WiThePeople

20 May, 12

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Tax Rally & Sustainability

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May 6, 2012

What does a tax rally have to do with sustainability?

A lot, if you believe that the fundamental structure of our economy is changing. I recently learned from a career development expert that by 2025, half of all jobs will be from contracted employment. Imagine, 50% of jobs being contracted. I don’t know about you, but that tells me that as communities, we’re going to have to change the way we think not only to survive, but also to prosper.

That’s where sustainability comes in. And what exactly does sustainability mean, anyway (I’ve heard this word a lot, but until recently had only a nebulous idea of what it really meant)? Wikipedia offers one of the most concise definitions I’ve read:

“Sustainable is science. Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of responsibility, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of stewardship, the responsible management of resource use.”

On April 16, Citizen Action, MoveOn, Occupy and other community groups joined with citizens across the region to protest against tax inequality. Like other demonstrations I’ve covered, the concerns are not about one specific issue, but a confluence of factors that have all but crushed middle class hope.

Yet the positive and productive conversations that flow from the lack of hope or faith in our collective future is the knowledge that for things to change, the people must act. And they are. From clean elections that would take money out of politics to sustainable living plans that focus on creative community development, these groups are pushing back with organized plans, and a growing number of people.

Stay tuned as WiThePeople begins to investigate sustainable living in the Hudson Valley region.

For local information on sustainability, visit the Sustainable Hudson Valley website: http://www.sustainhv.org/rcsc. To learn more about sustainable communities across the nation, visit Sustainable Communities Online: http://www.sustainable.org/about.