The good fight

["katetegeilwe rwiza" <rwiza@hotmail.com>]

Stephen Cooke,
You have convinced me of the merits of keeping the fight going.  I withdraw 
my request for "time out".
Rwiza


>From: "Stephen Cooke" <scooke@uidaho.edu>
>Reply-To: <scooke@uidaho.edu>
>To: "Vision2020 Listserver" <vision2020@moscow.com>
>Subject: the good fight
>Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1999 10:21:18 -0800
>
>Dear Visionaries,
>  I would like to comment on three things 1) Travis Tonn/Charlie Brown
>discussion, 2) small farms, & 3) business park.
>1) Travis raises the important issue of the nature of civic discussion. A
>community discussion implies a sense of community and the ability to
>discuss. This list provides us with a chance to define our definition of a
>sense of community, i.e., who is brother and who is other. Is Travis Tonn 
>or
>Charlie Brown (or me) inside or outside our sense of community? I would
>suggest that they both be included. A test of the strength of a community 
>to
>me is how we treat those we disagree with most strongly. The ability to
>discuss suggests mutually agree upon rules of civility. What is the role of
>truth telling in a community conversation? When is one person's truth
>another's insult? Who decides which is which? How do we reach some mutual
>agreement on minimum rules of behavior? I suggest we let the conversation
>continue to better figure out these rules of civil engagement.
>2) Re. small farms. Productivity increases in agriculture results in
>resources saved. Saved resources includes, land, labor, capital.
>Unfortunately, these saved resources do not always have alternative
>employment equal to their previous employment in part due to the 
>specialized
>nature of these assets. Without productivity gains, our real income
>stagnates or decreases. Economics is a dismal science in part because it
>rationalizes reallocation of resource use that is v. disruptive. But 
>without
>the disruption, the progress would not come. On the other hand, not all
>change is progress. Progress itself is culturally defined. For example, the
>preferences for conservation and the environment are changing, I believe.
>3) Re. Alturus business park. I suspect that it is not considered liberal 
>by
>some to support business. This is a mistake for liberals and for business 
>in
>my view. It tends to violate "goosian's law" i.e., don't kill the goose 
>that
>lays the golden egg. It can be argued that businesses have life cycles.
>Community nurturing of businesses particularly early in their life cycle is
>helpful to them and to the community. As with anything, the nurturing can 
>be
>abused. But I do not believe that public support, including dedicated tax
>support, for new startup businesses is bad per se.
>It seems to me that 1)-3) are all a matter of fine lines. Let's continue to
>discuss where and when these fine lines are crossed and maintained 
>together.
>This is the good fight.
>
>Stephen Cooke
>
>

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