Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
cooperative effort; for the most part, however, during the next few decades a truly local economy
will be mostly a salvage economy.
8
If central governments seek to maintain complexity at the expense of more dispersed govern-
mental nodes (city, county, and state governments), then conflict between communities and sputter-
ing national or global power hubs is likely. Communities may begin to withdraw streams of support
from central authorities—and not only governmental authorities, but financial and corporate ones
as well.
In recent decades, communities have seen it as being in their interest to give national and global
corporations tax breaks and other subsidies for locating factories and stores within the local tax-
shed. Analysis after-the-fact is showing that in many instances this was a poor bargain: tax revenues
have been insufficient to make up for new infrastructure costs (roads, sewer, water); meanwhile,
most of the wealth generated by factories and mega-store outlets tends to find its way to distant
chain retail corporations (and big banks as well) as parasites siphoning away local capital, and are
looking for ways to support small, local businesses and banks instead.
City and county governments are just beginning to adopt a similar attitude toward federal and
state governments. Formerly, larger governmental entities provided subsidies for local infrastruc-
ture projects and antipoverty programs. As funding streams for those projects and programs dry up,
local governments find themselves increasingly in competition with their cash-starved big brothers.
If communities have to contend with declining tax revenues, competition from larger govern-
ments, and predatory mega-corporations and banks, then nonprofit organizations—which support
tens of thousands of local charity efforts—face perhaps even greater challenges. The current philan-
thropic model rests entirely upon assumed economic growth: foundation grants come from returns
on the foundation's investments (in the stock market and elsewhere). As economic growth slows
and reverses, the world of nonprofit organizations will shake and crumble, and the casualties will
include tens of thousands of social services agencies, educational programs, and environmental pro-
tection organizations . . . as well as countless symphony orchestras, dance ensembles, museums,
and on and on.
If national government loses its grip, if local governments are pinched simultaneously from
above and below, and if nonprofit organizations are starved for funding, from where will come the
means to support local communities with the social and cultural services they need? Local busi-
nesses and co-ops (including cooperative banks, otherwise known as credit unions) could shoulder
some of the burden if they are able to remain profitable and avoid falling victim to big banks and
mega-corporations before the latter go under.
The next line of support would come from the volunteer efforts of people willing to work hard
for the common good. Every town and city is replete with churches and service organizations. Many
of these would be well placed to help educate and organize the general populace to facilitate sur-
vival and recovery—especially some of the more recent arrivals, such as the Transition Initiatives,
which already have collapse preparedness as a raison d'être. In the best instance, volunteer efforts
would get under way well before crisis hits, organizing farmers' markets, ride- and car-share pro-
grams, local currencies, and “buy local” campaigns. There is a growing body of literature intended
to help that pre-crisis effort; a recent worthy entry in that field is
Local Dollars, Local Sense: How
to Shift Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street and Achieve Real Prosperity
, by Michael Shu-
man.
10
