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Revitalizing main streets Across Dane County
The Two-sentence version
The vision
A world of economic justice, vibrant communities, wherein each person is valued and can live a meaningful life. Like Doughnut Economics, nobody has too much while nobody has too little.
The vehicle
Create walkable neighborhoods full of locally-financed, locally-owned businesses selling locally-sourced goods and services, all connected by good, cheap, rail-based transportation, promoting community, stability, identity, trust, and the General Welfare (one of the five rationales, mentioned in the US Constitution, for the US existing). Increase population density and walkable neighborhoods with an emphasis on public transportation.
The inspiration
“To get people to stop playing with toys, you need to give them better toys.” Daniel Quinn
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” Buckminster Fuller
“Only a crisis - actual or perceived - produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable.” Milton Friedman
“A healthy society is not one in which everyone drives a limousine, but one in which the leaders ride public transportation.” Unknown
“The question isn’t ‘what’s good for the economy?’ the question is, ‘what sort of world do you want to live in?’” Dave Cieslewicz
Martin Luther King’s final speech, especially from 22:00 on-- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixfwGLxRJU8&t=1348s
The local food, brewing, and artist/maker movements.
The jewels of Dane County: State Street, Monroe Street, Atwood Avenue, Williamson Street, downtown Sun Prairie, downtown Stoughton . . .
The Short version
The situation
Huge wealth inequalities.
Racial disparities on a global scale.
Entire populations are exploited for cheap labor.
Lack of meaningful work/life.
Job loss due to outsourcing and automation.
Anxiety due to the whims of our employers.
Small businesses are being replaced by Amazon and Walmart, corporations that ‘extract our wealth’ rather than ‘develop our wealth’.
Individuals feel powerless to effect change.
Because of our auto-centric transportation model, people of limited financial means cannot even enter the economy.
The beliefs
Healthy economies are almost always local.
Businesses either extract wealth from a communitw or build the wealth of a community.
‘Affordable’ housing is not affordable if it requires owning a car.
Huge wealth inequalities are not healthy, giving the wealthy too much power.
The best prize life can offer is “the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”
Businesses and manufacturers have the same responsibility as teachers, farmers, nurses, and clergy: to serve the people.
Unfettered, transnational capitalism is overwhelmingly racist, exploiting the labor of POC to increase the wealth of White people while interfering with that country’s ability to develop its own businesses.
Our reliance on the automobile (regardless of the fuel used) wastes resources, destroys the planet, and destroys community by making us more isolated, alienated, and competitive.
Martin Luther King’s final speech provides the blueprint for how people can reclaim power and affect change.
State and national governments are controlled by big businesses; any reform cannot rely on them.
The vision
A world of economic justice, vibrant communities, wherein each person is valued and can live a meaningful life. Like Doughnut Economics, nobody has too much while nobody has too little.
The vehicle
Cities and neighborhoods full of locally-funded, locally-owned businesses selling locally-sourced goods, promoting community, stability, identity, trust, and the General Welfare (one of the five founding principles, according to the US Constitution). Increased population density and walkable neighborhoods with an emphasis on public transportation.
The plan (adapted from Martin Luther King Jr.’s final speech)
Withdraw economic support from large, transnational businesses through plea or targeted boycott.
Patronize small, locally-owned businesses sourced by fair-minded, local suppliers.
Dismantle the auto-centric culture. Promote walkable neighborhoods and good, cheap, rail-based, public transportation.
Limit the amount of property one person, family or business can own.
The Long Part
The situation
1. We live in a world of extreme wealth concentration. A few have a lot of wealth, while the many have little. In 1800 just 20 percent of American workers had an employer other than themselves; by 2000 the figure was 90%. And the employers are getting larger. In 1800 less than 1 percent of the workforce was employed in an organization having five hundred or more employees, by 2000, the figure stood at 55 percent. These trends cause massive wealth to concentrate at the top.
2. Globalization/corporate colonization continues the dynamic of poor, often people of color, working hard to enhance the wealth of the rich, often white people. This is true on a local scale (think chain stores and restaurants) and a global scale (think overseas manufacturing). People of Color working for _______ in order to produce goods and services for profits that enrich White stockholders and the management class.
Poor, brown people mine copper in Chile for Australian and Japanese corporations; Black Congolese mine Coltan for the Swiss Glencore; Chinese factory workers produce goods for many world corporations . . and on.
