Where Your Power Went
Why We're Losing (& How We Stop) Part 2 to last week's 68$ newsletter.
Last week I told you about Mr. Kenneth dancing with my daughter in a local breakfast joint. I showed you the numbers: $68 of every $100 spent locally stays in your community versus $14 at a chain. I made the case that shopping local is a form of power—accessible, immediate, and something we control regardless of political affiliation or whether we can make it to the protests.
I also promised to prove that capitalism in the form of small economies is one of the most powerful forms of civic engagement we have right now.
So let’s talk about what’s broken, and what we can actually fix.
THE REAL ENEMY ISN’T CAPITALISM—IT’S CONSOLIDATION
Many in my generation have concluded that capitalism itself is the problem, and have turned toward socialism. I understand why.
We’ve only ever known corporate capitalism—the kind where billionaires get richer while we can’t afford rent. Where the educations we got to hold the line of power might just strangle us financially, or at minimum make us reconsider having kids. The kind where shareholders matter more than workers or buyers. The kind where “the economy is doing great” means nothing for our actual lives.
We’ve watched corporate capitalism extract wealth from communities, exploit workers, make us feel inadequate to sell us solutions to made-up problems, made from shitty materials, and leave us unhealthy and with a system that feels rigged. The critique is valid—the system is rigged.
But I’d argue we’re naming the wrong enemy. The problem isn’t markets or exchange—it’s consolidation. It’s corporate extraction.
And while change is urgent, large-scale socialist transformation does not currently offer a practical or achievable form of pushback against extractive capitalism within the realities of our country today.
The most immediate form of pushback, and what responds to the realities of the market most directly, is to change our shopping patterns.
When we give our money to massive corporations who pull wealth from our communities, send profits to distant shareholders, and replace human beings with algorithms, we create exactly the kind of dependence on government that makes everyone—left and right—nervous. Because our government hasn’t proven it can or will provide the safety nets we need.
So the gap widens further. People grow more eager to hand over their power just to get a solution. Needs go unmet. And the chance at real change closes its door with every small business that shuts down.
Here’s what I want you to consider: We want the same things—accessible healthcare, living wages, economic dignity. But what if the fight isn’t capitalism versus socialism? What if it’s corporate consolidation versus distributed economic power?
What if small businesses are actually doing the work socialists say they want: keeping wealth local, treating workers with dignity, building community instead of extracting from it, and paying people fairly for the value they contribute to the commuity?
When I ran a small business district, I watched small business owners pay above minimum wage because “these are my neighbors.” I saw them give employees time off when life hit—a sick parent, a mental health crisis, a kid in trouble—without docking pay or demanding doctor’s notes. I watched profits get reinvested in storefronts, in local suppliers, in community events, in the pockets of employees who then spent that money at other local businesses.
That’s not exploitation. That’s distributed economic power.
The problem isn’t that people are exchanging goods and services. The problem is that we’ve let 0.1% of companies control 56% of the economy, and then we’re shocked when they behave like monopolies.
LET’S BE HONEST ABOUT WHAT SHOPPING LOCAL CAN’T DO
I’m not here to sell you a fairy tale.
I am here to tell you that the march matters. That shopping local matters. But these actions alone cannot solve the whole problem.
Shopping local won’t solve wealth inequality on its own. It won’t fix the fact that the top 10% owns 75% of wealth, mostly held in stocks. It won’t change that the bottom 50% owns just 1% of stocks while the top 1% owns 50%. It won’t eliminate corporate political influence, reform tax policy that favors capital gains over wages, or address wage stagnation despite decades of productivity gains.
And it won’t dismantle crony capitalism—the system where wealth comes not from competing in a fair market, but from political connections. Where corporations secure subsidies, tax breaks, and bailouts paid for by everyone else. Where lobbying buys favorable regulations that lock out smaller competitors. Where the revolving door between government and industry means the people writing the rules are the same people who profit from them. This isn’t free market capitalism—it’s a rigged game where well-connected insiders use government power to enrich themselves and block competition.
We need to dismantle the government-created distortions that make this possible. Stop protecting failing corporations with subsidies and bailouts. Strip away the regulatory complexity and licensing barriers that only established players can navigate. Close the revolving door between government and industry. Simplify the tax code so the connected can’t exploit loopholes the rest of us can’t access. And stop letting corporations weaponize patents and regulations to crush competition instead of serving customers. Full stop.
