The time has come for economic alternatives | Letters
The close of Aditya Chakrabortty's Alternatives column (26 September) is an opportunity to spread alternatives for economic justice and sustainability across the mainstream of the Guardian. The business environment we trade in tends to assume that companies are investor-owned, and operating against that default incurs cost and risk. It takes confidence, even courage, to grow alternatives. Similarly, media reporting on alternatives takes effort, reaching outside of the bubble of the stock market ticker tape and corporate PR.
One example, the community shares model for co-ops, with over 100,000 member investors, has been a game-changer. Community energy, village shops, community-owned pubs and new online platform co-ops are reinventing capital markets on a local, human scale. The same is true for every other part of the economy, from housing and work to trade and innovation. In each case, there are extraordinary stories of people coming together, stories of setbacks and scandals of the neglect of communities by powerful institutions.
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