Building a Restorative Economy
I wrote this in October 2009, but given the current conversation generated by the Occupy movement around creating an economy that works for everyone, it seemed worth re-posting here.
I recently attended the Economics of Peace conference in Sonoma, and wanted to share five of the lessons I learned about concrete steps we each can take right now to "build the soil of a restorative economy."
This was a phrase used by Woody Tasch (the author of Slow Money) in the fast-paced and thought-provoking workshop he delivered, but it captures quite well the overall intent of the conference, which was to build visibility and support for practical, on-the-ground alternatives to the current brand of voracious corporate capitalism that is breaking national economies, undermining democratic processes, fueling global conflict, and driving the destruction of the ecosystems we depend on for survival.
The emerging "restorative economies" are local, human-scaled, decentralized, relationship-oriented, values-driven, and firmly embedded within--and accountable to--local communities and ecosystems. In their pace they are slow, not fast; in their ultimate purpose they are people-oriented, not profit-oriented. They are highly diverse, not homogeneous; they are aligned with our values, not in conflict with them.
They are being built right now in the neighborhoods of Portland and Philadelphia, in small cities such as Burlington, VT and Bellingham, WA, and in towns and cities across the country that have started "local living economy" movements. However, these place-based, healthy economies still represent just a small fraction of the total economic activity in this country, and much more must be done if we want to see this kind of economy become the norm.
Thankfully, the economy is not some fixed, external reality we simply have to put up with. On the contrary, we create the economy each day through our spending, investing, and consuming decisions, so we have more power than we often realize to create the kind of economic reality we want to see.
The following are not necessarily easy, but they are five of the most powerful actions we can take to create robust, resilient, and restorative place-based economies:
1) Take our money out of corporate banks (e.g. Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo) and put it in the most community-oriented local bank or credit union we can find.
2) Whenever possible, buy local, and if local doesn't exist for the product we want, buy Fair Trade. If that isn't an option, consider sharing, buying used, or finding a substitute. Practice asking of a potential purchase: "is this something I actually need?"
3) Strengthen local food systems by joining a CSA (community-supported agriculture), a coop, shopping at a farmers market, and committing to eat local, organic, biodynamic, and/or homegrown food.
4) Practice generosity, especially when it is most difficult. This can mean releasing information or creative work under the Creative Commons license (as opposed to copyrighting it), sharing proprietary processes or information (things people normally trademark, register, or patent), etc...
5) Lastly, but perhaps most importantly: examine our own relationship with money. Does money make us happy? anxious? Does it influence our sense of identity, making us feel better than others, or worse than them? Do we operate out of a scarcity mentality?
It is only when we are able to transform our own direct relationship with money and consumption--so it is in harmony with our values and aligned with our aspirations--that we will be able to shift the dynamics of the broader economy.
