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Struggling communities need bold new ways to grow wealth #TEDTalks

Struggling communities don’t need handouts — they need bold new ways to root wealth. Meet Molly Hemstreet — a TED Fellow, Southern Appalachia native and cofounder of worker support network the Industrial Commons — who’s flipping the script on generational poverty by turning textile waste into $9-per-pound yarn and factory workers into business owners. Discover…

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Struggling communities don’t need handouts — they need bold new ways to root wealth. Meet Molly Hemstreet — a TED Fellow, Southern Appalachia native and cofounder of worker support network the Industrial Commons — who’s flipping the script on generational poverty by turning textile waste into $9-per-pound yarn and factory workers into business owners. Discover how her long-haul approach is rebuilding rural economies stitch by stitch, proving that opportunity grows when we stop extracting and start empowering.

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8 Comments

8 Comments

  1. @bklynmyke

    December 23, 2025 at 2:09 pm

    I’m just asking a question here: what if companies stopped outsourcing jobs to other countries to increase profits and opened more factories in the U.S., while at the same time paying a living wage and not raising the price of their products so they could still compete with Wal-Mart? Wouldn’t that help small towns across the country?

  2. @ms_salazar_1984

    December 23, 2025 at 2:10 pm

    ❤❤❤

  3. @amjedahmeh7816

    December 23, 2025 at 2:23 pm

    ❤❤❤

  4. @mojojojo813

    December 23, 2025 at 2:43 pm

    I think the companies would go out of business. How can they pay workers well by US standards if they don’t charge more than Walmart? The goods being sold at Walmart were made by people in other countries where they get paid much less.
    We can’t have it both ways. If we want manufacturing here, we need to get used to paying for it.
    Then again, CEOs don’t need to be paid thousands of times what regular workers are paid.

    • @bklynmyke

      December 23, 2025 at 3:42 pm

      I didn’t mention it in my comment, and that’s my fault, obviously. Most companies can indeed pay their workers a living wage and still make plenty of profit. They don’t have to raise prices to pay their workers fairly and still make money. They would still make more than enough money; it would just cut into profits a little. It’s not like they would lose money. They would still be in the black. They like us to think that if they made their product in the U.S., they would go bankrupt or lose so much money that it wouldn’t be worth it. It’s just that instead of making $50m in profit, they’d only make $48m. Also, as you said, the CEOs, COOs, CFOs, CMOs, Presidents, and Vice Presidents don’t need to make so much money. The pay gap between workers and high-level management is wider than it’s ever been, by far.

    • @mojojojo813

      December 23, 2025 at 5:59 pm

      Sorry, I meant this to be in reply to @bklynmyke

    • @VagueSpaces

      December 24, 2025 at 5:56 am

      That’s kind of how it works no? You pay people more and they can spend more? That’s the only reason I live in a city at all. I grew up living in the country, but I don’t like pumping gas in a podunk town eating gas station food since there’s no grocery store… I’d rather be paid well enough to support local and not have to shop at walmart either.

  5. @peaceydanckwerts

    December 24, 2025 at 5:21 am

    I like your thinking. It is not directly related, but I thoroughly recommend the late Elinor Ostrom’s book, Governing the Commons, which deals with communities managing their own resources. I believe you will find it useful in your work. Bruce Danckwerts, CHOMA, Zambia

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A Cheat Sheet for Canceling Coal | Kimiko Hirata | TED

After the Fukushima disaster shut down Japan’s nuclear reactors, the coal industry rushed in to fill the energy gap. As climate advocate Kimiko Hirata watched dozens of new coal plant proposals quietly surface across the country — each one locking in decades of future emissions — she resolved to make them impossible to ignore. She…

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After the Fukushima disaster shut down Japan’s nuclear reactors, the coal industry rushed in to fill the energy gap. As climate advocate Kimiko Hirata watched dozens of new coal plant proposals quietly surface across the country — each one locking in decades of future emissions — she resolved to make them impossible to ignore. She shares how a small, scrappy civil society movement took on a fossil-fuel-dependent economy and got people to say “yes” to a renewable future. (Recorded at TED Countdown Summit 2025 on June 18, 2025)

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Monarch butterfly migrations are a spectacle — and a key indicator of ecosystem health #TEDTalks

When monarch butterflies migrate, they produce one of the most iconic wildlife spectacles in the world — and provide us with an important indicator of ecological health, says photographer Jaime Rojo. Telling a story about our relationship to the natural world, he shares his experience photographing these mesmerizing insects deep in their remote mountain habitats…

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When monarch butterflies migrate, they produce one of the most iconic wildlife spectacles in the world — and provide us with an important indicator of ecological health, says photographer Jaime Rojo. Telling a story about our relationship to the natural world, he shares his experience photographing these mesmerizing insects deep in their remote mountain habitats in Mexico, diving into the latest research into the mysteries of their multi-thousand-mile journey and sharing how each of us can join the growing movement to protect them.

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The Problem with Billionaires — and the Debut of True Net Worth | Randall Lane | TED

As chief content officer of Forbes, Randall Lane oversees the magazine’s signature list of billionaires, tracking the richest people on Earth. But he has noticed that this prompts the ultra-wealthy to stockpile their money instead of spending it on the public good. He debuts a new ranking — True Net Worth — that applauds billionaires…

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As chief content officer of Forbes, Randall Lane oversees the magazine’s signature list of billionaires, tracking the richest people on Earth. But he has noticed that this prompts the ultra-wealthy to stockpile their money instead of spending it on the public good. He debuts a new ranking — True Net Worth — that applauds billionaires for their philanthropy and rewards generosity. Guess who’s in the top five? (Recorded at TED2026 on April 16, 2026)

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The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less) — plus originals, podcasts and exclusive content. Look for videos on Technology, Entertainment and Design as well as science, business, global issues, the arts and more. Visit for our entire library, transcripts, translations and personalized recommendations.

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TED videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with the TED Talks Usage Policy: . For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a request at

#TED #TEDTalks #Economics

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