IntroduceYourself: I'm @marydouglas & I'm here to #democratizeit

Good Evening Steemit.... I'm new here, I'm reposting my introduction bc I forgot to put this in #introduceyourself... so here is the new and improved correctly categorized version.

It will be nice to start to engage with this community and get to know you guys....

here comes a quick introduction:

I'll try to summarize my whole life in a brief few paragraphs: I'm a Georgia Peach who moved to NYC many moons ago to work in the Fashion industry... it was fun. The industry was rife with problems... it's totally unregulated, there are no labor laws, no standard for working conditions, no benefits, no minimum wage(some jobs can be unpaid & many are), no job security, and no recourse for businesses who don't pay even if a rate was advertised to entice you to take the job. After the glamour of it all wears off, you really have to think twice about exactly what you are doing, if you are sane.

After 12 years of working in the "Gig Economy", with our industry being severely affected by the 2008 crash and subsequent recession, I really started to think about economics...

I had a lightbulb moment during the 2016 primary season, which I feel was a wonderful experience for the optimists among us who wanted an opportunity for change. Where we had been marketed change as an option in 2008, for those of us who bought in, it has now become appearant that is was one giant sales pitch.

I was on team Bernie during the primaries. I will personally never vote for a Neoliberal after falling for Obama, so I didn't support Clinton. Now I find myself learning about many different political and economic philosophies - with an open mind, and learning to spot establishment fear mongering when approaching certain subjects.

One thing I learned for sure is that our system is messed up, unbalanced and rigged.
So I'm keeping an open mind as to what the solutions are, but it's obvious to me that it would be insane to keep doing the same thing but expecting a different result.

I am a firm believer in economic democracy, a more open political system that's not so polarized and includes more political parties.

I am working on that too: we've created an "ALEC" for employee ownership- where idealist individuals can take our model bill to their state legislatures, and pretty soon we'll have economic & workplace democracy in all 50 states. https://www.democratizetheenterprise.org

But on a personal note, I have a 6yo, she's really smart, she's funny & I have hope for her future(and my husband there with us). I feel like we are moving towards a decentralized society... whether that takes the form of a free market capitalist/socialist(employee ownership) mix... it doesn't matter... decentralization is key.

If anyone sees this- please let me know your thoughts on decentralization, economic democracy and the like... I'd love to hear from you.