I think you're spot on! First , we need to grasp the fundamentals of weather building and honestly, just basic finance for some of us (my family could certainly fit in the latter category). And then, from that knowledge base, individual and community wealth building can happen. I can see it in my head, someone does hair well, and does it in her kitchen, she does it 25 times a day what she doesn't do is put that money into herself and her skills and have a shop where she can hire 4 other people to do hair too. Or someone else is a great carpenter who works for someone else, why not work for himself? Why not have our own finance companies to provide loans/mortgages, etc? I'm sure some communities have such things, but I don't know. My parents could never hold onto a dollar longer than 30 seconds because they didn't really know how. They could talk about it as an abstract idea, but that was it. When I used to mention it, I'd hear things like, "oh that's for rich people," or my mother's favourite saying, "there are those people that get, we are not those people." It was as if they didn't feel they deserved financial security, and I think that's where the generational trauma comes in.

I'd love to hear more about your ideas on community wealth building. I hope you write about it so I can read it.