Sustainable Economy

Community Reinvestment

The corporations on Wall Street and the lobbyists in Congress and K Street have no interest in creating healthier planet, or a healthier populace, or even a healthier economy. Their only interest in maximizing short term profits. In fact, stock exchanges around the world are all geared toward short term profits. It is a world-wide rigged system. Therefore we need a world-wide strategy to change the system so that it works for the people, the 99%, instead of only for the 1%. The Wall Street stock exchange itself is a fortress, protected more tightly than any bank, so maybe instead of trying to scale the walls and break down the barricades to Wall Street it is better to undermine it from within by starving its funding, namely to make the harmful corporations on Wall Street unprofitable, and lower their stock value.

How about taking money out of the hands of multinational corporations, which have no commitment to ethical values or to our local economies, and putting it into the hands of our local businesses and non-profits to employ members of our local communities and to build up the tax base of our local communities? How to do this? How about starting a Divestment/Reinvestment movement?

Divest from Wall Street! Invest in Main Street!

Here are some possible ways to make this happen:

1. Create a set of ethical business practices to judge businesses by.

2. Create a list of harmful corporations to target. (such as: Exxon, BP, Monsanto, GE, Dow Chemical, etc.)

3. Create a list of helpful businesses to support.

4. Boycott the products and services of harmful corporations.

5. Occupy, blockade, slow down, and/or shut down harmful corporations.

6. Buy products and services from companies that adhere to the set of ethical standards. (Buycott)

7. Organize a day to divest-reinvest, such as Corporate Divestment Day or Community Reinvestment Day. People can choose to either divest from all corporations on Wall Street or only from the targeted corporations. Encourage supporting socially responsible investment firms for those wishing a more traditional route.

8. Feature and honor people who make public announcements of divesting in Wall Street harmful businesses and investing in ethical businesses and local businesses on Main Street.

9. Collaborate with local banks, and credit unions to form special funds, which could be called Community Reinvestment Funds. The local bank or credit union would make loans from these funds to local businesses and non-profits that meet certain criteria of ethical behavior, such as serving the local community. The community investors would receive a financial return on their investments.

10. Encourage the creation of local worker owned cooperative businesses.

11. Encourage investors to buy shares and become part owners of local businesses.

12. Pressure businesses to sign a pledge of ethical standards and hold them to it.

13. Pressure politicians to sign a pledge of ethical standards and hold them to it.

I see this as exploratory at this point, not yet ready to be a proposal. I suggest we explore connecting and collaborating with individuals and groups that have interest, expertise, and experience in pursuing the following:

1. A set of ethical business practices to evaluate businesses by.

2. A list of helpful businesses to support.

3. Community Reinvestment Day.

4. Collaboration with local banks, credit unions, and community development corporations, to create and/or support funds for community reinvestment.

5. Promote local ethical economic models. (Local Businesses, Worker Owned Cooperative Businesses, Local Currencies, Local Stock Markets, Local Banks, Credit Unions, CDCs, etc.)

--Wes 20:03, 23 November 2011 (EST)