On Get Rich Slowly — a great personal finance blog — somebody posted this great observation about the value of shopping locally. Econ majors will no doubt find cause to cringe, but I think it’s a brilliant parable. And I love the question “Who’s your farmer?” That’s a question we should all be able to answer. (See “Organic”: It’s not what you think and Week two of our CSA subscription.)
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I love GRS- I’ve seen you post on there a few times- it’s one of my daily blogstops. Usually after I’ve stopped by here first of course!
I believe it makes economists cringe because the free flow of capital regardless of political boundary is considered positive. They are probably correct, but in a recent essay I wrote I took some of these ideas to task — namely the value of having local proprietors vested in the local economy.
An economist may rightly say that it makes no difference if the money flows freely, but I haven’t found a way to express on a balance sheet if someone cares about community. From what I can see, local business owners care while McBusinesses are vested only so far as they can maintain operations.
G.R.S. definitely gets points with me for this caveat at the end of their post on shopping locally.