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While pundits and economists worry about Wall Street’s well-being, Americans worry about losing their jobs, paying their bills, and the declining health of the planet. The capitalist marketplace promotes the exploitation of people and natural resources as cheap fixes. But you don’t have to abandon your values to save a buck. Welcome to the People’s Marketplace.

By Martina Steiner

Just because you can’t afford to buy as many books as you can read, doesn’t mean you can’t read all the books you want. Get yourself a library card, and take home as many books as you can carry, for free!

Libraries are not only for the stoic reader of classic literature. In addition to new books, your library will have lots of DVD’s and CD’s to borrow, and magazines to read. It’s OK to relax and catch-up on the latest celebrity gossip or request the newest vampire love story.

Libraries have invested their shoe-string budgets into keeping pace with technology and developing multi-faceted websites. Reserving a book through your library’s website is as easy as buying one online, but without the credit card hassle and shipping fees. You can browse through your library system’s entire catalog and reserve what you want, and it will be delivered to your closest branch. Libraries also have computers with internet for public use, and many are making wireless internet available for those with laptops.

Library websites also have a lot to offer kids and teenagers. They will find well designed, fun web pages devoted to their interests. Through the Compton public library website teens can sign up for the email book club. A teenager chooses the book and a few pages of it are sent through email every day. By the end of the week participants will have read one or two chapters.

Check out the calendar of events for your library. You will find computer classes for adults and activities for kids and teens. Most libraries have a story-time hour for children at least once a week. This is a great way to get out of the house and into a kid-friendly environment.

If all of this is not enough reason to love your local library, here is another: Your librarian just may be a quiet radical. Librarians have long resisted book banning, and they have been outspoken critics of the Patriot Act, specifically of a provision that allows the FBI to spy on individuals by tracking their library activities. Librarians have even mounted successful legal challenges to Patriot Act subpoenas.

So visit your local library or check it out online and start reaping the benefits of the bookstore built by and for the people. Try it, and stretch your dollar to meet your values. Together, we can take back the economy.