Purchase Power is the way we spend our money. Through selective, coordinated boycotts / “buycotts” we can force companies to change. Firms that exploit or ignore us take notice when profits fall, while businesses that act responsibly are strengthened. Weekly rolling boycott, / “buycott,” campaigns will target companies to avoid and which to support.
Crowdsourcing (power) is coordinated community action, using the reach of social media, peaceful protests, effective petitions, and, where necessary, legal and political action. Acting in numbers compels governments and corporations to pay attention where individuals would be ignored. To avoid reinventing the wheel, we will begin by joining best-in-class movements such as MAHA for health.
The law remains one of the best tools for holding authority to account. Though underused, constitutional safeguards still exist (for example, the Constitution in the USA and the Magna Carta in the UK). Court cases can overturn unlawful activities, class actions can secure redress for consumers, and judicial reviews can restrain government overreach. To fund these legal efforts, a PAC is one such vehicle.
Political Action Committees (PACs) are crowd funding bodies, pooling individual donations to influence lawmakers. In the USA, they can function as a counterweight to corporate lobbying and donations. This is an example of Purchase Power. Equally important, they can be used for funding legal action - the cost of which is often the thing which prevents people pursuing their legal rights. We will refer to this going forward as People PACs.
While democracy is the best political system society has come up with so far, it is clear that it is presently unsatisfactory. Politicians can win power with a small percentage of the vote - see Labour (UK) 2024. Congress returns the same candidates - on average, 95% of incumbents in Congress are re-elected each time, which in a two-party system means there is little choice. Reform is necessary. Potential solutions are outlined in the book Restoration by George Will, written in 1992 (was billions, now trillions), or by looking at best-in-class global systems such as the Swiss referendum approach.
Peaceful public protest and legal non-cooperation. Peaceful sit-ins can block destructive projects, mass boycotts deny compliance, legal minimisation of tax payments can protest unjust spending, slowdowns highlight unfair systems, and symbolic acts such as refusing digital ID cards resist overreach. Social media supports these efforts, enabling people to group together quickly and in large numbers. We can follow the successful example of Gandhi.