Imagining the Ideal World - Economics and Ecology: United for a Sustainable World - page 140

considering such bills. And I have come to question the effectiveness of most
of these efforts.
This is the old model, and while structure of community power, from the
Chamber of Commerce down, can appear to be behind it, at times nobody
seems to have a clear idea of specific methods to achieve this holy grail of a
vibrant, full-employment economy. Even though the goal is local economic
activity (all business is located somewhere), the deeply ingrained top-down
control will not let them forget the orientation to the national and global
economy. Conservatives promote lower taxes and less regulation, despite the
reminder that it is precisely this lack of self-control first and legal control sec-
ond that caused the recent financial meltdown and housing crisis in the first
place. Liberals advocate more public investment and stimulus spending, and
they are attacked as “socialists.” At critical junctures, especially when specifics
on how to “fix” the economy are called for, both sides can fall strangely silent.
It is instructive at this point to suspend all the idle chatter and system-
atically examine the typical process of economic development as it has his-
torically taken place over the years in cities, states, and regions of the United
States. Then we will contrast what is typically done to see exactly how sus-
tainable economic development might unfold within the triple bottom-line
of ecological integrity, social equity, and economic stability.
Conventional Development Principles
Clearly, when we examine what we will call the conventional model , strate-
gic details differ among localities and parts of the country, but some strong
similarities and common assumptions emerge. As a beginning, some of the
commonalities in stated goals and assumptions can be presented:
• Bring in jobs by attracting a major corporation to locate in your state
or community.
• Employ the local labor force.
• Concentrate on export-based products you can sell to other regions
(or ideally worldwide foreign markets).
• Make substantial tracts of fully serviced, “shovel-ready” land available.
• Preapprove the appropriate industrial zoning and infrastructure for
those lands.
These are the principles and assumptions that typically dominate local
efforts involving economic development. To sweeten the pot, some typical
incentives include the following:
• Promote breaks in property taxes (e.g., often 5 years) on the indus-
trial lands.
• Consider free or inexpensive “below-market” deals on these lands.