It's Time for a New Economy

So I have been thinking for some time now about doing a post on alternative exchange methods and a "New Economy." I  started to write something up about the need to return to more traditional methods of exchange. I'd even purchased a URL and taken other steps in order to start setting up Hour Exchange of the Berwicks.  In light of the recent data breaches at Target and Neiman Marcus, the constant fear of identity theft and concerns over financial insecurity, the time for this article seemed more than ripe. And then I saw this graphic! It bares a startling resemblance to my own list. Which got me thinking the time must be even more ripe than I thought. So.... here it is....

Source - https://www.facebook.com/foodisfree

Let's take it from the top:

Grow your own food or support a local CSA. Growing your own food is a great way to reduce food cost and increase the healthiness of  your diet. It is also one more way of bringing the production of our needs closer to home and increasing our security and sustainability in an uncertain world.

Make it yourself. If we make it ourselves, be it clothing or food or whatever, we have taken a big step toward local sourcing. Local sourcing helps to balance costs, prices and wages and reduces the impacts of production and distribution on the environment. Making things ourselves from local materials and ingredients also helps to build the LOCAL economy.  There are those who will use the argument that you shouldn't stop buying clothes from Bangladesh or coffee from Africa (etc and so on), because after all the countries that export those goods depend on selling to you for their economy. This is a justification on the part of the corporations who make their money on importing these goods at cut rate prices and selling them at huge mark ups. One of the first ways that we can help improve income equality and fair distribution of wealth is to advocate for higher wages for people who work in these factories. And one way to do that is to refuse to buy the products until the workers are paid a fare wage. 

Swap it! Borrowing and sharing really go together. How many of us have tools and other things that we use only very rarely? How many of us buy something because we need it today and we might only need it once or twice a year and perhaps not even that often. If we will share those things, we could reduce the demand for them. (Now watch how this dominoes.)  Neighbors begin sharing shovels and snow blowers and other tools. Fewer shovels and snow blowers and other tools are needed, fewer are produced. Environmental impact decreases. More people are sharing. They purchase fewer things. They need less space. They move to smaller homes. They need less money.  They work fewer hours or work from home. They commute less, the environmental impact decreases and decreases again.... and so on.  

Exchanging time for time (hour for hour) is one way of reducing income inequality and working toward a new economy.  Isn't it true that all of us are equally valuable and that all of our labor is equally valuable? But the monetary system that we have established leads people to feel that their worth is based on their income. Hogwash! Exchanging time for time allows us all to be on a level playing field, builds confidence and self worth, and eliminates roadblocks to success and improvement.

Reduce, Reuse, Repair, and Recycle I've already covered these here and here, and I will reiterate here that one of the primary and most important of these is reduce. Reduce, Simplify, Right-Size, work toward sustainability. 

What it all boils down to though is that we all need to learn a little something from the folks who have learned to do with less and not just 'make do' but live abundantly and be truly happy, happier perhaps than many of those who think they can only be happy if they have wealth, possessions and power.

Remember life is not in things but in experiences. So experience it and live light.