Solidarity Economics and Corporate Capitalism

My recent tangent on local economics and allegiances just seems to extend itself as I do my browsing of the general internet on my favorite site:  NakedCapitalism.com

This link appearing in CounterPunch.org extends the thinking:

Toward a Solidarity Economy; Other Economies Are Possible by Ethan Miller

Solidarity Economy is a generic term I have not seen before but as a social entity it has some substance in ideology as well as budding practice.  It is the "other approach" of solving the problem from the bottom up with different objectives than the prevalent approach of the top down capitalism method.

"Consider this: thousands of diverse, locally-rooted, grassroots economic projects are in the process of creating the basis for a viable democratic alternative to capitalism. It might seem unlikely that a motley array of initiatives such as worker, consumer, and housing cooperatives, community currencies, urban gardens, fair trade organizations, intentional communities, and neighborhood self-help associations could hold a candle to the pervasive and seemingly all-powerful capitalist economy."

 

Great stuff!

 

Read the link!

 

One disadvantage of bottom up assembly is that growth can be nipped in the bud or simply starved of sunlight at the bottom overshadowed by growth above it.  A tree is harder to fell but grows no more at its maturity, eventually to die and be replaced by new growth.  

 

The local bottom up approach scalable quickly for application at other local levels always lurked in the shadows of my thoughts about the grand top down silver bullet to address the problem.  That local scalable approach is emerging.  Maybe I will call it the Facebook model.  It incorporates allegiance analysis and associated priorities.

 

In a different way of looking at it:  Solidarity Economics takes on the identification of a non-profit enterprise.  Basically a business with a business model that is not classic "profit" but non-profit to the extent that anything produced in classic profit terms goes back into general the general social welfare of everyone even if it might be a targeted group like bike helmets for children ditributed at safety classes by firemen or bike clubs.  Alternatively invested as a business growth expense in a public serving enterprise.