4. We live in a world where people feel increasingly isolated and alienated. In 1800 less than 1 percent of the workforce was employed in an organization having five hundred or more employees, by 2000, the figure stood at 55 percent. Few workers see the direct impact of their work, so their work is reduced to increasing profits or productivity.
One way to combat this growing alienation is through the creation of small businesses. Working for yourself gives you meaning; knowing your customers, even more so. There is something more human about buying locally made products at a locally run store. In 1800, we were all important parts of our own small pyramids; now we are all replaceable bricks in someone else’s massive pyramid.
5. Technological advancement, since the industrial revolution, has made the world ever more efficient. But is efficiency a good thing? It, by definition, reduces the number of people required for getting a job done, thereby increasing unemployment. Also, as companies increase in size, jobs become more specialized and can lack meaning.
6. Our world is going through a monumental shift from the physical to the digital, and it’s affecting everything about our lives, including our employment. In a rush to maximize profit, corporations are outsourcing any job they can, and outsourcing what they cannot. Instead of careers lasting decades, we are moving towards a gig economy in which employers hire limited term employees to complete projects. Once the project is completed, the person needs to find another job. This dynamic creates instability and anxiety (who can plan for the future, buy a house, have children, when life is upset every few years?). It’s a bad trend for individuals, families, neighborhoods, cities, and the nation.
7. Amazon is taking over the world. Its predatory practices are displacing small retail and manufacturing. Why would any but the most noble person buy locally when they can buy on-line for lower prices, and get the products delivered to their door the very next day? Amazon does not create jobs, but merely consolidates employees that had worked at smaller businesses. Amazon creates no local wealth; it rather mines the wealth from localities. Through data collection, Amazon discovers what products are selling well, then creates its own version at a discount, replacing the primary manufacturer. The destruction of main streets that Walmart has been doing for decades is being accelerated by Amazon.
8. Though we live in a ‘democracy’, most people think their only power lies in voting for the right politician. We feel any change has to happen through governmental policy. We watch the news or look out our windows and think, “They should really do something about that.” We see large businesses take over our city and think we are powerless to stop them. We post our outrage on Facebook or Twitter, and when nothing changes, we feel even more powerless.
The beliefs
A. Local economies are inherently more resilient and humane. If a large company goes out of business, hundreds (thousands?)lose their jobs across the world. Or an entire city loses its financial center. If a small business does, only a few lose their jobs, and the effect is limited to that city. It’s making dozens of small bets rather than a few large bets. There can be no world economic catastrophe because each business is contained. Secondly, many large employers, especially retail employers, tend to ‘extract the wealth’ out of a city, rather than ‘develop the wealth’ of a city. They make the city’s economy very fragile: if they leave, the effects are devastating.
This dynamic can be expanded to the world. If a US corporation builds car parts in Mexico, Mexico does not develop their own businesses. Sending ‘aid’ to developing countries seems altruistic, but it often interferes with that country’s ability to develop its own business capacity. Instead, countries that are rich in resources should use their resources to diversify their economy and build their own local businesses, rather than just supplying other countries with those resources.
B. When a company becomes huge, it can control the government through lobbying and contributions. It can start crafting laws that benefit the company to the detriment of the citizens; it becomes really powerful while the individual becomes weaker. If companies were kept small and local, they still may have power, but the differential would be much smaller, and the effect more localized.
C. Everyone wants a meaningful life, which means working at something meaningful. If I work in a place and never see the actual effect I’m having, the contribution I am making, my job can become meaningless, and that can render my entire life meaningless. If, instead, I work with a small group of people to create something worthwhile, and actually interact with my customers, I see the effect I’m having and my life can become more meaningful.
D. John Ruskin teaches that each part of a community agrees to a social contract: to contribute to the society and make the world better. Teachers, nurses, pastors . . . The same is true of the business and manufacturing class. Their purpose is not to make money, it’s to supply goods and services and jobs to the world. When the finance industry sees that increasing profits is the prime directive, it betrays the people and forfeits its right to exist.
E. Almost all consumer goods are manufactured by people of color (for example, electronics in China, Malaysia, Indonesia; clothing in Central America) by workers earning very low wages. Nike, for example, manufactures no shoes; it contracts out its manufacturing to factories that can supply it shoes at the lowest possible cost. It’s a very exploitative model. In the short term, it seems like a good idea: the US gets cheap shoes and China gets jobs. Unfortunately in the long term it is bad: the US loses its ability to manufacture necessities, and small Chinese businesses cannot develop. This past summer I worked at GE making ventilators, and our production lines were often shut down because we couldn’t get the parts, most of which were made in China.
