Author(s): Michael H. Shuman
Publisher: The Free Press
Hardcover: 320 pages
ISBN: 0684830124
ISBN-13: 978-0684830124
Order From: Amazon.com
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Communities throughout the world are losing control of their economies. Convinced by mainstream economists that globalization is inevitable, local leaders – whether liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican – are trying to attract outside investment by paying massive subsidies, slashing wages, and weakening environmental standards. Going Local details how dozens of communities are regaining control over their economies by employing three new kinds of strategies: investing not in outsiders, but in locally owned businesses like credit unions, cooperatives, community land trusts, municipally owned utilities, small worker-owned firms, community development corporations, and local shareholder-owned firms such as the Green Bay, Packers; focusing on import-replacing rather than export-led development, by reducing dependence on distant sources of energy, water, food, and basic materials; and asking the federal government for more power, not more pork, by eliminating many subsidies and changing tax and trade laws that disempower communities. Going Local challenges conservatives and liberals alike to rethink their views about markets, corporations, and devolution. It suggests novel ways in which businesses can blend private ownership and community responsibility, and innovative policies that can balance the virtues of a free market with the critical need – and special ability – of local government to address its shortcomings.
