Display:
Your comment
we can also see two hundred green collar jobs that will lead to fresh fruits and vegetables year round for the region, reducing our carbon footprint even further by dramatically cutting food miles.

brought to mind Henry Carey's oft-repeated argument that the policy of protection nurtures the industrial economy by providing employment for the consumers of the products of the land. Note the end of this typical excerpt from Chapter 17, "How Protection Affects the Currency" from Carey's 1851 The Harmony of Interests: Agricultural, Manufacturing & Commercial:
...We are buying on credit the cloth and iron we should be making, while the labour and capital that should be employed in their production seek in vain for employment. The heavy sufferers are, and are to be, labour and land. The broker takes his usual shave for the notes which pass through his hands, and the grocer takes his usual cent per pound on sugar, but the furnace is closed, and with it the demand for food and labour -- the mine is abandoned, and the miner suffers from want of clothing -- the constructor of railroads obtains no dividend, and the desire to make roads as an investment of capital has passed away, and with it the demand for labour, food, and clothing. By degrees, the same results must be felt by every interest of the nation. The return to labour is diminishing, and the value of land, houses, ships, railroads, and every other species of property, is dependent on the extent of that return -- rising as it rises, and falling as it falls.

The nearer the consumer and the producer can be brought to each other, the more perfect will be the adjustment of production and consumption, the more steady will be the currency, and the higher will be the value of land and labour. The object of protection is to accomplish all these objects, by bringing the loom and the anvil to take their natural places by the side of the plough and the harrow, thus making a market on the land for the products of the land. (p. 190, emphasis mine)

How wonderful that the political-economic ideas of a century and a half ago still apply to today's struggle to build a green economy.

by NBBooks on Thu Mar 6th, 2008 at 09:43:35 AM EST
How wonderful that the political-economic ideas of a century and a half ago still apply to today's struggle to build a green economy.

before the Great De-skilling took place, and most people's jobs became mere cogs.

i read herbals from that era too, with great profit, for the same reason.

as we unwind back down the way we got here, printed copies of many books from that era will be worth their weight in gold.

"These days, there's nothing more ridiculous than the truth." Leonard Pitts Jr

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 08:49:50 AM EST
[ Parent ]
as we unwind back down the way we got here, printed copies of many books from that era will be worth their weight in gold.

<Bzzzt> There is no unwinding back down. We can only go forward.
by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 09:10:20 AM EST
[ Parent ]
what i meant by 'unwinding' was something like the 'slow food' movement, or the re-appearance of wind as motor power, or the tendencies towards natural remedies instead of throwing antibiotics at every symptom, etc..(affectionately known as 'crankery' round here!)

going backwards to go forwards, as one does hiking sometimes, following terrain, rather than taking the crow's flight.

but you knew that, you old wag you...

jeez maybe there should be a 'this is a figure of speech' tag!

excess of literality?

round and round we go, each time a little higher on the spiral.

"These days, there's nothing more ridiculous than the truth." Leonard Pitts Jr

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 10:32:05 AM EST
[ Parent ]
This one really annoys me because people often either only make that distinction when challenged or just don't make that distinction. Starting again with slightly older technology when newer stuff isn't working out is not the same.
by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 10:42:27 AM EST
[ Parent ]
ah, i think i understand your point. as i hope i communicated, i meant something less facile than merely watching the video backwards...

it's more about revisiting matters we left behind in a mad rush to modernity with a bit more maturity than we had when we abandoned them.

similar landmarks, changed perceiver...

ergo spiral.

"These days, there's nothing more ridiculous than the truth." Leonard Pitts Jr

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Sat Mar 15th, 2008 at 12:20:28 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Display:
Login
. Make a new account
. Reset password
Recommended Diaries
Debates
Campaigns
Occasional Series
Agriculture
by afew - Aug 7

Anglo Disease
by Migeru - Aug 3

Wind power
by Jerome a Paris - Jul 28
1 comment