Maybe we're getting new people involved, but oldsters like Robert should know the following by now.
The history of eutopian socialist experiments the largest and perhaps most successful (outside of the realm of the soviet countries), Mondragon, tell us that socialism can not maintain itself as enclaves within a larger Capitalist paradigm. The Capitalists are incessant at pushing their competitive advantage regardless of the consequences with respect to the equity of any particular region's comparative advantage and the health, well being, humanity and sustainability of such locales.
Capitalism must be defeated one way or another. To come to that understanding is relatively simple. To accomplish it is a whole 'nother story.
Capitalism will eventually disintegrate, but they are madmen and will probably not yield and thus will destroy life and any hope for a future on planet earth.
They are extremely irrational beings and one wonders how to get the message across to them when they seem to either deliberately and/or unconsciously be totally committed to a fight to extinction.
Showing posts with label Competitive Advantage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Competitive Advantage. Show all posts
Monday, April 27, 2009
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Relocalization
Relocalization is an important part of a strategy towards equitable/sustainable quality of life communities. It will take a long time to realize such especially with respect to production. The one area that people seem to be focusing on is food production.
In an area like the Eugene-Springfiled, OR/Willamette River Valley such a strategy of "towards self-sufficiency" in food production is more feasible than let's say New York City, in which they would have to define their region/hinterlands much more extensively. (the imperialistic fingers of NYC stretch much more widely than the do fo a place like, let's say Des Moines, IA.
Every region has what Economists call a "Comparative" Advantage. The Central Valley in California is the best agricultural land on the planet. Saudi Arabia and the surrounds has oil. New York City has the knowledge and structural base to dominate the financial system., etc. The Comparative Region plays into how resources are used and/or exploited in an area. I can not an envision an economy where this completely goes away. What we have to do when planning inter-community development is recognize the comparative advantage (or disadvantage) of our neighborhood, and the comparative advantage of our larger bio-region (carving up the world into bio-regions will be problematic, but it makes more sense than the totally arbitrary State). We also have to recognize the comparative advantage of other regions, particularly those closest to us and come up with mutually trading schemes that will optimize both the comparative advantage and relocalization paradigms in an equitable and sustainabe manner . It will need to be a slow, methodical, planned transition. It will take much understanding, much communication, a committment to fair trade, and a committment to cooperation.
Perhaps the biggest obstacle for such beneficial change lies in what Economists call "Competitive" Advantage. Simply put, it's "I own the resources and you don't!" There are international, regional, and local financial elites, large business holders and investors, lnadlords, etc. The Plan of an Equity Union is to pull all ownership equity into one large resource and re-allocate it to communities based on needs of sustainable living, equity concerns (especialy for the poor) and to transition to a quality of life paradigm as opposed to one that emphasizes "standard of living" (he with the most and most expensive toys, wins).
Inter-community and inter-regional equity is a major goal.
In an area like the Eugene-Springfiled, OR/Willamette River Valley such a strategy of "towards self-sufficiency" in food production is more feasible than let's say New York City, in which they would have to define their region/hinterlands much more extensively. (the imperialistic fingers of NYC stretch much more widely than the do fo a place like, let's say Des Moines, IA.
Every region has what Economists call a "Comparative" Advantage. The Central Valley in California is the best agricultural land on the planet. Saudi Arabia and the surrounds has oil. New York City has the knowledge and structural base to dominate the financial system., etc. The Comparative Region plays into how resources are used and/or exploited in an area. I can not an envision an economy where this completely goes away. What we have to do when planning inter-community development is recognize the comparative advantage (or disadvantage) of our neighborhood, and the comparative advantage of our larger bio-region (carving up the world into bio-regions will be problematic, but it makes more sense than the totally arbitrary State). We also have to recognize the comparative advantage of other regions, particularly those closest to us and come up with mutually trading schemes that will optimize both the comparative advantage and relocalization paradigms in an equitable and sustainabe manner . It will need to be a slow, methodical, planned transition. It will take much understanding, much communication, a committment to fair trade, and a committment to cooperation.
Perhaps the biggest obstacle for such beneficial change lies in what Economists call "Competitive" Advantage. Simply put, it's "I own the resources and you don't!" There are international, regional, and local financial elites, large business holders and investors, lnadlords, etc. The Plan of an Equity Union is to pull all ownership equity into one large resource and re-allocate it to communities based on needs of sustainable living, equity concerns (especialy for the poor) and to transition to a quality of life paradigm as opposed to one that emphasizes "standard of living" (he with the most and most expensive toys, wins).
Inter-community and inter-regional equity is a major goal.
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