A Slogan Everyone Uses but Nobody Believes

“Buy Local” is a slogan which no one actually means. It is supposed to promote consuming the goods and services supplied by those around you, but it is a fiction perpetuated purely for civility’s sake. Deep down everyone knows that money follows demand and efficiency, neighbors be damned.

The suppliers of goods and services certainly do not mean it. Whether selling to a neighbor or someone from farther afield, a sale is a sale regardless of who transacts it. What is more; in some instances a commodity may be more valuable to someone who is not local as due to a perception of being “exotic.” Farm stands in the Hudson Valley are all too aware of this as they sling “Upstate apples” to Downstate day-trippers at $1.05 apiece! Services of course are more dependent on location, but even in this market economic efficiency trumps localism. Despite increased costs of transportation due to greater distances, if an urban upholsterer — for example — achieves higher efficiencies than a local, rural competitor, you may be better off sending your la-z-boy on a jog to a distant workshop. Contributing to a neighbor’s livelihood is a noble sentiment, but limited finances may force the choice.

Some people exhort localism in commerce by arguing that local consumption retains money in the community, but this is not necessarily true. The nearby store’s widgets may have been purchased on order from a distant, foreign country rather than sourced from a closer supplier. The local restauranteur may be remitting thousands in savings to construct a retirement house in a smarter state like Florida. And don’t even get me started on relatives and friends who see more benefit to transacting with remote and faceless corporations than with someone local they know (demand wins the day).

Marketing realizes that consumers are normally driven by sheer efficiency, so it devises ways to overcome that instinct and induce consumption with suppliers offering lower efficiency. One of those ways is the invention of vacuous slogans like “buy local.” At its core, marketing seeks to connect willing and able buyers with sellers based on shared values, whether those are aesthetic, sociopolitical or otherwise, and there is a certain elegance to it. The globalized economy can be very dehumanizing, what with bargain bots trawling online postings for deals and wholesalers packaging “personalized” services bundled from all the suppliers in a given industry/region. Often it is a marketer who “puts a face” on commerce by otherwise complete strangers, and makes business more relatably human.

This leaves a crucial role for us Libertarians to play. The reds and blues are so polarized that they avoid each other to the extent possible. Libertarians need to be the humanizing face of commerce which bridges the divide between those who share our values, and those not yet on board. Only yesterday I urged transaction with businesses sympathetic to alternative currencies and participation in trade networks. Today I should qualify that these can be local, but need not be. Allies may be found far away, and in surprising places. Even ideological “opponents,” wheresoever they are, will soon realize that the U.S. dollar’s insolvency means that they are working harder for less, so commerce with them may wind up netting more friends. There is always room in our movement to embrace those who realize this truth, no matter when or whence they come!

Originally published via Facebook on June 20th, 2023.