Dear HCN,
Your review of the new
Power and Barrett book left me feeling that Mr. Power had left
behind some previously articulated wisdom (HCN, 12/17/01: Economics
with a heart, but no soul). My memory of an earlier Power book –
The Economic Pursuit of Quality – and Ms. Debra
Ellers’ letter in the same issue prompted this response from
me.
I have lost hope for a recreation- or
service-based economy, for I have not seen living wages result, and
I have seen abuse by recreationists of the land and a quality of
life for workers that is hard to envy. I have lost hope for
sustainable extractive industries, for there are too many people
needing jobs in what used to be the rural West, and not enough
resources available now to sustain our communities in that
manner.
I have lost hope for importing businesses
that export their products, for I have seen them cut back or fail
altogether when the global economy goes soft, and then the
community’s greatest reward is yet another empty
building.
The only hope I have is that we’ll all
begin caring about what we trade money for, where it comes from,
whom the product’s sale benefits, what resources were consumed in
its manufacture, how long the resultant impacts to the earth will
last. And that ultimately we’ll care enough to keep our money, the
benefits, our consumption and our impacts local, where we can
respond to them and be responsible for them every
day.
I do not believe the doomsayers who say that
a lower standard of living is inevitable without our global
markets, for I have seen quality of life improve when attention is
paid to these details of expenditure, and the land, at least, does
not suffer more, for there are more inhabiting it who
care.
This one thin thread of hope sustains me
through stories of more people, more consumption, more clear-cuts,
more trophy homes. And every day I practice spending locally and
responsibly, I see the difference it makes. Thank you for your
review.
Jenifer
Morrissey
Aguilar, Colorado
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline One thin thread of hope.
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