Why We Can’t Shop Our Way to a Better Economy: Stacy Mitchell’s TEDx Talk

Date: 1 Dec 2012 | posted in: Retail | 6 Facebooktwitterredditmail

In this TEDx talk, delivered on October 20, 2012 at TEDxDirigo‘s Villages conference at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, conference, ILSR Senior Researcher Stacy Mitchell argues for a new phase in the local economy movement. She notes that there’s been a resurgence of support for small farms, local businesses, and community banks, but argues:

“As remarkable as these trends are, they are unlikely to amount to more than an small sideshow on the margins of the mainstream if the only way we can conceive of confronting corporate power and bringing about a new economy is through our buying decisions… What we really need to do is change the underlying policies that shape our economy. We can’t do that through the sum of our individual behavior in the marketplace. We can only do it by exercising our collective power as citizens.”

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Stacy Mitchell

Stacy Mitchell is co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and directs its Independent Business Initiative, which produces research and designs policy to counter concentrated corporate power and strengthen local economies.