Send Capitalism on a Summer Vacation
Thinking about reducing your involvement with the capitalist system? Summer is the best time to get started. It’s easier to experiment with changes to your consumer life during the summer for these reasons:
Utility Escapism. Michigan has recently undergone some jarring and mostly hidden increases in utility costs, thanks to new legislation. The Michigan legislature quietly enacted a law that allows utility companies to request rate increases and then charge the increased amounts until the request is approved. If it’s turned down, the company can simply file another request and keep charging.
In addition, the state Public Service Commission gave Consumers Energy a $139.4 million rate increase—and then made headlines by knocking off a bargain $5 million from the total. Ready to stick it to these crooks? Vote with your feet; cut your utility bills down as low as you can.
It’s easy to turn off the heat in the summer, of course, but it’s also easy to reduce your electric costs. Michigan is on the far western edge of the Eastern Time Zone, a big energy advantage. Our summer evenings last until about 10PM at the height of the season. Don’t sit at home with the lights on and watch TV—take your dinner to the park. Sit on your porch and talk. Take a long walk.
Do you or a relative need air conditioning for health reasons? If so, you can still reduce those costs by about 3 percent for every degree you turn it up. Leave the AC off in the morning and only turn it on in the afternoons. And remember that leaving lights on just adds to the heat indoors.
Line drying of laundry saves another significant amount of electricity.
Fresh Food Perspectives. Even in the summer, when produce is plentiful, supermarkets charge premium prices for fruits and vegetables, especially if they are called “organic.” And not all of it is actually fresh. It’s a lot cheaper and better for you to buy produce locally at area farmer markets or to plant a garden.
If you can’t have your own garden, you can swap goods—home-baked bread, for example—with a friend who has too many tomatoes or zucchini. Plus, pick your own fruits and vegetables at area farms. If you eat eggs, meat, or dairy, summer is the perfect time to check out West Michigan’s organic resources of those products, such as Creswick Farms or Hilhof Dairy.
And since all this local, fresh food tastes great already, try raw preparations if you haven’t already. One dependable resource for raw recipes is Gone Raw. Nervous? Don’t be. A raw apple pie tastes as good, or better, than a baked one.
Alternative “Shopping.” Sometimes people get into the habit of hanging out at malls in the summer, and that always seems to lead to recreational shopping. But you’re not just buying stuff. You are buying into the huge markups of retail giants and chain stores. Because retailers know that, “sales” (which are usually scams where prices are just partially reduced from extra markups) are rarer in the summer.
But have you ever noticed how many things people throw away and give away in the summer? One summer I found all my porch furniture by cruising my neighborhood on trash days for wicker furniture that was being thrown out. Another time I found a solid oak Victorian dresser sitting next to a dumpster.
And for pennies on the dollar, garage sales will often yield pots and pans, a couple of new-to-you t-shirts, or other household and clothing items. Help your neighbors raise a little cash while you find what you need. Even more “cost-effective” are the Really Really Free Markets, held once a month in Grand Rapids. Bring items to give away and take away what you need—an excellent method of beating the capitalist system.
These places, plus events like art fairs (buy works directly from the people who make them), can also be venues for gifts to give friends. Holiday shopping, in particular, is one of the biggest cash cows for capitalists. In some stores items are re-ticketed every single day from Thanksgiving to Christmas, with a markup every day. If you shop local sources in the summer with gift-giving in mind, you’ll avoid putting your money in the hands of greedy big-box and department store merchants later in the year.
Free Entertainment. The multi-billion dollar movie industry counts on the fact that you must see the major summer blockbuster film the day it comes out—and pay top ticket prices. But why not wait until it’s available on a DVD from the local library? Meanwhile, there’s a lot going on that doesn’t cost anything at all. Summer in this area abounds with free outdoor concerts, free films, gallery openings and art festivals, plus neighborhood events like the Eastown’s Bizarre Bazaar.
