and associated
unpleasantness have done wonders for this concept of late. Learn
about your neighbors in nearby counties. You probably have far
more in common with them than you do with the staff of some resort in
the tropics and if you discover that you share common interests,
or find some marvelous things, it's much easier to revisit and work with them
for the betterment of your area.
A positive benefit of this localized travel is
that the distant place to which you are not vacationing will be that much
more likely to not prostitute its economy and environment for the
benefit of long distance tourists and will be more likely to develop its own
alternate economy based on the genuine needs of its residents.
Safety in numbers.
Assume a power blackout or natural disaster. Would
you rather be around a Main Street environment whose
store owners you know and have maintained an ongoing relationship with
over many years, or be just another stranger in a large corporate mall
where the security guards kick everybody out and lock the
gates? Think of this in the long term over a decade of patronage or a
lifetime and you can see the advantages of these choices.
The corner grocer is far more likely to keep an eye on
your kids and report trouble to you than an imported minimum wage
employee with no connection to the community except a cheap
dormitory. When a guy that hangs out in a coffeehouse we frequent
disappeared for days, someone took the trouble to go to his house and
find out he was very sick. People looked out for him and brought him
food until he was well. Don't expect that from a Walmart, a
Starbucks or a constantly shifting Amazon delivery drone.
Most of the above is just common sense that
accrues to one the older and more experienced they get. Some people
never get it though and end up leading atomized, boring and lonely
lives. Their children and grandchildren, if they haven't turned into iPhone zombies,
will probably have instinctually rejected this kind of life and may be more likely to
embrace the ideas contained herein.
Sharing
A simple concept that can allow
people to either live well for far less work or live much better with
the same income. Giving to a collective enterprise can produce a
higher standard of living than just getting for oneself.
We checked our bookshelves and
donated the high quality gardening and do it yourself books that we hardly ever
looked at to our nearby library. It's satisfying to see the dozens of 'date due'
stamps in the front of these books and realize that many others are
enjoying them as much as we did. Set up a little free library in front of your
house to share books among neighbors.
The same concept applies to
things other than books. For example, Berkeley, California and Portland, Oregon,
have tool lending "libraries" available for residents. This same kind of thing
can be done in a neighborhood or among a group of friends.
There is a page on our site that
describes how well people can live in a shared housing situation:
Here
is a link to that page.
How do you determine if a
business is part of the alternate economy or not?
1. Ask employees in a business
that you are investigating, "who owns this business?" "Is it owned
and run by a family?" The people working there will
either be part of the family or will know the answer if it is. We've
found that asking both these questions in a row puts people more at
ease than just asking the first. If the people working there have no
idea who owns it, that is a bad sign.
2. Look for a business license, resale license or health inspection report on the wall behind the
cash register. Chains and corporations usually keep these in their
headquarters. Note: "LLC" or "Incorporated" on the license is not
necessarily bad as it may mean that the business is incorporated for
the legal protection of the owners: for example: "Joe's Cafe
LLC" or "Joe's Cafe Incorporated" is a lot different than "The
Southland Corporation", the owners of 7-11, also known as
Chevron.
3. Sometimes a family owned business will enrich
itself on the backs of its workers and will often place a do-nothing relative in a
management position. The employees will know and usually communicate this subtly.
If they are open and cheerful and take the time to interact with you, that is a good sign.
Everyone gets tired sometimes but if they are sullen, hostile and you have to chase them
down to get help, that is bad.
4. Reputation and longevity. If
when you ask somebody about a good place to eat or buy
things and they immediately name a business, that is a
good sign. If you have to draw it out of them and they finally point
you toward a corporate chain store, that's a sign of a dead or dying community.
Some different examples of
The Alternative Economy in action:
OOn
community cleanup days when large items may be discarded at the
curb (and end up being crushed in a compactor truck and taken
straight to the landfill), we drive around in our van and find all
the building material we need for our gardening and remodeling
purposes. We noticed a large amount of children's furniture and
even clothing being discarded, often with nothing wrong with it.
It occurred to us that the children's resale store nearby could
resell it. The Cribs, dressers, art easels, toys and other things
we piled into the truck were donated to them and what the store
didn't take we donated to the local thrift store.
