Do It Ourselves

“When bed men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”
- Edmund Burke

I want you to save the world by being MORE selfish. I want you to begin this by building better lives for yourselves.

If concepts such as cooperative businesses and communities designed for people are actually better than we should do just fine, eh?

So we build lives where we are happier and more well off. We'll do better and we'll show them what that's like. They will say "Gee, I'd like that for myself" and we're off to the races.

For those of you convinced there's really no chance to fix things regardless -
Where is it written that we all have to be miserable just because other people won't change? =)

So instead we’ll simply start our own walkable communities, eco-villages, cooperative businesses, and co-funded housing.

That way if the doomsdayers are right and we have no chance anyway - At least we'll have better conditions and company for the end!

And maybe, just maybe it will go better than some of you expect.

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Unions

The super wealthy hate Unions – so they must be awesome.

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Cooperative businesses

The case for co-ops, the invisible giant of the economy

It probably won't be as difficult as you imagine.

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Without bloated management and ownership you can get a far better ‘deal’ out of it.

The real difficulty in running most businesses is dealing with employees. And that's because they're so poorly paid. So if you're all working collaboratively while being paid much more, logical to see there would be far fewer issues ever in the first place.

Besides,

You know what sucks?
Doing taxes.
You know what's easy?
Doing taxes together with a dozen co-owners over a case of beer with Lord Of The Rings playing in the background.
 

Cooperatively funded communities

Higher density housing and communities is a necessity.
But right now the only other alternative is basically living in a residential 'tower'.

And I know we can do better.
If you can't convince others to design their living environment correctly than you need to DIY.
If your city sucks - create a slice of it that doesn't. For yourself.

In some countries you can get help from the government for this just for going green in the designs.

^ For those of you who have already done such a thing. Consider helping others get set up with the same / similar. Perhaps host a small informal workshop. Or a larger formal one. Or do some volunteering or give some advice online.