Now that I've mangled some positive thoughts with my last post, let's see if I can do a bit better this time! That initial take on dynamism yesterday was certainly colored by my own experiences, but just the same, those circumstances were the biggest part of what propelled my efforts in the present, for greater economic access. There are so many aspects to economic dynamism that don't always pull together readily in the same configurations. So on the one hand we think about economic potential in the context of Internet as a new economic gathering point (Ashok Rao), or we may take a look at dynamism of the previous century to see how it is evolving in more of a social timeline perspective.
For instance, some small towns still have readily measurable wealth, even though it is no longer held in spontaneous and dynamic forms. Where I presently live is a good example, in that much local economic activity is related to a nearby refinery and the services made possible in part by those jobs. However, before that refinery became important here, a whole different dynamic existed which also meant far greater mobility in and out of this area than presently exists. Passenger trains still ran back and forth regularly to nearby cities, and people from all walks of life started and ran businesses seemingly on the drop of a hat: there were certainly plenty of examples from my family members in their younger years. Back then, people in Texas also moved frequently between coastal areas and other points in the state, depending on the changing economic circumstances of the moment.
Just the same, it helps to remember that earlier dynamism as a natural outcome of greater transportation availability, and the momentum of this little town in those days was part of an early rise in the trajectory itself, due to greater automobile use. A later movement of multiple resources to major city centers was the unfortunate downside of that same growth trajectory. While a different transportation momentum will of course continue, it is likely of a somewhat more level nature, in that its primary dynamism will rely more upon regular access by upper income and mostly occasional limited access by lower income. That's also a wonkier way of saying I wish the passenger trains would start running here again!
Today, a lot of small town tax coffers must be simpler to tend to, as taxation measures don't need to rely on such random and varied sources of income as they once did. But that lack of randomness and spontaneity also unfortunately pigeonholes people as "not trying hard enough", even though there are many more roadblocks to business formation and economic access...okay, it's time to dream a little.
How can we recreate the spontaneity of earlier times? If I've gotten this far along in life and still believe in economic utopias where pragmatic and wild dreams coexist, surely others do as well. Let's take our Internet and make it work for both our economic and social lives, because the two belong together and cannot realistically be separated. So far, the Internet has served as a public meeting square, especially as other courthouse meeting squares in numerous towns have largely gone silent. But the Internet also needs to be the connecting point for the most important work of our lives, so that minds can meet from city to country, instead of continuing the heartbreaking separation of the present which also flares into political mayhem.
There are several things to consider about the economic flows still in operation. Too much of the actual flows in recent decades have taken place in high population density points, which in turn left low density population points overly dependent on them - even if not so much for jobs, at the very least, for most important consumer functions. Not only is this a growing issue for people who now need to be able to access more of their services and other goods locally as they travel less, but they also need to be able to take on greater roles in their own services provision, which is where the Internet has tremendous untapped potential. However, clearly stated knowledge use rights will need to be in place before the Internet can begin to provide such valuable links between city and country. Fortunately, that process will go a long way to lessen the emotional distance between city and country.
Also, it is not yet clear how retail might be able to restructure at more local levels. Several factors have only recently begun to converge as to our changing relationships with product. As home size becomes less of a priority, shopping will become more about digital and edible product, and less about the product that has been envisioned as a part of home environments in recent decades. By the same token, less emphasis on home environments means that a growing emphasis on public environments will once again become more important. While this factor is already a given in cities, it nonetheless will become more of a factor (again) in rural areas as well, as people seek out lower maintenance and more efficient surroundings and options than have previously been possible. One of the primary problems with home structures of the present: when people utilize DIY methods to save expenses, an all too often unfinished home becomes even more of a high maintenance problem than the completely finished homes which have relied on far too many procedural steps to completion as well. The truly competitive technology for building would be that which makes living quarters as simple and yet reliable as possible.
Prior to the Great Depression and the scattering of people through the countryside that was a result of the automobile, people in rural areas often lived in closer proximity with one another, indeed within walking distance in many cases. Sometime, a walk in the woods in some cases will still uncover some of those earlier locations, where one might find remnants of old stone walls amongst the foundations of single room schoolhouses. How might such closer proximity to one another be envisioned in the future? What forms of decentralized infrastructure can be utilized in these projects, which are not so taxing on municipalities as in the present? For instance, our local municipality had to work on a broken water main all day and well into the night, while everyone waited to take their showers until the morning!
These are just some of the possibilities to be addressed, before greater economic momentum can once again mean growth in measurable terms. People will start spending again and planning time investment options with greater certainty, when they are more certain of the new paths that are emerging. National discussions would do well to lay out the varieties of paths that are possible, especially in that not every income level or municipality would want to take the same kinds of paths. True diversity in choice means not only economic growth but greater economic stability as well.
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