Live Small and Prosper: The ‘Small Economy’ has a big future

Future generations will thank the Corporation of the City of London for it’s economic action plan (it’s coming soon to a big blue binder near you) if it is practical, sustainable, affordable, understandable and good-looking.

Nothing short of that will do.


["The buzz is coming": photo GAH]

“More than 200 leaders of London business, labour, education, finance, government and other agencies will brainstorm this Thursday in a bid to devise an economic action plan,” begins an article in this morning’s London Free Press, and in my expert opinion, they’d better get it right this time because they don’t have many kicks at the can left and our unemployment rates are through the roof (11.1 per cent vs 8.7 nationally).

My suggestion:

Grow the Small Economy.

I.E., Begin the transition from homes, cars, appliances, furniture, roads, sidewalks, box stores and businesses (for starters) that are bigger than needed to meet our basic needs (related to food, clothing, shelter, communication, transportation and recreation).

Build smaller homes at lower prices. Smaller apartment units that require smaller furniture. Smaller cars that require smaller motors and tires. Smaller stores with smaller shelves for fewer items. (How many kinds of mustard or shampoo do we really need?)

Sounds like a lot of manufacturing to me!

Why, if our city was the first to used advanced technologies to help a family of four live as happily as clams in a 999 sq. ft. house close to all amenities, the world would flock to our front door.

Well, maybe not ‘the world,’ but I bet the buzz would as great as that made by the yellow jackets that swarm the Western Fair every September.

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Am I onto something here?

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