{"id":925,"date":"2014-10-31T19:28:35","date_gmt":"2014-10-31T23:28:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=925"},"modified":"2014-10-31T19:28:35","modified_gmt":"2014-10-31T23:28:35","slug":"ways-to-create-a-democratized-economy-grassroots-economic-organizing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=925","title":{"rendered":"Ways to Create a Democratized Economy | Grassroots Economic Organizing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.geo.coop\/story\/ways-create-democratized-economy\">Ways to Create a Democratized Economy | Grassroots Economic Organizing<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; font: inherit; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\">The richest 400 Americans now own more wealth than the bottom 180 million taken together. The political system is in deadlock. Social and economic pain continue to grow. Environmental devastation and global warming present growing challenges. Is there any path toward a more democratic, equal and ecologically sustainable society? What can one person do?<\/p>\n<p style=\"outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; font: inherit; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\">In fact, there is a great deal one person working with others can do. Experiments across the country already focus on concrete actions that point toward a larger vision of long-term systemic change \u2013 especially the development of alternative economic institutions. Practical problem-solving activities on Main Streets across the country have begun to lay down the elements and principles of what might one day become the direction of a new system \u2013 one centered around building egalitarian wealth, nurturing democracy and community life, avoiding climate catastrophe and fostering liberty through greater economic security and free time.<\/p>\n<p style=\"outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; font: inherit; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\"><strong style=\"outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; font: inherit; font-weight: bold; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\"><span style=\"outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 20px; vertical-align: baseline; font: inherit; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\">Democratize Your Money!<\/span><br \/>\n<em style=\"outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; font: inherit; font-style: italic; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\">Put your money in a credit union \u2013 then participate in its governance.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; font: inherit; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\">Credit unions are commonplace financial institutions that typically facilitate loans for everyday purchases like homes and cars. But behind their unexciting veneer lie transformative possibilities. Unlike the large commercial and investment banks responsible for the 2008 financial crisis, credit unions are nonprofit cooperatives that are member-owned and controlled. These democratized, one-person-one-vote banks already involve more than 95 million Americans as participant-owners. They\u00a0<a style=\"outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; font: inherit; color: #0062a0; text-decoration: underline; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.yesmagazine.org\/issues\/how-cooperatives-are-driving-the-new-economy\/just-the-facts-what-s-so-good-about-co-ops\" target=\"_blank\">lend<\/a>\u00a0to minorities and low- and moderate-income families to a far greater extent than do commercial banks. Taken together, they hold roughly\u00a0<a style=\"outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; font: inherit; color: #0062a0; text-decoration: underline; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\" href=\"http:\/\/community-wealth.org\/content\/credit-unions-rise\" target=\"_blank\">$1 trillion<\/a>\u00a0of assets \u2013 the equivalent of one of the largest US banks, knocking Goldman Sachs out of the top five.<\/p>\n<p style=\"outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; font: inherit; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px 0px; border: 0px initial initial;\">&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ways to Create a Democratized Economy | Grassroots Economic Organizing. The richest 400 Americans now own more wealth than the bottom 180 million taken together. The political system is in deadlock. Social and economic pain continue to grow. Environmental devastation and global warming present growing challenges. Is there any path toward a more democratic, equal [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[61,204,314],"class_list":["post-925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-liberty","tag-banking","tag-democracy","tag-financial-institutions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}