Marjorie Kelly has written new book called “Owning Our Future: The Emerging Ownership Revolution.”  It is a major step toward giving a new language and orientation to how we think about ownership and economic investment and management of our money.  She wisely points out that no matter the intentions of individuals it’s the power of systems that rule our world.  And she questions the extractive ownership model that drives corporations in an article in YES! magazine.

What appealed to me in her book is the recognition of absentee ownership in our current model of corporate capitalism as a destructive force, one that separates ownership from the life of an enterprise and focuses solely on maximizing financial gain.  In my experience, the traditional financial model of abstracted ownership works for fewer and fewer people these days as our financial system accelerates beyond the comprehension of just about any individual—certainly anyone who works for a living.

As a member of the boomer generation heading into retirement, I was brought up and educated on the assumption that working hard and investing money, primarily in stock market mutual funds to spread the risk, would assure a secure investment in the future for myself and my family.  Yet, events over the past dozen years and more have shattered my belief in this financial model.

Stagnant wages for the last decade; 401K retirement savings funds devastated in the financial meltdown in 2008; a spouse losing her job in corporate cutbacks; these are not abstract concepts but a reality that has cost me dearly in lost sleep and worry for the future of myself, my wife, our children who are of the millenials generation, and now a grandchild.

I’ve a graduate degree in business from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and can be categorized as a “knowledge worker” in the computer software industry.  Yet the prospect of understanding what I can actually do with the money I’ve saved over decades is truly daunting.   This book by Marjorie Kelly provides a way for us to get our arms around understanding why the current system of corporate dominance in our economic lives is so destructive—not because of evil people but because of a system that removes ownership and responsibility from “making money.”  And it begins to show an alternative way where we can exercise the power we have over our own money in our own communities.

Owning our future is not going to be easy.  New concepts in thinking about our money and new methods of investment have to form and take hold.  Building an alternative “generative” economic system, as Kelly calls it, will require work and will involve risk.  But as I look back over my personal financial history, I realize how risky it was to trust my financial future to a faceless system that takes needless risks to enrich very few people—and has literally expanded beyond anyone’s control.

It’s time to get back to a local ownership model that links local investors to local businesses that nurture and build stronger communities.  The journey starts here for me—and hopefully you’ll come along for the ride.

John

It will be interesting to see what happens on Bank Transfer Day, an apparent national call to abandon big banks. There’s an article about the “woman who sparked a movement” in the Los Angles Times that describes how Kristen Christian, a 27-year-old Echo Park resident has become a media star after posting a suggestion on Facebook for her friends to move their money after Bank of America decided to start charging debit card fees. The article says she got more than 75,000 people to pledge that they will participate in “Bank Transfer Day” by moving their money from large U.S. banks to nonprofit credit unions by Saturday, November 5th.

The big banks have to be worried if this catches on.  The bizarre part about the whole thing is how this individual has been featured in the media…and the resulting exposure leading to a death threat as well as several proposals.  It demonstrates once again how the media can take a serious idea and turn it into a circus through the cult of personality. Of course, it’s the “human” angle that TV is looking for by inviting the woman onto talk news shows, so we can focus on the phenomenon, rather than the content of what she is saying.

Could a reality TV show or book be far behind?

Tom Petruno, of the Los Angeles Times, has written a great article about how you can cut loose from our current financial system dominated by big banks.  He gives several steps you can take ranging from relatively easy to much harder.  It describes how you should move your money from the big banks to a local credit union.  And look at getting better rates on Money Market funds as well as investments in stocks and bonds.

It’s a sign that things are beginning to change as awareness grows, sparked in part by the Occupy Wall Street protests.

We Americans are self-help obsessed.  Just look at the self-help book section in your local bookstore (if you still have one in your neighborhood), or check the headlines and callouts on women’s magazines in the supermarket, if you don’t believe that’s true.  The problem with self-help advice is that it’s nearly always offered to get you to buy something.  The implication is obvious: You can’t help yourself unless you purchase something—only buying has value.  That’s the hangover symptom from a 30+ year binge riding high on a consumer economy.

When I discussed the concept of this website with other people, more than one asked me what my revenue model would be.  Translation:  How are you going to make money on this thing.  As I thought about it, I realized that I do need a guiding philosophy for sustaining the content of the site.  It’s pretty simple:

The one and only rule:  There are no absolutes except for one.  You will respect life.

No absolutes when it comes to money.

No absolutes when it comes to food.

No absolutes when it comes to change.

Respecting life is, of course, a very broad rule open to interpretation. That’s fine. If it forces us to think about how our everyday decisions affect all life—and the lives of those closest to us— then so be it.

When I started reading a recent book called No Impact Man, I was turned off by the absurdity of what the author was trying to do.  And then it dawned on me that there really is no such thing as a no impact man (woman or child).  The point is, we all have an impact on each other’s lives in countless ways.  There’s no escaping that fact.  No living off the grid.  No easy way out. To live your life local means taking responsibility for the impacts you make on your family, neighbors and community. Impacts that are large and small and everything in between.