Let's categorize the economic advantages
of this action to our community:
- The resale store, a valuable resource for
local parents to both buy, sell and trade outgrown and used
items is kept in business and pays into the local tax
base.
- Her employee is kept in work. Fired from
a corporate cubicle job she now has the time to with her
family and even has time to volunteer at the library, since she
no longer has the necessity working in the system to pay the
after- tax expenses of car ownership, a long commute,
dry-cleaning her business clothes etc.
- Local parents get what they need for about
20% of the price they would pay at the corporate owned Pottery
Barn/Gap/Costco/ToysRUs mall.
- The items not suitable for commercial
resale are donated to the thrift store and generate income for
the parish and inexpensive items for the thrifty who shop
there.
We had several
diplomas and some of our child's artwork that we wanted framed. We
gathered up the dozens of framed documents that we no longer
wanted and those on our walls that we no longer even noticed anymore, as
well as some artists' supplies sitting in a storeroom and traded
them for the framing job. The frame shop obtained hundreds of
dollars worth of unusual high quality frames and material that
were of no use to us and we got our framing done with no money
changing hands - and opened up more storage and wall space for
ourselves.
Our friends in
Los Angeles have huge avocado and citrus trees in their yard that
produce thousands of pounds of fruit a year. (yes thousands-not a
typo) The whole family goes out and has a fun time bagging the
fruit. Everywhere they go they give people fruit: the cleaners,
coffee house, elementary school, the bus driver, to homeless veterans,
at work, the bakery, movie theaters etc. A bag of organic fruit
like that would cost about $80 at Bezos' AssWhole Foods. People
gratefully respond with thanks and sometimes "it's free" when it comes time
to pay for the service they are offering. An especially nice place to
donate the fruit is at the
rest-retirement-nursing home -corporate profit center-down the
street. The folks there love the avocados and citrus far better
than the industrial factory food they're forced to live on. What
formerly rotted on the ground now becomes lots of goodwill and
thousands of dollars of savings for everyone without raising the
Gross National Product.
A curious aside: the people living next to our
friends got wind of this and began bagging up their loquats and
then taking them to the nearby market and trying to aggressively
sell them with no success. Had they just skipped the monetization
and given the fruit to people directly they might have obtained
and given far more.
A friend was
about to go out and buy deer fencing and posts at the Home Depot.
We gave him the dumpster dived stakes and fencing that we anticipate using in a year or two
from now in our garden. This prevented him from spending his money at the
mall and emptied out our storage shed. He can replace the stakes
when we need them-if we haven't effortlessly scrounged some more
used ones for free, the same way we got the ones that we gave to him.
You can do this more formally with an
"IOU In kind"-that is, you lend somebody some item
with the understanding that they will replace it new or used or
return it after a certain date.
A means of facilitating this is to make a
"want list" and a "don't want list".
Write down all the things that you think you will need in the next 6 months
or so and on a separate sheet list all the things you have sitting
around that you don't want and that don't lend themselves to
resale or donation such as an opened bottle of liquor or box of
soap that you don't like. Carry these lists with you and compare
lists with people doing the same thing. We've done this and have
obtained many-many things and have saved thousands of dollars.
Besides Craigslist, there are a growing number of
Freecycle groups.
The Orwellian NextDoor
has tried to muscle into this, pretending to be a community, but it's just a
data-mining scam that censors people the founders and leads don't like. Avoid it.
Our local
coffeehouse is a delightful place with worn comfortable chairs and
most importantly, a quiet timeless atmosphere-Quiet being the
operative word. Often the only sound is that of the refrigerator
or a guy playing his guitar. Sometimes eclectic recorded music is
played softly. The decor has naturally evolved over the years and
includes lots of used books for sale or loan and many potted
plants. The family that works there and the employees are easy
going and cheerful. Every interaction with them is just that, an
opportunity to talk about things that are happening in the
neighborhood and the local school. Kids wander in and out and mix
with adults of all ages. The place is so relaxed people sometimes
fall asleep on the wicker couch.
You can get credit and run up a tab there if
your paycheck hasn't come in yet. They serve pastries from a
family owned bakery around the corner that are bought for cash.
The coffee is organic from a small boutique roaster. There is usually a vase of fresh flowers
on the counter that people bring from their garden
and a fruit box where
people can drop off and pick up surplus items from their trees.
