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Local Business. A key to community prosperity is a network of locally owned businesses and cooperatives that serve primarily local markets. Locally owned businesses generally contribute more to the “economic multiplier” than non-local businesses – which translates into more income, wealth, jobs, and tax payments – because the former spend more money locally. A growing body of evidence also suggests that local-business economies appear to have greater social stability, lower levels of welfare, and more political participation.
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Sustainable economic self-reliance is achieved by strengthening and creating local businesses that produce necessary commodities or provide needed services (food, energy, fiber, building materials, zero waste systems, green transportation, etc.). The main doubt economists express about locally owned, import-substituting business concerns competitiveness. They argue that we are in an era when bigger businesses can better achieve economies of scale. However, according to Michael Shuman, author of “Small-Mart Revolution”, in all but seven of the thousand-plus sectors of the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS), there are more examples of competitive small-scale enterprise in each sector than large-scale enterprise. Put another way, the U.S. economy is full of models of small-scale success that can inform entrepreneurship activities in even very small communities.
Other elements of Relocalization:
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