You can go to the beach or to one of Grand Rapids’ six community pools (there’s a small charge for adults). There are festivals such as the Fiesta Mexicana on the plaza downtown. And you can check out unique free events like the Storytelling Bonfires, a night-time campfire group presenting music and stories once a month at Lamoreaux Park.
By the time fall arrives, chances are good you’ll be energized by your capitalist-lite summer experience. Use that energy to find even more ways to save, recycle, and trade. Break free from a system that guarantees you’ll always be on the losing end.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 
This is one of my major problems with the “left”
Your focus on individual actions may make people feel good and pat themselves on the back because they think they are “saving the world” or whatever delusion they have, but in actuality it does NOTHING AT ALL to combat capitalism. This is a dead end.
Which is not to say that these things are bad, free stuff is free stuff and paying less means less time working more time doing what you desire.
My problem is that this is pitched as revolutionary, or as if doing this is somehow going to change the system.
The left is OBSESSED with individuals making sacrifices, going green, or whatever as a means to stop climate change, end capitalism, etc but all they are are more regulations. Even if everyone on the left embraced this we would STILL have the system and institutions that maintain this way of life.
Here’s an idea, instead of cutting your involvement with capitalism and stopping there, how about we start to attack it, dismantle it, and leave it in a burning heap?
Here’s a zine that articulates the lefts obsession with individual actions much better than I ever could:
Click to access apocalypse_read.pdf
Thank you , Kate! I really enjoyed reading this lighthearted, practical and insightful post. I liked how you made the connection between disengaging from consumption and engaging in community.
I didn’t write this article with the intent of “pitching” it as “revolutionary.” As Stelle commented, it was intended to be both lighthearted and practical, and to encourage people who are still tied into the capitalist system to start letting go of those ties. I was also well aware when I wrote it that many GRIID readers have been doing these things and more for a long time already.
Do I think that individual action is important? Absolutely. A person of integrity acts on his/her beliefs, as an individual as well as collectively. I also think that people who change their habits or style of living come to understand more about the damaging systems they are rejecting, because it’s easier to see things clearly from a distance; and also because thought and action are integral.
Do I think that individual action alone will bring down capitalism? Absolutely not, and I did not mean to imply that in the article.
This article reads like something straight out of The Grand Rapids Press, from tone to content. The only difference is that over the weekend The Press actually covered a more a radical response to capitalism in covering freeganism (which it even admitted has political origins in the anti-globalization movement), which is essentially about complete withdrawal from the capitalism (via actions such as dumpster diving and squatting). Instead, most of the suggestions within this article are integrated into the capitalist system.
I have no problem with taking responsible personal actions (the exception being meat and dairy consumption, that has no place in liberation struggles in the global north). They are essential, but they can’t be an end in themselves.
I’m generally confused about why this ended up on a media monitoring site in the first place. What is the link? I find it even more bizarre given that in the past GRIID has repeatedly criticized The Grand Rapids Press and the other local media for advocating personal lifestyle changes instead of systemic changes when it comes to environmental problems. Why was the decision made to publish an article that advocates only lifestyle changes?
“Mandee”, we decided to post this story by Kate because it offers some concrete actions people can take who are wanting to take the first steps to trying to be more economically independent. Are these action revolutionary, not at all. Will the end capitalism, of course not. However, anyone who has questioned the capitalist system started somewhere…….putting in a garden, riding a bike, composting, something that you could do that can make a difference, even if that difference is just trying to lead a healthier life style.
You point out that we do media monitoring, which is true, but we also for the past year have been trying to promote more independent news and commentary as is stated in our “about” section. One difference from the articles that the GR Press publishes which advocate personal lifestyle changes and the ones we do is that the Press never publishes anti-capitalist article, which we do from time to time. We would argue that the workshop that OKT is hosting next week, which we announced on our site is an anti-capitalist action, because people will learn how to grow their own food, save seeds and try to disconnect from a food system based on profit. Growing a garden is not enough of course, but if enough people do it then we can create cooperatives and collectives where food is shared instead of being sold.