Peer2Politics

The Battle of Yavin where the first Death Star was destroyed. Credit: Fanpop We have an epic choice before us between platform coops and Death Star platforms, and the time to decide is now. It might be the most important economic decision we ever make, but most of us don't even know we have a choice.

Inequality and poverty are suddenly hot topics, not only in the United States but also across the globe. Since the early 1980s, there has been a growing underclass in America. At the same time a much smaller class, now called the superrich, built its wealth to levels of opulence not seen since France’s Louis XVI. Despite this, the resulting inequality went mostly unnoticed. When the Great Recession of 2008 hit, and the division between the very wealthy and the rest of us came starkly into focus, various people and groups, including the Occupy movement, began insisting more publicly that we tax wealth. But still, helping the poor has been mostly a discussion on the fringes. At last, the terms of public debate have changed, because inequality and poverty now are debated regularly in the mainstream media and across the political spectrum, not solely by labor, by the left, and by others imagining a new economy.

Aprovecho is a 40-acre center 15 miles south of Eugene, Oregon dedicated to researching and teaching sustainable living practices and green skills. Rosie Kirincic works there with six other staff members. She lives with four of them on-site. Those six people are coordinating the construction of a 2,500 square foot community-meeting hall using natural building methods. They manage rotating crews of work-traders who come to help with the project through the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) organization.

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Make Shift Boston hosts a variety of community events such as this Feast Mass, part of the Sunday Soup community arts funding movement.

Enspiral Space is Enspiral's co-working facility in Wellington, New Zealand. (Courtesy Enspiral)

Tucked down into the southeast corner of Tennessee, Chattanooga is, perhaps, the most unassuming city in the Volunteer State. Though it doesn't have the musical legacies of Nashville or Memphis, or the University of Tennessee like Knoxville, what Chattanooga's 170,000 residents do share is the fastest Internet speeds in the United States. That's right: Chattanooga is the first Western Hemisphere city running a one-gigabit-per-second fiber Internet service. It's 200 times faster than the national average and has earned Chattanooga its nickname, Gig City, along with a seat at the grown-up table.