yours
Z. Y. Mijbil

I’m not suggesting that we do without cotton if you can’t grow it locally (and I think anyone would recognize that), yet we certainly don’t need to import cotton from Egypt when we can grow it within a thousand miles instead of 15 thousand miles away.

Many will argue that free markets and the dollar cost of everything is all that matters. My point is that there are so many hidden costs that we all end up paying, and it should be clear to anyone and everyone that we are all paying an incredibly heavy cost for the excesses of big business as millions are now homeless, unemployed, and destitute because of the actions of just a few corporate CEOs. Had the risks been spread over thousands of businesses instead of just a few, it seems likely that there would have been both winners and losers instead of just a bunch of really big losers. Big business has collapsed the world economy, that is irrefutable. Credit default swaps weren;t invented by regional banks, they were invented and perpetrated by the bog-boys, the ones that basically control our economy and to some degree, government.

We’re seeing global warming coming at us like a freight train and even though it is true we are all to blame, without the careless actions of immense businesses we couldn’t possibly have destroyed the world as quickly as we have. Giant coal companies, utilities, steep producers, chemical companies, oil companies and on and on have devastated immense regions of the world and spewed trillions of tons of pollutants and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Had they been thousands of smaller entities they would have had to abide by regulations and listened to the people in their communities that likely would have balked at being poisoned and bullied and left destitute each time one of these players had used up their communities, and it happens all the time.

Is it really necessary to fly tomatoes into the US from Brazil? Sure it may be a few cents cheaper, yet the pollution and energy costs associated with such excesses do have a cost even if it isn’t paid by the consumer. A locally grown tomato (where possible) may cost more, yet the hidden costs are far fewer. We all know this and we can deny it all we want, but we are seeing the impact of our actions.

A few decades ago we were told that oil would run out, prices would spike, global warming would start creating havoc, and the world economy would become so interdependent than when it went south, the it would implode. Back then they were just warnings, now they are the headlines every day. We could have avoided most of the catastrophes that now are on our doorstep, but we didn’t and I predict we won’t. Societies choose to collapse and I believe we are making those choices today (read Jarred Diamond’s book Collapse: Why Societies Choose to Fail, its quite interesting and convincing). We are so reliant on mega-businesses that when global war, terrorism, natural disaster, or some other calamity disrupts the flow of goods, services and money; we’ll all suffer even more than what we’ve seen today.

The idea of creating a local economy that is as self sufficient as possible is not new. Wendell Berry has been writing, speaking, and teaching this for decades. Before the 20th century, that’s the way the world worked. This isn’t to imply no global trade, it’s just a call for efficiency, rationality, and common sense. You don’t need to be an isolationist to want your friends and neighbors employed before the guy in India, the people in India feel the same way. You don’t need to be a tree hugger to want to avoid pollution and wasted energy.

Perhaps if we did have localized economies we’d have a lower standard of living, but we might also have a viable planet to live on a hundred years from now.

By financial infrastructure, do you mean the industry councils, credit regulation forums, FTC schema, building codes, engineering enclaves, and fibrous extents of federal offices?

Who’s going to grow cotton in Schenectady?

It’s not really gelled there, that I can see.