> > 1. trade with a "green" bank > > 2. Buy fairly traded goods. > > 3. Invest in ethical/eco areas > > 4. Tailor investments to beliefs. > > > >Some other options that appeal to me are: > > > > 1. Look at local needs and community needs. > > Often these can be turned into win-win investments. > > 2. Make a list of why money is needed and ask > > if it is more efficient to satisfy these needs > > by other ways. > > These are good sentiments, Jeff, but I will ask the question that I have > asked elsewhere. "How do we implement these ideas?" I mean besides > shopping at 'Wild Oats'.
Hi Richard, For me "good" finance begins as a state of mind then the implementation follows as series of small acts. I know this sounds vague but the details vary. In this area i think the dominant path might be a small business. The question then becomes how do we implement a small business? For a few years i tried viewing my life as a business and ended up starting several small enterprises. It was a slow and sometimes difficult process. Don't know how others might approach this.. > These are ideas that have been written about since the 60's (or before), > and are good for talk but apparently not for reality. Why is this? The 60's had a period of economic shift. Local coop's flourished and many small businesses got started. Slowly these business died or were absorbed by corporations. We are now dominated by corporate thinking (not always a bad thing). Most people think jobs rather than small business. Mutual funds are easier than fixing up an old house and renting it to friends. etc. Why did this happen? Not sure.. maybe it was a combination of political favoritism and the power of advertising. Large business discovered national advertising and converting products into images. At the same time jobs began to move to lower paid countries and trade became more international. The power of local business and family farms got lost in the shuffle. jeff
