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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Cell phones and things related

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  • From: Pat Meadows <pat AT meadows.pair.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Cell phones and things related
  • Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 12:11:59 -0400

On Mon, 26 Apr 2004 09:57:45 -0500 (CDT), you wrote:

>
>This certainly isn't what I'd call ideal, but it does solve the problem.
>

It doesn't though, Matt. Learning a way to cope with
something doesn't 'solve the problem'.

And it gets progressively worse: OK, there's no store in my
town and not one in the next town over (15 miles away).
Maybe next year there won't be one in the town 35 miles away
either.... then do we drive 60 miles to the next town? And
what happens if its small stores close?

Certainly, one aspect of the problem with Wal-Mart (as I see
it) is the death of small towns, and the contributions
Wal-Mart has made and is making to those deaths.

There are other problems with Wal-Mart such as their
non-contributions to local communities, paying employees
below-standard wages and keeping them part-time to avoid
offering health insurance, and their seeming practice of
hiring illegal labor, to say nothing of their reliance upon
slave labor in countries such as China to manufacture goods,
the adulteration of ALL their meat with sodium polyphosphate
(IIRC - sodium something anyway), and water so that they can
get high prices for water, and so on. But let's put those
aside for now, and think only of the small town problem.

I don't know how many of us on this list are old enough to
remember *living vibrant* small towns in the USA. (I am,
I'm 60 now). Small towns with *people* on the streets,
shopping, maybe having a cup of coffee at a local cafe,
small towns with doctors' offices and dentists' offices,
with a movie theater and a bookstore maybe. Maybe a bakery
and a deli too, and definitely a hardware store.

I hate to see anything that drives more nails in the coffin
of such towns. There is no reason why such towns could not
exist today: nothing in modern life as such is incompatible
with such towns, as can be proven by reference to Europe.
Western Europe is just as modern and up-to-date as the USA,
if not more so. And yet they still have many such small
towns.

The contrast between comparably sized towns in the UK and
the USA is striking, although I think the UK is now busily
hurtling down the same path that we did earlier. But we're
further along...sadly.

Pat
--
"Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of
supply and demand. It is the privilege of human beings to
live under the laws of justice and mercy." - Wendell Berry




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