Category: Community

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Reaping Many Good Things

I have maintained that local efforts to reshape the nature of our economy can do much to alleviate the continuing economic catastrophe. One that is happening in my home town of Salem, Oregon is a program that helps people obtain free food while helping others who face food insecurity. Read more [...]
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This Way Out

One of the most pernicious things we hear in the media every day is that the economy cannot survive without mega-sized financial and other corporate institutions, which is one reason they are allegedly "too big to fail." We have no other choice. Smile and know your place. Read more [...]
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Lessons From Wisconsin and Elsewhere

But the whole argument over unions and the accusation that unionized public employees make more money than their private sector counterparts (they don't), or that unions created the economic collapse we see happening around us (they didn't) masks what I think it a basic philosophical difference or, perhaps more accurately, a mythical difference. Read more [...]
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The Age of the Generalist?

Some conversations with a few friends recently has prompted me to give this some thought with respect to the unemployment crisis. Our modern society has more and narrower specializations than at any time in history. That argues that because of our highly specialized job descriptions, losing that job to overseas outsourcing or other cause means that more people have to adapt because the few jobs that are left don't make the best use of one's specialty. It's downright uncivilized. Read more [...]
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What Happens When a Community Connects

An article that appears in a recent issue of Yes! magazine caught my attention this morning. The article talks about how consumerism has caused families to weaken by prompting them to turn over more and more tasks that were once the province of the family to professionals and how in the process the authors believe something has been lost. Read more [...]
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Fun With Gift Cards

Gift cards can be purchased outright at many retail outlets. Some stores such as Costco sell them at a significant discount. Besides that, there is a whole market that has opened up where people deal in gift cards, almost like a stock market or currency exchange. Read more [...]
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The Quiet Revolution

The best way to summarize what is happening is that small (and some not-so-small) communities are starting to erect defenses against losing their local economies, natural resources, and quality of life to major corporations who are wont to move in, undermine or crush the local small businesses and replacing them with something less wholesome for the local environment, however one chooses to define it. Read more [...]
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