But here’s what shopping local CAN do:
If just 20-30% of Americans—those with the actual means and access to choose—shifted half their discretionary spending to local businesses, we’d move $2-3 trillion a year from corporate consolidation into community ownership.
That’s not a rounding error. That’s significant.
Small businesses currently hold 44% of GDP. This shift could push it to 52-55%. That means:
More money circulating locally (that 68 vs 14 staying to fix your pothole)
More jobs created (small businesses create 2 out of 3 net new jobs)
Better-funded schools, roads, and public services (local tax revenue)
Less corporate control over pricing (actual competition)
More economic stability for working and middle-class families
That doesn’t fix wealth concentration at the top. But it stops us from actively making it worse.
WHY IT STILL MATTERS: THE COMPOUNDING EFFECT
Here is what we are missing in our decisions of convenience: You don’t fix power imbalances by giving more power to those who already have it.
Every dollar you spend at Amazon strengthens Amazon’s pricing power, their political influence, their ability to undercut competitors. Every dollar spent locally distributes that power across thousands of small business owners who don’t have lobbyists in Washington but do employ your neighbors.
And here’s the crucial part: Shopping local creates the economic conditions that make policy change possible.
Strong local economies build communities that can demand and sustain progressive policy. When neighborhoods have thriving small businesses, they have:
Tax revenue to fund the services people need
Jobs that keep families stable enough to organize politically
Business owners who live locally and vote locally
Networks of people who know each other and can mobilize together
Economic resilience that isn’t dependent on the maybe goodwill of a distant corporation
Hollowed-out communities that dependent on Walmart and Amazon can’t fight back. I know this from experience—and we’ll talk about it soon.
When a town’s economic fate rests with one big-box store or one Amazon fulfillment center, those communities lose negotiating power. The corporation can threaten to leave, and the community has no choice but to comply with whatever demands are made—tax breaks, reduced regulation, whatever it takes to keep the jobs.
But a community with 200 small businesses can’t be held hostage. If one business fails, 199 others remain. That’s resilience. That’s distributed power.
This is what I mean when I say shopping local is civic engagement:
It’s not just about being nice to your neighbor’s business. It’s about building the economic infrastructure that makes all other forms of political action possible.
You want to fight for healthcare access? You need local tax revenue to fund public health services. You want to organize for workers’ rights? You need economically stable communities where people aren’t desperate enough to accept any job at any wage. You want to push for campaign finance reform? You need to weaken the economic power of corporations who fund campaigns.
Shopping local doesn’t replace activism. It funds the foundation that activism stands on. It’s the framework necessary to make the march possible - whatever issue you choose to march for.
THE PATH FORWARD
I’m not asking you to be perfect. I’m not asking you to never shop at a chain store or never use Amazon. I’m asking you to be strategic.
Start with one thing. Pick one category of spending—coffee, groceries, gifts, whatever—and shift it local. See what happens. Notice what changes in your community when you become a regular somewhere. Notice who you meet. Notice where your money goes. See if you can find your own dance partner.
Then march. Demand policy change too. Call your representatives. Vote for candidates who talk about these issues rather than just making inflammatory statements that sell. Support campaigns for campaign finance reform.
Shopping local doesn’t replace organizing. It compounds it.
We’re not going to organize our way out of this if we keep funding the corporations we’re organizing against. We’re not going to legislate our way to economic justice if communities are too economically devastated to sustain the fight.
It’s a form of power we control, right now, today. Not the only form we need, but the one we can exercise while fighting for the rest.
Exchange of goods will always be necessary in the modern world. How we source these exchanges decides who we give our power to—the people who know us by name, or the corporations that have proven they’ll extract wealth from communities and give nothing back.
What if the reason we feel powerless is because we keep giving our dollars to the people who would see to it that our power is limited?
Next week, I’m going to show you exactly how to start. Not vague platitudes about “supporting local,” but concrete strategies for shifting your spending without breaking your budget, finding local alternatives, and building this into your routine in ways that actually stick.
Because capitalism in the form of small economies and local businesses is one of the most powerful forms of civic engagement we have.
Let’s get to work.
Sincerely,
Taylor Patrice
If you want to learn why this is important and how you can engage better, stick around. If you are in a position to get your hands dirty and start doing the work, consider going paid.