Rethug Corporatism vs Neigborhood Capitalism

[Tyo]

It hit me while I was walking down the main commercial/shopping street in our culturally diverse politically center-left urban neighborhood. There was more genuine entrepreneurship and, dare I say it, capitalism happening on that street with its busy little shops and stores than you could probably find in all of the Fortune 500.

The few nation-wide presences, which I don’t think I’m supposed to list here but which are generally the politically correct ones, are totally outnumbered by the one-shop operations and the little local chains. Occasionally a shop will disappear after a close-out sale, but the space doesn’t stay vacant and a lot of the stores, bars, and restaurants have been there for years.

Looks like you can have tan, black, white, and brown folks; piercings, tattoos, freaky hair and none of the above, living and working together caring about their community and the Earth and at the same time making an honest and decent living in a "Capitalist" society. What a totlally foreign concept to the Rethugs.

[silverweb]

1. I hear you.

I'm lucky enough to live in a "culturally diverse politically center-left urban neighborhood" just like the one you describe and our business district is very much the same. The main street is packed with small, well-established, independently-owned businesses of all sorts, including two funky coffee houses, a music/comedy club, a tattoo parlor, yoga school, used book stores, small restaurants, gift shops, and a couple of bars, as well as the more mundane types of stores for everyday needs.

We have one major chain grocery store with one major chain drugstore next to it, and farther down the road one Starbucks -- but the rest of the business district, which is a good mile long, is packed with thriving small businesses. We have a very pleasant, mixed community racially, ethnically, and culturally and I always look forward to our street fairs because I love seeing all types out enjoying themselves together.

A couple miles away, down the freeway, are the major shopping and strip malls with all the big chain stores. I go there very rarely, when I really need something I can't find locally, but I get home as fast as I can.

It's great to live in such a community, isn't it?

[Tyo]

2. Yes it is

And what bothers me is that more than a few DUers seem to think that business and entrepreneurship are bad or at least suspect and that that kind of stuff is a Rethug trip. Really, it's the NeoCons who are anti-business and for corporatism. I myself work for The Company and that's just the way it is, but I have a huge amount of respect for those bookstore, coffee shop, and grocery store owners who are out there on their own as decent people taking the risks and making an honest living without the support of corporate America

[silverweb]

3. That's an important distinction.

Supporting small local businesses is far, far different from supporting cannibalistic corporatism, especially the multi-national sort that backs the reTHUGs.

A lot of people just don't get that distinction at all, which is a real shame.