Buying local pays off

Did you know that more than a dozen studies (see Civic Economics and New Economics Foundation) have shown that every dollar spent at a locally owned business generates two-to-four times the economic development impacts as a dollar spent on an equivalent non-local business?

This means that every dollar spent locally produces two-to-four times the local jobs, two-to-four times the local income and wealth effects, two-to-four times the local taxes, and two-to-four times the local charitable contributions. Despite these impressive economic impacts, most of the country’s long-term investible dollars go into government bonds or big corporations on Wall Street.

Michael Shuman, a well-known economist, author, attorney, and entrepreneur, estimates that less than one percent of Americans’ long-term savings in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, pension funds, and life insurance funds—totaling approximately $30 trillion—touch local small businesses, even though roughly half of the jobs and the output in the private economy come from them.

To read the full article, visit Forbes.com.