A SELF-SUPPORTING LOCAL ECONOMY IS A LARGE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE VILLAGE TOWN AND A CONVENTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The Local Economy

The self-supporting local economy is perhaps the largest point of difference between a VillageTown and a conventional development. A conventional development relies on the health of the regional or national economy. When that economy crashes, the community suffers.

Not so with the VillageTown which builds in resilience by looking after its local economy from day one.

A VillageTown creates its own self-supporting local economy, meaning people bring their businesses and jobs with them. It also keeps the net profits from the development (normally taken by the developer), so that it starts out with a large legacy fund that can support its local businesses. It uses these funds and their expert managers to expand markets and inject resilence into private small to medium enterprises. It de-monetizes many aspects of day-to-day life, on the principle that it is cheaper to save a dollar than earn one. In all of these aspects, it relies on market forces, but smartly. It sees the wisdom in combined purchasing power and in protecting the local economy from outside predatory practices that seem to have become the norm in business.

Built on a self-supporting economic foundation

Developers build in response to a growing regional economy; the VillageTown does not. The VillageTown creates its own local economy not dependent on the health or vulnerable to the weakness of the region. It provides work places on the plazas, on the main streets and in a walk-to Industrial Park. Buy or rent, it lowers the cost of living and increases the quality of life to attract better employees at lower costs. It combines purchasing power to lower mortgage costs, insurance, health care, food, utilities, goods and services, and of course it eliminates daily transport costs that consume about 15% of the average family's income. It lowers dependency on petroleum. It operates its own bank. It buys its food from local farmers.

The VillageTown seeks a ratio of 20% local-to-global businesses and 80% local-to-local. The local to global businesses benefit from telepresence. The local-to-local benefit by money-turn that provides villagers with feedback so they know how much local content goods and services contain. Every dollar they spend locally increases the VillageTown commonwealth, which seeks to minimize money leaking out - to overseas oil fields by not needing cars, or with a wholesale buying group to avoid badly-designed, wastefully-packaged stuff that breaks prematurely.  But one of the most unique parts is how the VillageTown handles the profits derived from the development: they stay in the community because it does not use a developer. Permit us to explain:

Read this part carefully: Your VillageTown could begin with a legacy fund of hundreds of millions of dollars: The future villagers self-identify in advance. Their mortgages aggregate to combine purchasing power. When thousands of homes are built at the same time, cost of construction per home drops. But market value stays the same, creating a bigger profit, possibly in the hundreds of millions. Normally, the developer takes the profit. Not so in a VillageTown which does not use a developer. It uses an organizing company that becomes the VillageTown operating company owned by the VillageTown citizens - an operating company that owns the net profits in the bank. Thus, the VillageTown begins with a cash-rich Legacy Fund that becomes the foundation of what we call the commonwealth. This fund is used to strengthen and sustain your local economy, which may include direct or indirect investments in VillageTown businesses. In essence you buy a home at market value or a parallel market home and get a cash-rich operating company free.

This company makes motors using 1/3 the electricity of normal

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 As individuals, the ordinary person has little clout in today's economy. But when 10,000 combine purchasing power and look after their economic wellbeing, the VillageTown becomes a force to be reckoned. Its economy is shaped to attract small to medium enterprises (SME) to level the playing field so they can compete effectively in an increasingly predatory global economy. Such power is possible when we combine purchasing power to return control of its money to the community.

In Eastern Missouri, we can build a Village Town of 10,000 residents that can participate, but does not have to rely, on the world economy.  Join us with your small or medium business and let's make it happen.