Designing Rules as if Community Matters

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) proposes a set of new rules that builds community by supporting humanly scaled politics and economics. The rules call for:

• Decisions made by those impacted
• Communities accepting responsibility for the welfare of their members and the next generation
• Households and communities possessing or owning sufficient productive capacity to generate real wealth

NewRules.org discusses the importance of rules and catalogs the best.  We make the rules and the rules make us. More

An annual survey has found that independent businesses had strong sales growth over the holidays and appear to be benefitting from growing public interest in supporting locally owned retail stores, banks, restaurants, and other enterprises.

The survey, which was conducted by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in partnership with several business associations, gathered data from 1,768 independent businesses across 49 states over an 8-day period in January. More

Recent comments by Mitt Romney, the probable Republican nominee for President all but guarantee the inequality issue will remain front and center this election year.

When asked whether people who question the current distribution of wealth and power are motivated by “jealousy or fairness” Romney insisted,  “I think it’s about envy.  I think it’s about class warfare.”  And in this election year he advised that if we do discuss inequality we do so “in quiet rooms” not in public debates. More

Let me suggest a sure fire way Barack Obama can win a second term. Stand in the doorway of a post office scheduled for closing and declare, “Not on my watch.” He will be standing with tens of millions of Americans who are rising up to defend our must trusted and ubiquitous public institution.

Last year 3600 communities were put on notice that they will likely lose their local post office.  The Postmaster General promises to close half of the country's 32,000 post offices over the next four years. More

Walmart has become the most powerful force in the U.S. food system, selling 25 percent of our groceries and growing fast. Watch for this expansion to lead to fewer neighborhood grocery stores, more industrialization, more poverty, and maybe even more moldy produce.

Read the full story and comment at Grist. This is one of many posts in a series by Stacy Mitchell digging into Walmart's impacts on society, the environment, and local businesses. More

Walmart talks a lot about sustainability, but doesn't put its campaign money anywhere near where its mouth is. Its contributions tilt heavily toward politicians who oppose climate action and environmental protection.

During the 2007-2008 election cycle, 80 percent of Senate campaign contributions that came from Walmart's PAC and large donors employed by the company went to senators who helped block the Lieberman-Warner cap-and-trade bill.  More