Thinking like a Region in a Globalized World.

Thinking like a Region in a Globalized World.

September 13, 2013

www.learningsustainability.com/economy.html

Economic decisions and strategies are all based in political contexts, and are programs designed and characterized by human initiatives.  

Regional and local economies strengthen communities by keeping more dollars local; by promoting participation in the economy by individuals and organized business interests that care about local quality of life including the environment; and by promoting the well-being of the humans that live in the region. A local economy is the most sustainable economy. A strong local economy makes for a strong, livable,  and thriving region. This is a fundamental issue of local and regional security.

The politics of economics often determine the strength of local economies. Globalized interests such as multi-nationals often have little interest in the quality of life of the communities in which they extract profits. Those profits allow for large scale political control which tend to focus almost exclusively on wealth building for the global interests and not for the communities effected or the people that live there. You may have heard of statistics that say that in the United States the top 1% owns as much wealth as the bottom 90%, or that as few as 500 individuals control as much wealth as 50% of the American population, or more than 150 million people. Those are staggering figures that point to a widening divide between the rich and the poor. This reality does little to solve cultural problems such as poverty and social unrest.  Working toward creating strong local economies as opposed to allowing local wealth to be extracted by global interests is a sustainable political strategy. 

A Sustainable Economy recognizes the importance of environment and society and understands that the environment is the bottom line. The environment and social costs are not externalized. It is connected to a variety of social, political, historic, cultural, and environmental contexts. A sustainable economy promotes the best case human quality of life strategies by defending the environment and bringing the best value to communities by stressing equity, justice, and participation.

Economic Security is a fundamental context of a sustainable future. How to create a strong platform for that security is challenging to local economies. This is due in great part to globalization strategies that use local economic extraction formula's to bolster growth.

Economic Globalization is a political strategy promoted by fundamental free market capitalism.  This form of capitalism believes that the marketplace will correct all errors, including environmental and social collapse. This political strategy embraces the hidden hand that eliminates regulation and promotes profit at the expense of environment and social issues. These issues, which have a tremendous economic impact, are considered "external costs" that are not recognized as part of the free market system.

Economic Globalization promotes a non-local concentration of wealth and power that does not always respect  the best interests of the environment and society, two of the three pillars of sustainability. Environmental and cultural costs of economic development -the "externalities",   are not factored into the real costs of economic development. These external costs including environmental degradation and social costs such as degraded human health costs that are often associated with economic practices (such as man made toxics released into the environment, and habitat loss which effects clean air and water)  are costs that are born by the overall society. These costs include subsidies such as taxation, unequal access to health care, low wages, and crumbling communities.    This is not a sustainable economic model. 

A sustainable locally based Economy brings the most benefit to the most people. It helps to narrow the divide between the rich and the poor. It is at the heart of an economic strategy that represents a path to a future that works.