Want Well-Being for Yourself, and for Others as Well

In an interdependent age, where nuclear weapons, disease, conflict, and global travel and communications make us truly interconnected, the well-being of others directly affects our individual well-being.  In a word, we are all in this together and the world really is a small place.

It is important, and possible, to decentralize wealth.  It will take a global social movement to accomplish it, like the profound social movements that have gone before.  The 1960s saw a cultural revolution that sparked with the Free Speech movement in Berkeley and became a widespread peace movement. Historically there were the American and French revolutions, and more recently the Prague Spring, the Velvet Revolution, and the Arab Spring.

Buy Local, Buy Worker-Owned

We can build on the momentum of the “Springs” around the world, and work to shift the global social system from a competitive to a cooperative footing.  It all depends on how people spend their money, and what they expect of governments.

To decentralize wealth, people need to have an ownership interest in their work and goods need to be produced much closer to home.  It used to be, before the Reagan Revolution, that people owned their own businesses – the corner grocery, the neighborhood coffee shop, the local auto repair place – but now, 93% of people are “employees.”  Walmart, Starbucks, and other corporations are the beneficiaries of this “employee” norm.

In addition, wealth is created through the “value-added” process of manufacturing.  Most of the world’s basic goods are made today in a few far-away places, put on ships, and spread across the world.  This concentrates wealth, adds to environmental destruction, and lessens people’s security and resiliency by making them dependent on distant production.

To make the needed changes, we can buy from worker-owned, local or regional companies – a “buycott” rather than a boycott.  If worker-owner companies don’t exist yet, help to create or convert them.  We don’t need fewer “capitalists,” we need many, many more.

Expect Public Functions to be Noncommercial

Not only can we change where we spend our money, we can change what we expect of governments.

The global economy has been at sea since 1980, when the Reagan Administration created a doctrine of “privatization” that changed the face of society in a profound way.  Before that time, basic public functions in the US – police, fire, education, healthcare, military, foreign assistance, basic research, and transportation, for example – were performed on a noncommercial basis, largely by governments and sometimes by not-for-profit corporations.  Today still, some public functions like police and fire are performed on a noncommercial basis without a profit involved.

The problem is that when a “profit” is included in the performance of public functions, they are too expensive to afford on a society-wide basis and levels of public well-being are lowered dramatically. And as we see today, if we try to pay for public functions that include a profit, the federal budget soars.  Privatization as a social operating concept is now so deeply entrenched in the US that popular discussion paints any activity that is performed without a profit incentive as “socialism,” despite the fact that public functions have been performed efficiently without a profit incentive for years in a “capitalistic” society.

There is a strong presence of unyielding self-interest in the commercialization of public functions currently, and the job falls to the public to demand that profit be taken out of basic public functions. Performing public functions on a noncommercial basis is not socialism, and no one should fall for the spin.

Shun the Unethical Accumulation of Wealth

Not all wealth is accumulated equally.  Some of it is acquired through hard work and innovation, and some is garnered by walking all over the fundamental interests of others.  If you have to hurt people to get your money, it is unethical – easy examples are making and selling cigarettes and soda, but there are other ways to walk all over the interests of others that are not as obvious.  There’s nothing wrong with making money, as long as you don’t have to hurt anyone to get it.  It’s important to separate the ethical wealthy from the unethical wealthy.

Expect Governments to Help Their Citizens to be Self-Reliant

Putting people “on the dole” isn’t good for the economy, and neither is leaving people to “sink or swim.”  The role of government should be to help its people to satisfy their fundamental human needs, and if they need assistance to be self-reliant, it should be provided.  Whether this is helping people start their own businesses, get educated, or break an addiction, there should be a social expectation that it is the government’s job to help people to help themselves.

And it’s not just the US that should be concerned about whether the American government is meeting the social needs of its people – American military spending can be as high as it is because the American people don’t have an expectation of mutual obligation.  Extreme American military spending adversely affects all corners of the world.

Deposit Your Money in Non-Profit Banks

The nine largest banks in the world hold most of people’s deposits.  That, by definition, makes them “too big to fail,” and also gives them too much power and influence.  There’s an easy solution – move your deposits out of commercial banks and put them in credit unions.  Plus, push Congress to raise the cap on the percentage of business loans that credit unions can make.

Join the Campaign to Decentralize Wealth

You can help us get started, by crowdfunding an advertising campaign, a revolving fund to establish cooperative businesses, and a certification system for labeling corporate ownership structure.

Find us online at:  www.TheGlobalSpring.org

Neighborhood Bonds are one way to raise community money for something like a food co-op.

Having  grown up in Ft.Collins a recent article about a Food Co-op expansion in Ft. Collins, Colorado caught my eye. What I found extremely interesting is how they are looking to finance the new project. The Co-op is currently located at 250 E. Mountain Avenue and has limited parking and room to grow. To service the needs of its member-owners, the co-op must triple its retail space. To do this, they are considering a new downtown site with enough room to accommodate its expansion and long sought-after community market and kitchen. The Co-op is looking at fulfilling a vision conceived by the Downtown Development Authority for a community marketplace and kitchen.

A feasibility study released in 2011 showed the desire for a project anchored by both the co-op and a community marketplace that could provide space for a year-round farmers market, kitchen and demonstration area. Now, the co-op might be able to take the lead on bringing that project to fruition. The co-op is eyeing a new method of funding that would allow the community to buy bonds for as little as $200. A Co-op in Madison, Wisconsin used this financing tool to help raise $600,000 in 60 days. I have never heard of this type of method of fund raising in the cooperative space, but can see how it could be very effective.

