An Economy That Serves The People

Mike Callicrate is a patriot.  His love for country is evident just in talking to him. It’s not demonstrated with a bumper sticker on his truck or a flag hanging outside his home.  Mike’s patriotism is found in his effort to build community by restoring America’s prosperity through fair markets and a just economic practices.

Callicrate is an independent rancher with operations in St. Francis, Kansas.  Mike has seen firsthand the devastating impact of corporate consolidation of our agriculture economy, unfair trade laws, and the shipping of manufacturing jobs overseas.

In the pursuit of profit for shareholders and the like, Callicrate believes we’re being short-sighted.  This is evidenced in the number of manufacturing jobs in the rust-belt that have disappeared to places overseas.  The result:  urban/suburban poverty.  The advent of  industrial agriculture — quickly and cheaply produced food — has killed the small, independent farm.  The result:  rural poverty.

“The reason we have so many people living in poverty is due to the tremendous concentration of power & wealth in country and globalization has left so many people outside of the economic system,” according to Callicrate. He believes we’ve got to get back to doing things on the most local level much in the way of distribution as suggested by G.K Chesterton.  ”We’ve got to have an economic system that serves the people and not the people serving the economic system.”

To see my interview with Mike in its entirety, please check out my YouTube video

Also, if you’d like to learn more about the issues affecting our economy and how you can become involved, check out an organization that Mike is highly involved in, The Coalition for a Prosperous America at  http://www.prosperousamerica.org