“We believe that the reduction of the citizen to an object of propaganda, private and public, is one of the greatest dangers to democracy.  A prevalent notion is that the great mass of the people cannot understand and cannot form an independent judgment upon any matter; they cannot be educated, in the sense of developing their intellectual powers, but they can be bamboozled.  The reiteration of slogans, the distortion of the news, the great storm of propaganda that beats upon the citizen twenty-four hours a day all his life long mean either that democracy must fall a prey to the loudest and most persistent propagandists or that the people must save themselves by strengthening their minds so that they can appraise the issues for themselves.”
  
It seems this paragraph could be used to define America in 2002 as well.  In 1952 it was an observation with an effect that couldn’t be predicted.  Even today we might be fooled to think this behavior does no harm.  In the 1970’s some trends started to show up across the United States that seem to be a direct relationship to our spending habits.  Slowly more and more large corporations began driving out small businesses as they were better able to provide us with a cheaper product.  Unfortunately this cheaper product carried with it many additional costs that the average consumer doesn’t seem to understand.  We have seen the effects on our environment, but we don’t understand the effect on our community financially.  Median wage has been on the decline in the United States since 1973. This one takes some explaining.  I know twenty years ago you made only a fraction of what you’re making today, but your average purchase cost even a smaller fraction.  Thus today your wage will not get you as far as it did twenty years ago.  This effect has been hidden due to the fact that it is now common practice for families to have two incomes. Another effect is the decline in real minimum wage.  The minimum wage of the 1970’s is comparable to $7-$8 today.  The reason for not raising the minimum wage is fear of the loss of jobs due to the increased burden on corporations.  Unfortunately it is not easy to raise a family of off $5.15 an hour.

The overall effect is income inequality, which has greatly increased beginning in the late 1970’s.  In 1997 the top fifth of households took home 46.6% of total income.  In comparison the bottom three fifths of households took home a combined 29.8% of total income.  With the bottom fifth taking home only 6%.  This trend is continuing to grow as every dollar we spend on large corporations’ leave our community and climb the corporate latter to those who sit at the top of the income distribution.

The force behind these trends is a number referred to as the average propensity to consume.  This number is a measure of how much of an additional dollar earned the average American will spend on consumption. The figure was .976 in 1999 in the United States.  What this means is that on average, each additional dollar the Whole Farm Co-op earns, $.976 will be spent back on the community.  If I were to spend twenty dollars on the Whole Farm Co-op, $19.52 will be spent back on the community.  In fact the person in the community who receives that $19.52 will turn around and spend $19.05 on the community, and as you can see this twenty dollars becomes worth a whole lot more than twenty dollars.  In fact once the money has run its course it will have generated $833.33.  This money spent on the community creates real jobs with real livable wages.  If I spend my twenty dollars in St. Cloud it is only twenty dollars, but the community loses $833.33.  Once the chain of community spending is broken the money is lost.  What the co-ops’ do is they create a channel to invest in the community.  If we were to purchase products needed for basic survival from the Whole Farm Co-op, the community will start to retain money.  In comparison, purchases made at the local grocery store will pay one employee’s wage and the rest of the money will leave the community to pay for the goods which were produced all over the world.  The more channels we have for investing in the community the healthier the community becomes.  At a certain point you are guaranteed a large portion of what you spend on the community will automatically come back to you.  Even though you paid a premium for a well-produced product, you will receive that premium back for the well-produced product that you have offered to the community.  This is not a formula for getting rich.  It is a formula for creating real jobs in the community that will pay a real livable wage.  
By Jeff March