Maine news, sports, weather from Waterville Morning Sentinel

DENIS THOET: Supporting local businesses keeps money in local economy

Economic news in Maine is almost never good. Our last genuine economic boom was in the 1840s and 1850s, and we’ve been pretty much in a recession since the Civil War killed off our position as a major maritime world trader. Coincidentally, those were the last years of our truly local economy.

We’ve brought in the malls with their national chains, and the big-box stores and the fast-food restaurants, so why isn’t Maine booming? Mostly because these “economic engines” suck money out of the state faster than we can produce it.

When you buy something at a big-box store, 80 percent to 90 percent of your cash is exported out of state. Purchases in local stores can keep the majority of your cash circulating in your community.

 Let’s take what little money we have and invest it in our local economies. Here are some principles that might work to sustain our local economy, which in the not-so-distant future, may be the only economy we have:

• Food: Grow your own food. Buy local food. Join a buyer’s club like Crown of Maine or Associated Buyers to secure staples you can’t find or grow on your own. Learn how to dry, freeze and can your food for winter and spring. Then do it.

• Finance: Join your local credit union or community bank. Get out of the big, national banks.

• Business: Do business with local companies. Encourage your town to print a business directory, perhaps as part of its town report each year.

• Eating out: Choose a local restaurant over fast-food chains.

• Home repairs: Shop your local lumber company; stay away from national chains. Things may cost a little more, but  your money stays in the community.

• Bargain hunting: We are genetically hard-wired to find the cheapest anything, even if it’s the worst junk. Buy less of everything from any source. Stay away from the big-box stores. Find local substitutes or, (oh no!) do without.

• Reading materials: All of your reading needs can be met by your local library, freebie newspapers or online news. Local libraries and the Maine State Library in Augusta can find almost any book you want to read. Support them at your city and town level when their budget requests come up for review. They are the glue that binds us, and they are hurting from severe cutbacks during the current recession.

• Local government: We all complain loudly about state and local taxes, but guess what? Those tax dollars stick around and are pretty much as local as you can get.

• Energy: We are locked into foreign oil to heat our homes and power our cars and trucks. snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles, personal watercraft and riding lawn mowers. All are definitely non-local and also non-sustainable. Install a wood stove and cut yourself some firewood — or buy some locally.

Take a canoe or kayak and cross-country skis and get exercise while saving money. Your ATV? Just take a hike.

Hang your wet laundry outside, and enjoy the quiet meditation of washing and drying your own dishes.

• Water: Do not buy bottled water. Even Poland Spring owned by a Swiss multinational that refuses to pay water extraction taxes to Maine. Tap water in a quart jar is the best choice, and a fashion statement. Don’t flush every time you use the toilet. You will know when it’s time to flush.

• Health care: This is a tough one. Hospitals are local; doctors and local emergency services are local. And they are all very expensive. This may be one area where it pays to shop around outside the local area. An eye-opening story in the May 16 Maine Sunday Telegram showed a huge divergence in costs for procedures across the state. Example: An X-ray cost $47 in one hospital for an insured patient, and $430 in another for an uninsured patient. Sadly, the hospitals weren’t named, so you will have to do your shopping on your own.

Of course, health insurance companies are not local, and they are also hugely expensive whether you are covered on the job or individually.

So, how about this: Stay healthy with good food and rigorous exercise. For emergency care, take the savings from the premiums you would have paid Anthem and plan a trip to  any developed country for reasonably priced surgery or cancer treatment.

Remember, it’s your money, so make the most of it!

Denis Thoet and his partner, Michele Roy, own and manage Long Meadow Farm in West Gardiner, longmeadowfarm@roadrunn er.com