[lbo-talk] RE: one view of the Greens

Brian Siano siano at mail.med.upenn.edu
Tue Oct 28 08:59:00 PST 2003


On Tue, 28 Oct 2003 09:45:54 -0600, Shane Taylor <s-t-t at juno.com> wrote:


> joanna bujes wrote:
>> 1. reduces driving, reduces energy consumption
>> 2. makes seller more accountable to buyer
>> 3. locally grown stuff, according to some, is healthier
>> 4. customizes market to buyer
>
> Doug Henwood wrote:
>> Before there were national markets, buyers often faced
>> local monopolies. In a small market, there can't be much
>> specialization, either. So local production can reduce
>> choice and contribute to higher prices. This is even true
>> on a national scale. Before Japanese cars hit the U.S.
>> market, the Big Three were producing crappy cars.
>
> Seems to me that the local scale means the high costs of production for
> many modern goodies are spread over a smaller market. So rather than
> spreading the costs of a handful of plants over a massive market, you
> duplicate many of those costs unnecessarily (even at smaller capacities)
> and spread them over markets so small they may not even be able to
> sustain the process.

And there's the chance that, by supporting a local business, you'll help it build until it becomes one of those massive, international businesses. Then, you can render all those _other_ local economies irrelevant.



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