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Euthenics on rural/urban matters
John D. Woods, Ph.D.: [I like that "euthenic" address name]
(John, I won't copy all the previous stuff you and others have contributed to
this intriguing debate on ruraldev list. Folks will just have to get a feel
for the character of it on their own.)
You mention "Public Growth Management" policy? Is there such a possibility?
"Rural" economic actuality is more and more a function of decisions made in
transnational corporations, transnational political entities (UN, GATT and
NAFTA, EU, ASEAN, etc.), transnational shadow economies controlled by global
shifts of currency rates, assaults on exhanges and myriad transactions
totally beyond the monitoring capacity of governments and financial
institutions. For clues, look at the back pages of The Economist magazine or
wander around in the arcana of The Wall Street Journal or Barron's or The
Financial Times. And I like that lovely book on the Connecticut Valley.
Better yet, wander around in the web pages of Asian financial circles.
Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia. Taiwan, especially. Big clues:
1) in recent years the available monetary reserves of Taiwan have often
exceeded those of the United States (excluding only Ft. Knox gold reserves
since no one has any way to guess how much gold is held by Taiwanese or
Indians, for that matter), 2) in terms of GDP the exchanges of Switzerland
handle transactions vastly in excess of those handled through New York or
London and 3) China now has a greater trade advantage (read "surplus") over
the US than Japan and 4) China's economic spurt is largely financed by Taiwan
money. Nothin' wrong with Taiwan money or folks, just that they are running
circles around the western financial troops who are spending their time
arguing over nits and specks.
However, thanks for defining your perspective on urban fringe incursions into
or encroachment on less urban areas. As the megalopoli, per se, plateau out
in terms of population and density, overflow outward involves not only more
affluent escapees from the urban chaos but also folks on the bottom of the
heaps, the once-upon-a-time "rural" previously driven to the cities, who can
no longer squat on each other's shoulders.
Contemporary actuality is that fewer and fewer bodies are needed to produce
all the goods and services needed or consumed by the cash economies of the
world. Thereby, increasing zillions of folks have little or no economic role
available except outside the formal economies. Mad Max is among us, live and
prospering. Witness the post Communist fate of the now CIS--brutally savage
"capitalism" brought to you by the transnational and local versions of
mafiaosi. In Russia, the official death rate has tripled. Moscow now has a
murder rate three times that of New York.
[Imagine a TV series on this sort of stuff reprising last season---Previously
on "Green Revolution," Juan had discovered his sister beaten to a pulp by the
wanton landowner's evil son Rodrigo. . . who had followed her into the city.
. . after his father drove her family off the land five years ago. . .]
Recently in Manila, as gone a city as any, it was clear that the fetid
squalor and density of Coca Cola signs had spread far into the countryside
taking down whatever noble character rural poverty may once have enjoyed.
How many out there in cyberland remember Rousseau? How many even imagined
that Adam Smith wrote ". . . Wealth of Nations" as part of a trilogy on moral
philosophy. He was outraged at the mercantilism of his day and wanted to show
ways to revive rural areas being ruined by the globalization practices of his
times. Read the damned tome, it is about as exciting as Das Kapital. That is
a joke.
In the Philippines and elsewhere in Asia, the western idea of Green
Revolution had the perhaps unintended consequence of sharply increasing the
numbers of landless and turning long standing relationships of a quasi-feudal
nature involving some levels of inter-responsibility and relationship
exchange into cash economy versions of unemployment without any safety
net--plain and simple exploitation in the name of savage capitalism and
social darwinism (although I somewhat doubt the landowners would use those
terms to describe their versions of repression in an abandoned caste system).
Here, in the US, rural communities have lost our versions of locally-based,
family-based farming and/or small business dollar trading largely within the
community to transnational agribusiness and to distortions of occupancy costs
through disproportionate real estate valuations induced in part by the
savings and loan games, good ol' fashioned speculative excesses, more
affluent escapees bidding up values for property, invasions of category
killer retailing giants, etc. These kinds of "economic" transactions take
dollars out of the communities leaving only a few crumbs of wages, maybe some
minor residue from token local purchasing and possibly some tax dollars for
the politicians to appropriate as fits their ideas.
Either way or any way, whatever may have constituted the mythic "rural" ain't
no more. Without savings dollars (mostly from previous generations), outside
dollars brought in or transfer payments of some sort also originating from
outside; life gets back to plain ol' hard scrabble actuality. Quality of
life? Who is kidding whom? We are sitting square on rung one of Maslow's
hierarchy. Basic first chakra hanging out. Even in relatively affluent
college towns, independent bookstores are disappearing.
Except, of course, when some economic development effort buys in modern day
corporate exploitation in a version of windowless tilt up building offering
minimum wage jobs at an assembly line or at computer terminals where
keystrokes are counted along with flushes per shift and big sister sits over
your headphone. ["This conversation may be monitored for quality control
purposes."] (Is that a joke, son?)
When wage slavery looks better than digging dirt, something is awry.
Here and there, little sparks in the darkness pop up now and then like a
firefly on a hot summer night. Among the folks taking a positive role in
generating regenerative points of light (Oh God, not Bush again!) is the E.
F. Schumacher Society in Great Barrington, Massachusetts USA
<efssociety@aol.com> [note the two "s's"] courtesy of Susan Witt and Robert
Swann. You may remember Schumacher as author of "Small is Beautiful."
Although I think is best work is " A Guide for the Perplexed." Perhaps the
better definition of "rural" is perplexity rampant.
You can also tune into some of the permaculure lists to meet people in rural
areas who are managing to stay outside the cash economy to some degree.
Like you say, this rural/urban interchange has been more fun than most. Who
cares what the original question may have been?
Milo Clark