Having done this research, i received an invite for a Googlegroup associated with Occupy Wall Street. I was saddened by the irony of Google founders’ presence in the 1%. To me, Occupy Wall Street is bringing up questions around the system. We live in a system – possibly systems – that skew toward the few, making it difficult, often impossible, to meet everyone’s needs. I long for a world where we consider all of our needs no matter who we are or how much we earn. To start moving toward that world, i am slowly switching my consumption patterns. Sometimes that, too, is difficult because i often don’t know where to switch to. Additionally, these approaches build economic resilience, something we will need to rely on increasingly because our financial system is so skewed that economic instability will be more frequent.

So, i’d like to collect alternatives that can support the 99%. Supporting these alternatives helps build a society that is more grounded in equality and cooperation. Please add ideas in the comments – this list can be a collaboration! Ultimately, I’d like to offer alternatives to all the 400 on the list so that we have choice around where to spend our money.

Email groups can be set up at riseup.net. It’s not an instant set-up and it’s run by a collective. Riseup also provides email addresses.

An alternative to Facebook is Diaspora.

Of course, there’s the Move Your Money campaign, which makes it easy to get away from the Big Banks. We can also join Timebanks to build an infrastructure that is an alternative to money. This also reminds us that money is simply one way of meeting needs…