A community organization has much more influence and power in their local communities,
than they do lobbying public officials in Albany, or the District of Columbia.
Political power is not a necessary condition for economic advance.
Wealth in a community is created more through the recirculation of money within the
community than through a large employer employing the residents. Every dollar you
spend in a local business establishment, as opposed to a national chain store, keeps
that dollar in the community. The more times that dollar recirculates within the
community by being exchanged for other locally produced goods and services, the
wealthier that community will become. This is how wealth is created.
For example, a landlord hires painters, carpenters and other trades, suppliers and
services. A community organization can approach local landlords and encourage them to
hire local tradespeople (painters, carpenters, etc.). These tradespeople and suppliers
can be encouraged and trained from among the community residents and their children as
they pursue their education and become adults. A painter needs painting supplies, this
creates an opportunity for the development of a paining supply business, which again
can be initiated by the residents of the community. The owners of these businesses
themselves are encouraged to live in the community, and use their profits to pay
residential and business rent and purchase other locally produced goods and services.
Similarly, with every other existing business enterprise and economic want and need
among the residents, business enterprise can be developed to serve these opportunities
from among the community itself.
If one surveys the businesses that operate within your neighborhoods, one will find
landlords, grocery stores, small manufacturers and suppliers, and other service and
dry good businesses opportunities. Each of those businesses purchase supplies and
services of different kinds. If energy is invested in finding ways for those
businesses to purchase their supplies and services locally, many opportunities will be
created for business formations and jobs, the cumulative effect of which will be to
generate large amounts of wealth.
A community organization can become the nexus through which people communicate with
each other, connections and referrals made, opportunities pursued, and community norms
and values reinforced. Such community organizations can intercede in resolving
conflicts thereby assuring a positive business environment for everyone. For example,
such a community organization can assist landlords in assuring that tenants pay their
rent on time and ameliorate domestic disputes, as well as monitoring and assuring the
quality of the work performed by local trades people and suppliers of goods and
services. In return, the landlord agrees to purchase local services and supplies.
The more connections among people and businesses that are created, the more businesses
formations will develop. The effective education of children becomes more important in
order for them to own and competently pursue these businesses opportunities. The
educators in the schools could also be encouraged to be residents of the community,
thereby expanding the integration among residents, business and service providers. The
more a community organization builds connections among its residents and local
business and service providers, the greater will be the accumulation of wealth within
the community.
Each dollar one spends in a national chain store or any business that is not directly
connected to the community is a dollar that leaves the community and is lost for the
purpose of multiplying the generation of wealth. The primary goal of a community
organization is to keep dollars recirculating within the community for as long as
possible. A broad based community consciousness can be developed around these basic
economic and social values, and to that extent build cooperative social relationships
that will contribute to everyone's education and prosperity.
The development of economically and socially integrated communities will influence
voter participation rates, the ability to build connections with adjacent community
based businesses and organizations, and ultimately increase political and economic
power and influence.
