Imagining the Ideal World - Economics and Ecology: United for a Sustainable World - page 151

them overtrained for the position. And the shame of it all was that the posi-
tion could not even be filled due to last minute cuts in the budget. There are
many who would welcome the opportunity to develop whatever skills might
be necessary for a job earning a reasonable salary in a small-scale opera-
tion with a supportive work environment producing a product that everyone
needs for a close and familiar market. Enough said.
The second set of skills involves the business and managerial talents and
the technological expertise to set up and run a successful operation. There
are successful businesspeople in every community. Top executives of major
corporations like to foster the belief that they have a corner on the best mana-
gerial talents in the world. There are probably people in every community
of any size who could run these corporations equally well, and with much
more human compassion. Certainly, the best businesspeople in the commu-
nity could be enlisted as consultants to share their experience and counsel,
even if they are otherwise fully employed. Enthusiasm and support for the
new enterprise would see to that.
For technological expertise, especially in setting up an operation, the com-
munity may have to look outside its boundaries. Remember, the whole effort
seeks, in effect, to reverse some of the processes of globalization. There have
been, by actual count, over 40,000 businesses closed and the jobs exported
outside the country in the last decade in the United States. There would have
to be unemployed or underemployed people tucked away in every corner of
the nation who had, or have, the necessary knowledge of how such businesses
function. They would not only relish but also need such an opportunity.
There is a technological challenge, however, and that is to produce effi-
ciently on a small-enough scale so that the local population represents a
market of sufficient size to remain profitable. This might require processes
with more hand labor than normal, which ideally results in higher quality
(biophysical principle 7 concerning trade-offs), and that is fine. The objective
is to employ as many people as possible. The challenge for the industrial
engineers is the opposite of what it might conventionally be: Use as much
labor as possible, and keep the scale small enough to avoid competition within the
global economy. Instead, enjoy your growing local monopoly.
Remember, the goal is to replace the use of products currently imported
and purchased from global corporations. Although it may well be true that
you cannot fight globalization, you can gradually go around it.
Financing the Vision
The question of financing the operation will quickly arise. Here, the bottom-
line counsel to any community takes the same form as it does in most other
areas: You have more local resources than you think. Most people are aware of
the worldwide corporate power of the major product-oriented businesses.
Companies like Exxon, General Electric, General Motors, IBM, Coca Cola,
and a hundred others we could all name are widely viewed as purveyors of