F. Our dependence on the automobile has become problematic in many ways. Our streets are clogged with traffic; the manufacturing, use, and maintenance of the auto are all detrimental to the natural environment; wider lanes and highways have made our cities ugly; it promotes low-density sprawl and single-family homes, leading to more isolation and fear; road maintenance (expansion, repair, winter plowing) is very costly; it favors transnational, extractive corporations and hinders local businesses that depend on foot traffic; our dependence on the auto hinders poor people from employment options. Most importantly, our reliance on the auto is bad for our mental health. In much of the US we are isolated in our cars, cursing other drivers, increasing our anxiety and feeding our alienation and competitiveness while decreasing our sense of belonging and cooperation.
Shifting to alternative fuel, be it hydrogen or electricity will not address most of these problems.
G. In his last speech, MLK says that in order to revolutionize the world all we need to do is withdraw our economic support from businesses that do bad things and give it to businesses that do good things. Individually, we have no power, but collectively, we have tremendous power. Bezos and Musk did not ‘become’ billionaires. Every dollar that they have was given to them by us. If we don’t like what they do, all we have to do is not buy from them. If we hate large banks, all we need to do is withdraw our money from them.
Step two is to give our money to businesses who make the world better, mostly small, locally-owned businesses and producers. Again, to develop our own, homegrown wealth, rather than letting our wealth be mined by transnationals.
The Vision
Imagine being able to either walk or take public transportation everywhere you need to go: work, school, restaurants, stores. Imagine knowing who you are buying your food from, who made your furniture, who fixes your furnace. Imagine knowing the people who buy your products and services, seeing their gratitude and meeting their needs. Think of how cohesive and resilient you would feel. Imagine people all over the world feeling the same way in their cities and towns.
While living in Europe and Asia, I felt part of something larger. Whether it was due to the reliance on public transportation, the lack of big box stores, or the walkable cities, it just felt more civilized. I was part of a whole when I rode the busses or subways or walked the streets. I knew who sold, and in many cases, grew the food I ate, who baked the bread I bought. We had a social, not just transactional, relationship.
The Plan
When MLK was addressing the people of Memphis during the sanitation worker’s strike, he concluded by saying their public demonstrations must be accompanied by economic withdrawal and economic support. He instructed the people to go to the companies that are treating people poorly and demand that they change or the people will no longer patronize that store or company. Then, to turn around and patronize businesses that are doing good things. Buy food from local businesses selling locally grown food, clothes from locally produced companies. Instead of relying on large banks, to deposit money into smaller, locally owned banks, and on and on . . .
Adapting these sentiments to current times, I see these three steps--
Take money from exploitative capitalists
Withdraw economic support from large, out of state businesses. Stop supporting multinationals (i.e. Amazon, Walmart, chain restaurants . . .).
Limit the amount of property one can hold (especially commercial space).
Stop the building of Amazon hubs.
Stop buying things made with exploitative labor.
Support local business
Invest, shop at locally-owned, especially minority-owned businesses.
Set up a ‘make up the difference’ fund. So people with limited means can shop at, presumably higher-priced, local businesses.
Grow local business
Create a city bank (or many small city banks) for low/no interest loans. My current credit card has an APR of 24%. How can this be legal?
Start some sort of small business mentorship program, where people who desire to start a small business can find help.
Create a local investment exchange ala Baltimore. Like Kiva with interest, or a dating site for local investors and local businesses to meet. This is a new idea to me, and I’m not an expert, so here’s a link to someone who is: https://www.communitywealthbuilders.org/md-exchange.html
questions
Is it too late? Are we hostages to Amazon and big box stores with no alternatives?
Is it too late? Are we hostages to automobile-centric development, making the transition to public transportation impossible?
Would going local crash all economies and send us spinning to the dark ages?
Resources
Doughnut Economics, especially the animations, videos, and podcast tabs.
The example of Amsterdam
https://time.com/5930093/amsterdam-doughnut-economics/
Martin Luther King’s final speech, especially from 22:00 on-- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixfwGLxRJU8&t=1348s
Strong Towns
Existing railroad tracks in Dane County
https://www.greatermadisonmpo.org/maps/documents/DaneCo_Rail_2014.pdf
This Town PROVES We Can Still Build Beautiful Cities
The Suburban Wasteland: How the ‘Burbs Bankrupt Us
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