Community Based Economics (CBE)

Community based economics is the idea that we should consider our community as an important factor in our economic decisions. Our economic decisions include the source of our groceries, where we buy our tennis shoes, our house, where we work, where we gas up, and all other economic decisions.

Consider a day in your life. Wake up, eat some yogurt by Yoplait, or more accurately General Mills, from Minnesota, then drink a glass of Fry's, wait Kroger's, store brand orange juice from Florida, and some Folgers in your cup, from Africa perhaps. Anyway, as you slip on your comfortable Nikes. made in China, and your spiffy sports coat, made in Indonesia you begin to wonder how the cotton got to Indonesia, and the rubber for your Nikes...how did that get to China? Forget about it, grab your Samsonite briefcase, made in Europe, and your Starbucks mug...China again. Run for the door and jump in your Nissan Altima, then rush to work burning fossil fuel from the middle east.

Ahh, the global economy. We are able to get the best products at the best prices anytime we want with no drawbacks. Because if there were drawbacks the market would correct them, right? Well, no. The market, contrary to popular conception, is not an objective wizard behind a curtain. The market is a fictitious entity made up of you, me, and another fictitious entity called a corporation. That fictitious entity is made up of you, me, and most other suckers on the planet. We are the market. We need to find the problems with our current economic state, and since we are the corporations, and more importantly the direct financiers of the corporations by contributions made with each purchase, we need to implement the changes to fix the problems.

In the first three hours of your day you managed to touch over half the continents on earth. Transferring wealth, which is cut by a million greedy hands continually throughout its journey across the world. Community based economics means to stop that and some would like to replace corporate globalization with civic globalization. Why? Why ruin our perfectly good lives?

To be continued...