| | | Don't waste your time on national politics. That ship sailed decades ago. The future is viable local areas and has been there for a very long time, per posts on my board in late 2007 & 2008 before The Great Recession decimated the SI post count.
These local gems are spread across America. Located in long politically conservative areas in red states & counties
Below is excerpted from longer presentation, some of which I don't agree with, by Catherine Austin Fitts.
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<Place based optimization and the enormous cost of central control
Beyond immediate civil liberties concerns, centralization carries deep economic costs. The Community Wizard project made this starkly visible. By mapping federal spending and credit flows to local geographies and running optimization simulations the team found dramatic potential for wealth creation if funds were reallocated to maximize local outcomes.
Optimization models borrowed techniques used in telecommunications routing and airline scheduling. Those models quantify the cost of rules and constraints. When regulations or privileges constrain system flexibility, the model produces a price tag for that constraint. In one airline example referenced by Catherine, seniority privileges produced system wide inefficiencies that reduced the economic benefit to the pilots who held them. The insight generalizes. System wide constraints that benefit a narrow interest often produce net losses at the community level.
Policy tools that expand state and local options
To counter centralization and increase local optimization, a menu of policy tools is available to states and localities. These include:
- Regulatory sandboxes allowing experimentation with alternative payment systems or credit arrangements on a limited basis.
- Jumbo waiver programs that permit states to request broad waivers from federal program rules to redesign spending for place based goals.
- Procurement reforms to ensure that federal dollars spent locally produce the largest economic multiplier rather than feeding fee generating contractors.
- Local credit facilities that pair federal credit with local management to foster entrepreneurship, housing rehab, and workforce development suited to the community.
These interventions do not propose an absence of rules. Rather they propose smarter rules that enable local actors to design solutions with superior economic outcomes.
Practical steps for individuals and communities
Individuals and small organizations have levers as well. The strategy is both defensive and constructive. Defensive steps preserve transaction privacy and autonomy. Constructive steps strengthen local economies.
Recommended actions include:
- Use cash where feasible. Cash remains the simplest and most direct way to keep transactions private and outside programmable rails.
- Support local businesses and farms that accept non digital payments and prioritize community supply chains.
- Encourage local governments to accept cash and maintain analog processes, including checks and physical receipts.
- Engage with state legislators to pass laws that protect payment autonomy and block programmable money in all its forms.
- Participate in civic organizations such as chambers of commerce and Rotary clubs to promote cash friendly practices and local economic resilience.
“You want the right to have a non digital life if you want it. So let’s have a very strong commitment to using cash and keep analog transactions alive including checks.”
The political reality: federal dependence and the choice for states
One of the more difficult political problems is the dependency of states and counties on federal dollars. Many local budgets are underpinned by appropriations and credit that, in turn, create leverage for federal policy preferences. That dynamic complicates efforts to push back against centralization.
A lawmaker in Idaho summarized the tradeoff plainly. Every year the state sends dollars to Washington and receives more back. Local officials and constituents often prefer the immediate fiscal benefit over the more abstract long term benefit of preserving constitutional limits. Reducing dependency requires both a policy agenda and political will.
Two complementary approaches make sense. First, create alternative funding and credit channels that reduce the need to accept conditional federal dollars. Second, make the case publicly that short term gains often produce long term costs in autonomy and economic efficiency.
Why shifting civic energy to state level fights matters
Catherine argues that much of the productive civic energy that currently focuses on federal politics would deliver greater returns at the state level. State governments make many practical choices about education, payments, procurement, and regulatory design. When states act, they create precedents and policy laboratories that can protect freedoms and re engineer incentives.
History shows that when a minority mobilizes effectively at the right level of governance it can change outcomes. Catherine emphasizes that only five to ten percent of engaged citizens can change the political dynamic in a state. That is an argument for targeted, local activism rather than diffuse national anxiety.>
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