Wendy Cockcroft · @wendycockcroft
13th Apr 2015 from TwitLonger
Your questions on Middle-out 1. What do you mean by a "self-sustaining" economy?
@spuncho 1. What do you mean by a "self-sustaining" economy? How can you tell if an economy is self-sustaining? Do you have any examples of economies that are not self-sustaining?
Economies built on leveraging debt are not self-sustaining. That's how we ended up with the Credit Crunch of 2008. Why? Because sooner or later you're obliged to pay it back. We're always being told to live within our means but if everybody did our consumption-based economy would collapse due to lack of demand. We're in a demand-constrained economy at the moment and the gap between the very rich and the very poor keeps growing. Low-paid jobs are being subsidised by the state in the form of welfare, food stamps, etc. That is not sustainable, even Walmart realises this, that's why they've put their wages up. A bit. But still, we're being taxed to pay welfare for workers who can't afford to live on what they're getting from their employers and with few other options, where else can they go to find work?
Okay, so what does work? Well the East Lancs Railway example that I mentioned earlier. We will always have tourists and the area the railway runs through is rich in historical heritage. Needless to say, local farmers, craftspeople, and food processor industries have been getting in on the act. Fitzpatrick's cordials are sold all over the country now; they started off in the last remaining temperance bar in the country. It's tiny, I've been there. I thought it'd be romantic to go on an old-fashioned steam train. Anything that is reproducible or unlikely to run out is sustainable, e.g. niche market farming, renewable energy generation. Fashions in tourism come and go so it needs to adapt to compete with foreign travel destinations.