the consolidation of capital

This weekend I went to the Dollar General Store, Big Lots, and Deals. There a section of town that is becoming the ultimate econo-mini-mall. This is all in a strip mall that was left for dead. A store like Lowe's wouldn't come anywhere near here. It's the Sav-a-lots, Aldi's business model. The retail area is depressed and rent is cheap. Regular businesses leave it for dead. But the thing is, poor people need the things that everyone needs - soap, birthday cards, underwear and cleaning products. And if you can provide something that people need and do it with low overhead, there's money to be made. Walmart in its way proves the same point. There is money to be made among those who don't have a lot of money.

So here the thing,there is capital, the potential for building wealth ... it is just very dilute. If poor communities could figure out a way, some kind of mechanism by which they could keep and concentrate wealth in the neighborhood. Material changes could be made. Mountains could be moved.

In our economically driven times, a community bank could be the vital component to revitalizing lost areas. A community bank could be the economic liberator of a neighborhood. I used to dismiss the Grameen Bank as merely undercutting the local money lender. But perhaps that is the model that best fits the world in which we now live. Charity and Government assistance have been seen as problematic, as ineffective. But perhaps material and monetary investment in our poorest citizens if done to encourage growth, not exploit is useful model in our market driven times.

Where would you rather have the money go, to building more jails or to enabling people to buy houses and start businesses.