> I am no Luddite, but I think that perhaps taking a step backwards in time could be an interesting experiment - create more towns that are self-sufficient, grow their own crops, build their own houses, etc. It seems like much of the wealth is getting boiled down into the hands of fewer and fewer big companies.

They tried that once, and it turns out tha tin practice this idea is much much worse than you'd think it is at the surface: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_city_movement

Maybe it would be different now, what with communications technology like the internet making proximity to major city centers less important. But to me, this doesn't sound like a practical solution