A column that shares lessons learned in taking the Dancing Rabbit lifestyle to the city.
Environmentalism is not anti-business, it's just anti-BAD-business. Building up
local economies is not the only solution here, but it's a good one. For example,
take a loaf of bread. Grain is grown in a certain region; shipped by gas guzzling
trucks to be milled elsewhere, shipped again to be processed into bread somewhere
else, and wrapped in plastic before yet another shipment to the distributor.
Finally, it's shipped again to your local (though owned by a national
corporation) grocery store, which you most likely have to drive to because the
parking lot alone is too big to walk across! Compare this to buying the loaf in a
walkable commercial district run by people you know by name, selling goods made
from local resources with a minimum of transportation pollution. Which system
would you rather be part of?
Like it or not, most of us are part of making the
first system an entrenched reality every day. At Dancing Rabbit, this is less of
an issue. People at Dancing Rabbit provide for a lot of their own needs and
locally-owned businesses abound in the small towns nearby. But out here in the
cities and suburbs, we don't always have it so good. How can you help create and
support the healthy growth of local economies?
Shop Locally
You can start by making a commitment to buy from locally-owned businesses. If you do this and make
it stick, you're already leagues ahead of the rest in making our world a better
place. You may need to take some extra steps to make that feasible, though. Your
first challenge might be finding local businesses that meet your needs. Try
contacting your chamber of commerce for a listing of locally-owned businesses.
They may put you in touch with a small business association, who would be happy
to have your support, and may be able to tell you a lot about what's around.
Better yet, talk to friends and family about your new commitment. Tell them about
the stores you've found, why you like them, and why you're shopping locally. This
will help spread the idea and ensure that local businesses get the support they
need to stay in business. There are few things more frustrating than finding a
business you love and then having it fold because of competition from a faceless
national chain. (This is one reason why I love Detroit. What other major city in
the US has only two Starbucks in it?!) If you really want to go the extra
step, start a little neighborhood directory of cool, locally-owned businesses.
You could probably even get those businesses to chip in a small amount of money
to cover printing costs. Then, make the directories available for free in each
business and in local community centers. This isn't that hard to do and could
single-handedly help boost exposure for your neighborhood's locally-owned
businesses.
Independent Business Associations
Take that last idea a little
farther and you might be able to sell local businesses on the idea of an
Independent Business Association. Several of these associations have been started
around the world. I recommend checking out Boulder's at www.boulder-iba.org.
Their program has successfully boosted locally-owned businesses, given those
businesses a competitive edge through shared advertising, and educated the public
about the value of local businesses. Are you looking for a new line of work? You
could be the first part-time administrator of your local community IBA!
Local Currencies
Another approach in all of this is to create a local currency. These
are legal, novel, and wonderful sources of local pride! While not simple to set
up effectively, they can be a tremendously useful way to keep money in the
community. Dancing Rabbit has created its own currency based on time rendered for
services. This approach is based on an egalitarian belief that everyone's time
should be valued equally (though it still allows people the flexibility to charge
or pay more or less for a product or service if they feel that's appropriate).
Other systems base their local currency on the value of the national currency,
which makes for easy understanding of the bills. In either approach the idea is
to create money that stays in the community, supports the community, and which
the community has some control over. This can greatly improve local trading, as
well as providing new local loan sources. See sidebar for more information.
Barter Systems Currency is just a way to enhance barter systems. So if the idea
of setting up a local currency is too daunting, start by helping to facilitate
bartering! This sort of project can be as big or as small as you want. Start by
polling people on whether they have any skills or goods that they'd be willing to
barter for. Then create a little directory and provide one to every person who
said they're willing to barter. This approach doesn't have as much flexibility as
local currency, since two people have to both want what the other has to offer.
Sometimes a three-way trade is possible, but it often gets cumbersome after that.
Nonetheless, it's simple and easy to set up, builds community spirit, and often
has the fun feeling of getting things for free.
Money equals power
Wouldn't you feel better about the green stuff if it was based on green ideas? Money isn't the
only source of power, but it is essential to make things happen in our world. Why
accept the normal channels for its distribution and availability? We can build a
new model right underneath the existing structures and craft creative new systems
for economic development. Our communities and our lives will be healthier for it.
Here are some resources where you can find more information about these ideas:
Boulder's Independent Business Association
Transaction Net's Local Currencies Comparison
Dancing Rabbit's local economy example
The Ithaca Hours page- a great resource!
Earthlink's description and listing of LETS programs
LETS system website- overviews and downloadable guides and software for running a LETS program
Intentional Community Bookstore