Borders Books is to blame for sending me a link to this summary of our economy by David Bach, author of Go Green, Live Rich and several other books on how to make big rather than get by.
In the brief article, Bach quickly explains what happened to our economy. The upshot is that we borrowed money against our homes (or against our credit cards) to purchase items made in other countries.
Hence begins my rant. Since we, as a whole, can't think our way out of a financial paper bag and always chase cheap instead of keeping our money local -- or at least in the USA -- we've depleted our richest asset as a nation: our land. We're beholden to banks for our false sense of "having enough", and the banks are now beholden to our federal government for bailing them out, who in turn is beholden to our national debt -- which is another way of saying we've borrowed money from other countries and need to pay them back. So who owns us? The countries manufacturing the cheap products.
And that goes from buying a foreign-manufactured pencil from Staples online through more overt methods of shipping our money out of the country wholesale, such as manufacturing out of the country or offshoring. Even if only 10% of the price you pay is paying for the foreign manufacture of an object, you and millions of people just like you are shipping 10% of your money out of the country.
So the upshot is to stop sending your money out of the country. Immediately. Purchase local or at least USA on everything, while we still have some money to spend. That goes for the holiday season. Purchase green US-manufactured crafts, toys, clothes, suits, scarves, boots -- whatever you would have bought, find a local manufactured and local resourced product. If it's more expensive, so what? Purchase less of it. Purchase lightly used, because we already paid the foreign manufacturer. Gather up Freecycled objects, fix them up, and give them as gifts. But whatever you do, keep your money in the country. And that goes for everyone.
If you use a foreign assistant in your business, it's time to find a local assistant service, such as Daybreak Virtual Office Solutions. You won't be paying extra because your ability to communicate with your assistant will increase.
Buy local food, it's healthier, wiser for the planet, and better for the collective wallet.
Ok, enough rant, I have to leave soon.