The coffeehouse is used as a venue to showcase local artists, hold
clothing swaps, leave messages and because of all the above,
people are fiercely loyal to them and it's doing well
financially.
Contrast this
with the closest Starbucks. Everything is a commercial transaction
designed to move money in one direction; Seattle Corporate
Headquarters. There is the expectation that you'll get your
product, finish it and make room for the next commercial
transaction unit. The decor is straight out of a catalog with many
instant faux Italian espresso bar touches and scores of
institutional "20-minute chairs" (designed to be comfortable only
that long). Company provided mood music is played on a custom
player that will not play standard sized CDs-this to prevent the
employees from daring to play their own music. The volume is
fixed, no doubt loud enough to discourage people from lingering
longer than the time it takes to finish a drink. Some people foil
this by bringing their own cushion to make the chairs bearable and
wear headphones to listen to their own music. Who says you have to
buy anything to enjoy their seats, electrical outlets, restroom and air conditioning?
They claimed in their permit application to be a community living room,
so that's the price they'll have to pay.
If you live in a small
town that has nothing but dishwater coffee at a fast food place or
a gas station, the opening of a Starbucks would be a huge
improvement in the community. Of course after they build up the
coffee taste level, it's time for some locals to open their own
place as above.
Please send us examples of how you use the
Alternate Economy. If they're unique we'll add them
here.
Freeganism,
a new term for dumpster diving for food, clothing and other things
not because you're poor or desperate but because they are
there! Especially productive at the end of college terms when
mini refrigerators, food, clothing, furniture and other items are dumped.
E-Mail
Why those "Hippies" down at the Organic Grocery
may your real friends:
My old Uncle Bob is slowly coming around to our
way of thinking. Ex-Marine, Ex-paint salesman, Ex-workman, he is now
a expert on everything that's wrong with the country. After the last
couple of years of spending money in an Australian themed corporate steakhouse and sitting
on the benches at the Mall and watching his friends die of heart attacks, he is becoming
disillusioned with the whole scene. There's a change in the air. If
we can convince Uncle Bob of the wisdom of what we're doing, then we
can convince anybody.
The first chink in his armor came when his
Veteran's Benefits were reduced with the closure of a local V.A. hospital. "You mean I have to drive all the
way to F* Fairfield to see a doctor!" That Son of a Bitch Biden!
Next was when we announced to him that the home
cooking that he had been ravenously devouring at our house every
Sunday was 100% Organic.
"I was wondering what you were putting in it" -"I
mean, there's no manure in it is there?" A few explanations of the
benefits of Organics followed by a couple of blind taste comparisons
of Organic versus Safeway produce and prepared food convinced him.
The final straw came when his 'club card' or whatever it's called
didn't work and he was asked to fill out an all new application at
the local corporate supermarket; he stomped out and drove to the
alternate Organic market that we had repeatedly praised.
He began to shop there. We were dumbfounded.
Totally out of place in his "members only" wind breaker, he actually
made friends with the people that worked there and now he hangs out
on the sunny tables in front of their store. When we asked him what
motivated the change, he made some joke about cute girls and then
he just came right out an said it
"You know those Hippies down there may be our real
friends. The food's far better and I know their parents and I feel
comfortable there. It's a real place."
Some links about similar concepts on
other sites:
The Informal Economy: an article
by a specialist on Post Communist Russia.
The American alternative currency: The Ithaca
Hour
http://www.ithacahours.com.
Craigslist.
The BEST way on the internet to list things for sale, barter, wanted,
free or specialized services in most cities.
Look in the "For Sale" box dead
center of the page:
Here's
the one for San Francisco.
Note different regions at top
right.
---------------------------------
Freecycle: Unfortunately you have to register,
unlike Craigslist which only requires that to sell, not search or buy.
http://www.freecycle.org/
"The worldwide Freecycle™
Network is made up of many individual groups across the globe. It's a
grassroots movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff
for free in their own towns. Each local group is run by a local
volunteer moderator (them's good people). Membership is free. To sign
up, find your community by clicking on the region on the right.
Sprawl
Busters - an anti Big Box website:
Lots to see here: also, available are copies at cost of studies
from various municipalities that have blocked Big Box Stores.
Click
here to tell a friend about The Overcoming
Consumerism
website
or Please feel free to link your web pages to
www.verdant.net
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