We’ll see, but my bet is “not yet”….
For those of us who are early adopters of the post-consumer lifestyle, though, this is kind of heartening. Unfortunately in my neck of suburbia, I’m still forced today to run out to the grocery store.
Sigh.
AlterNet: Big Box Swindle: The Fight to Reclaim America from Retail Giants
Unease about corporate power and a desire for greater community self-determination has, however, emerged once again as a potent issue at the local level. It’s evident in the rising interest in locally grown food and other products, and in the many cities that are setting their own economic policies, enacting such measures as living wage laws and ordinances that restrict the expansion of Wal-Mart and other corporate retailers. Many are also actively fostering the development of a locally rooted economy. Meanwhile, in some three dozen cities, local business owners have banded together in Independent Business Alliances that are calling on people as citizens to engage in a kind of economic disobedience by withdrawing support for the chains and shopping locally owned, as well as shaking up local politics by articulating a pro-business agenda that differs markedly from what’s put forth by most big business-dominated chambers of commerce.
It’s too early to tell, but these initiatives-which will be the subject of the remainder of this book-may well usher in a future America that is not dominated by a handful of global corporate giants, but rather embraces a decentralized economy more conducive to democracy.
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