The Real Wealth of Portland: Giving Visibility and Value to our Caring Economic System is about making the invisible economy visible. It is about moving to an economy that fosters social justice, equity, and peace.
The good news is we don’t have to start from scratch to create a caring and sharing economic system here in Portland because it already exists in many areas! We only have to make it more visible by supporting it, nurturing it, strengthening it and celebrating it.
Each of us changes the world by our action or our inaction. Those of us involved in this project are giving of our time, creativity, and ingenuity to create a more caring and humane community. Together we are changing the way we think about our economy so that it can better reflect our true human priorities.
The Caring Economy of Portland
Thousands of individuals, groups, and organizations represent the caring economy of Portland – the economy that actually is the foundation for the all too visible competitive, market economy. The economics of competition, domination and often greed could not exist without the invisible caring sharing economy that is most often provided by poorly paid care-giving workers, volunteers, charity organizations and community support organizations. By making these largely invisible contributions visible we move towards an economy that fosters social justice, equity, and peace.
Through networking, recognizing, supporting and partnering with one another this caring economy will thrive, grow stronger and become more secure for all of us. Together we can create new economic rules that support relations of partnership and respect, not fear, manipulation and greed; rules that support social and environmental responsibility – rules that recognize support and accord real value to care and caregiving – including caring for nature and our planet.