Celebrating ‘Independence Month’

Americans have much to be grateful for. Freedom makes the top of the list for most of us because it’s expressed in so many aspects of our daily lives. Independence Day marks our celebration of freedom — it remembers we declared our independence from political and economic oppression by outsiders.
With freedom comes responsibility, as the laws of compensation stipulate.  How creative are we with our freedom?  What kind of communities do we build?
Sonoma County GO LOCAL specifically focuses on economic life and the role it plays in our community.  When the economy chugs along and provides jobs and resources, people are happy and confident in the future.  And when it sputters, we contract and fear that the worst is yet to come. GO LOCAL’s mission is to identify the elements that make a sustainable, less choppy local economy—one in which we feel secure and optimistic.
We’re free to start businesses and hope the market supports them.  We’re free to buy from whomever has the best product or service. Freedom takes us that far.
The outcome of millions of transactions between buyers and sellers contributes to our economic life by generating the taxes that fuel our government and provides us infrastructure.  It circulates money to business owners who create jobs for residents, who spend their earnings for homes, goods and services. Round and round it goes.
How do we keep the money circulating more times locally?
We keep it local by buying from people who live here and own a business.  Provided those merchants also buy from other local businesses and their employees do too, then the circulation stays local until gradually we buy things that come from other communities and that money leaves. GO LOCAL keeps the message fresh in everyone’s mind—Think Local First.
And why does it matter how many cycles money circulates locally?
The recirculation of money represents real income to local businesses and the people who work for them. As that income produces more profits, those go toward additional consumption as well as reinvestment into local assets and local wealth. While many local companies attract money to Sonoma County through exports like wine, dairy, and tourism (nearly $1.7 billion a year), we send it right back out if we buy from online companies or big box stores.
It makes good sense to trade with other communities. After all, we want them to buy what we produce too. But it’s prudent to make sure that we’re producing as much as we can given available resources, and that we’re buying the imported goods we need from locally owned retailers. That, at least, increases our economic multipliers enough to buffer what money we send out.
During the month of July, which we’ve dubbed Independents Month, GO LOCAL asks you to discover a locally owned, independent business and give them a try. You could renew a relationship with an independent business you haven’t visited in a while.
Independent businesses form the foundation of our local economy. They promote our culture of entrepreneurism. They are the next generation of local business leaders who love our region and care for it in a way that can only be done by someone connected to community by living here. Your awareness and support ensures our local economic self-reliance.
Terry Garrett is a member-partner in Sustaining Technologies, developers of the Rewards Card and the GO LOCAL website.