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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…
@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?
@ms_salazar_1984
December 23, 2025 at 2:10 pm
❤❤❤
@amjedahmeh7816
December 23, 2025 at 2:23 pm
❤❤❤
@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.
@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