When I think of bonds, I either think of my 101.5 year grandfather who just passed away, and was a big fan of Treasury Bonds, as they provided a low risk, and low interest bearing investment. On the flip side, my brother works in the commercial real-estate field and has educated me a bit on how mortgages are packaged and sold as bonds to investors. With these two examples, I would be curious to learn more about how exactly the Neighborhood Bond is structured and presented to the community of investors and stakeholders?

Collaborative Consumption and the issue of Liability Insurance.

I don’t think words can describe how passionate I am about Collaborative Consumption and all the amazing things it has already accomplished, along with the potential long-term affects it could have on this planet and mankind! Like many know, the poster child for Collaborative Consumption is Airbnb, as they have revolutionized the concept of short-term lodging. They are spreading across the globe like wildfire, as countless hosts are offering up unique spaces at economical prices. Part of Airbnb’s success is in the fact that they offer a rental guarantee to protect their hosts. This covers property damage up to a million dollars.

Okay sounds like they got it covered? Well, what about if someone injures or kills themselves on your property, does the Airbnb Rental Guarantee cover that?

The answer is no! That liability falls in the hands of your homeowners or renters insurance policy.

Background

I am a host on Airbnb.  I rent out a spare bedroom in my home, along with a tree house. Over the last 2 years, I have probably hosted about 40 guests and have met people from all over the world! It has been an amazing experience. Since I am now regularly hosting people at my house, I called up my homeowners insurance company, Allied, and told them of my situation. They informed me that because of what I had told them, they were no longer going to insure me. They suggested I speak with Airbnb and ask them who they recommend to cover such things. That made sense, so I called Airbnb – they simply told me that was not something they dealt with and could not offer any recommendations or support.

I am now scrambling to find someone who will insure my home. The reality is, most all insurance companies do not cover this type of liability. The idea that Airbnb does not provide suggestions or support for what is probably the single most important issue facing Airbnb and Collaborative Consumption seems like a mistake. In the long-term if this issue is not addressed for all hosts, Collaborative Consumption and companies like Airbnb will suffer market share, as the risk verse reward for hosts like myself will be too great.

Link to original:

Collaboration creates affordable green homes

Last resort to save Cooperation deal between Sudan and South Sudan.

Meetings of the joint security and political committee between Sudan and South Sudan started on Tuesday in a bid to prevent the cooperation agreement signed between the two sides from collapsing.The meetings of the committee come after the two sides have so far failed to implement the comprehensive cooperation deal, namely with regard to its security part relating to border demarcation, deployment of troops on a buffer zone and breaking the link between South Sudan’s army and armed groups fighting the government in Khartoum. They also follow intensive talks between South Sudan’s chief negotiator Pagan Amum and senior Sudanese government officials in Khartoum to find a positive atmosphere that helps the two sides to overcome their differences over the oil file which slowed down the implementation of the deal.

Taken from:

Khartoum talks ‘last resort to save co-operation deal’

Ukraine Budget Depends on Cooperation with IMF

The funding of the national budget of Ukraine for 2013 adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on November 6 carries significant risks and depends on the country’s cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), experts polled by Interfax-Ukraine have said.See all stories on this topic »Kyiv Post

Source:

Funding of budget 2013 depends on Ukraine’s cooperation with IMF, say experts

The officials held the same opinion regarding the rapid improvement of economic cooperation, emphasizing that during the first half of 2012, the trade turnover amounted to USD 12.2 million, ranking Azerbaijan as the main trading partner of Latvia.

Source -

Parties agree to strengthen the economic cooperation

New York State Government grand offered for feasibility of New York Food co-op in upstate Ticonderoga.

Ticonderoga is a small town in Essex County, New York and they are being investigated! They have qualified for a Communities Planning Grant from the New York Department of State to study the feasibility of creating a food co-op in the community.

Read the article:

Ticonderoga co-op grocery being studied

Global Cooperation Reaches 1 Billion People

The report’s author, Gary Gardner, WorldWatch.org writes that cooperatives are low-profile but powerful economic actors, with the world’s 300 largest ones generating revenues in 2008 of more than $1.6 trillion. The report also notes that the cooperative model surpasses the shareholder model in at least one area: the 1 billion member-owners of cooperatives worldwide exceed the 893 million direct and indirect shareholders of corporations. If these businesses were a national economy, they would rank ninth in the world—ahead of the economy of Spain. The report also reveals that 99% of cooperative businesses operate primarily within seven economic sectors:

Shares of Cooperatives as a percentage of all business

Submitted by Kenny Bavoso of Coop.org

Community Supported Agriculture

Our CSA program is cooperative. Which means that we collaborate with other local organic farmers in our food shed, pair their weekly harvest with our weekly harvests to make you a CSA box of the best local organic food in the Northwest. We are an organic farm with a cooperative CSA program, located in the Columbia River Gorge about an hour from Portland, OR. We have evolved into a cooperative of small local organic farmers. We grow mushrooms indoors in an old lumber mill on the Hood River. We also grow 5 acres of mixed vegetables, and 7 acres of mixed fruit; pears, apples, cherries, blueberries, peaches and nectarines. This keeps us busy and makes for great seasonal food shares! Our CSA program is cooperative. Which means that we collaborate with other local organic farmers in our food shed, pair their weekly harvest with our weekly harvests to make you a CSA box of the freshest, localest, organic food in the Northwest. Being a member of our farm means that you will be supporting a network of a dozen local farmers and producers in Oregon and Washington. You can have home delivery of our organic local foods all year long by becoming a member of our Farm.
If you are interested you can Contact Brian Shaw of Hood River Organic. 503.354.2111