Live Small: "love your stuff?"

According to a Metro article, if you love your stuff you're going against the growing trend toward 'less is more' and 'experientialism'.

[Stuffaholism Kills, Feb. 5 by Paul Sullivan]

A trendspotter says we have "too much everything" but are evolving and "starting to value experiences over things."

I say, be warned. Buying experiences may be nothing more than another sales pitch for the next new thing.

Live small. Enjoy authentic surroundings close at hand.

Walk slow, enjoy the view.

Photos by GH

More Live Small and Prosper 

the hits keep on comin' 7

Death by Misadventure: A Screenplay - Part 3

In my last post the slow growth of Ha:san, a stately 125-year-old saguaro cactus, is described in some detail. The cactus, found in the Sonoran Desert an hour’s drive northeast of Phoenix, Arizona is one of two main characters in a true story which one day may become a brilliant motion picture worthy of several Oscars.

The second character is David Grundman, a 25-year-old man wearing a dark-blue t-shirt, dusty jeans and scruffy leather boots, last seen “slipping a shotgun shell into his 16-gauge and preparing to blow two empty beer cans into smithereens”.

Twenty minutes before our protagonists meet for the first and last time, Grundman finishes loading his rifle, takes aim and confidently pulls the trigger. 

The noise alone would have knocked over the beer cans had the red-hot stream of buckshot not found its mark. Before the large spray of dust and gravel settles, every tiny creature within a one-mile radius of the blast has skittered off to find safe refuge.

Grundman spits toward the middle of the dirt road, opens his third beer, lights a cigarette, turns and walks into the desert. And as he hikes unknowingly but unerringly toward Ha:san he passes several wolfberry shrubs and squat mesquite trees but shoots not a one, intent on shooting saguaros only. They make easy, immobile targets, almost humanlike with their arms in the air.

He starts with smaller saguaros and works up to bigger ones, each time shooting at their ribs, so that without support, the cactus falls over dead. In the silent desert the final fall of each cactus makes an abrupt noise, and as Grundman’s sixth victim, a statuesque 18-footer, crumbles before our eyes, we hear Johnny Cash singing the chorus of a gritty funeral dirge, as follows;

“And you could have it all, my empire of dirt.
I will let you down. I will make you hurt.” 
(Hurt, American IV: The Man Comes Around)

Sixteen gauge shells, beer cans, cigarette butts and dead saguaros create a meandering and filthy trail across the desert abutting a dirt road northeast of Phoenix. A few feet beneath them, in burrows and dry, dusty shelters, hide various desert critters from our loud, careless, chain-smoking menace.

Finally, around the last bend so to speak, David Grundman encounters Ha:san.

Photos by GH

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Please click here to read the hits keep on comin' 6

“A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to The Economy” 2

I have a theory. If we don’t seriously think about the tiniest of headlines seen recently (likely ‘not seen’) in the London Free Press then it won’t be too long before we are faced with serious consequences.

I mean, think of the inconvenience of having to switch to composting toilets in order to save millions of liters of water per hour across North America so that business can continue ‘business as usual’.

Whine! Composting toilets will cost us money to install and are tonnes more work than simply flushing our waste into rivers and streams by way of costly treatment plants. In some models of composting toilets we would actually be expected to deposit peat moss inside the unit and then turn a small handle. I don’t have time for this! And touch peat moss with my hands? Good grief. What will I be expected to do next? The inconvenience of it all. The inhumanity of it all.

However, I fear North Americans are so disconnected from the consequences of their actions they will continue to push fresh water supplies to the limit, at a time when lake levels are plummeting. And because many are not used to facing limits of many sorts, rationing, conserving, ‘making do’ with less, etc., and because governments and big businesses promote the philosophy of driving The Economy (aka Mr. Economy to you) relentlessly - even at the expense of the environment - warnings in small type and one or two predictions of dire consequences will not do much good. 

Would placing a higher fee per liter work? Switching to composting toilets? Larger headlines? Less focus on The Economy “at all costs”? Promoting a smaller lifestyle? More focus on The Environment? Redesigning the North American dream with nature's health in mind? Sustainability?

I think as water levels plummet the answer will become clearer.

Photos by GH (of London Free Press, Oct. 12 and Nov. 1, 2012)

***

Do you already use a composting toilet? How do you like it?

Please click here to read A Funny Thing Happened PT 1

London News: “Turn away from Joe?” Part 1

In a recent Letter to the Editor (Sept. 25, London Free Press), Roberta C. says we will “have to replace the mayor and most of city council... a sustainable London depends on it.”

We should turn away from Joe? Maybe.

Roberta says, for sustainability’s sake as well, we need to “turn away from a car culture (etc.)... and...”

And, I might add, turn away from a big single family home culture, a fast- and fat-food culture, and an indebted culture (to big banks and corporations).

But what should we turn toward?

[Photos by G.Harrison]

***

Please click here for more London news.

Canada’s Global Warming File PT 3: Thick rhetoric

Canada’s global warming file is thick on rhetoric.

A recent headline, built around words belonging to Peter Kent, Canada’s federal Conservative Environment Minister, proves as much.

[rhetoric n. impressive, but insincere, exaggerated]

“We’re halfway home,” says Mr. Kent. 

But where’s home? And would I want to live with him there?

Conservative Prime Minister S. Harper ripped up the Kyoto Protocol and replaced it with his own targets. Out went the stringent and the necessary. In came the weaker, the global warming brush off.

And though federal officials admit more must be done, and Kent says “the Harper government has been working hard,” very little action has actually been done by our government, thus paving the way for even less to be done in the future.

Though Canadians can give a nod to a few provincial governments, do many believe 'federal standards for fuel efficiency on light cars and trucks’ will lead us toward a sustainable future related to fuel, energy and resource use? 

[“I highly doubt it,” says an environment critic.]

Peter Kent’s words are nothing but rhetoric and hyperbole.

I have more faith in Clark Kent, bicycles, smaller meals and conservation of vital resources.

You?

[Photos by G.Harrison]

***

Please click here to read Canada’s Global Warming File PT 2: Peter Kent vs Clark Kent

Link to Free Press article by D. Akins

$$ Fax 8: Prices up

Higher prices next year, for sure.

[August 8, D. Akin, London Free Press]

And... prices are higher right now.

So... for some people, it is already hard to save $1.00 a day, but we still need to do it.

[Photos by G.Harrison]

***

Please click here to read $$ FAX 7

Climate Change Concerns: Londoners are now ‘six-planet’ consumers

[“Success in 2100 would be a world in which a recognizable descendant of our current civilization is still thriving.” Gwynne Dyer, Mar. 22, London Free Press]

We have been taught to live for today by many avid instructors: Government and business leaders, media and economists, parents, family members and friends, and even by our own thirsts. Conservation (or a philosophy to ‘live small’) is not our cup of tea, or at least not for the majority. To most, it might even be for babies.


["Are we riding too fast?": photo by GH]

However, a recent newspaper article by Gwynne Dyer suggests we are on the wrong path, even here in the very heart of south western Ontario, i.e., London.

“Unfortunately, the way we are living is not sustainable. We have taken too much land out of the natural cycles in order to grow our own food on it. We are destroying the world's major fish populations through overfishing and pollution. We also are driving most of the larger land animals to extinction.” (March 22, The London Free Press)

Dyer says nothing about our extravagant use of water but he easily could have, simply by sharing a few details from a recent United Nations study that calls for a very close look at global water management policies, and says that the demand from agriculture, an industry that currently uses around 70% of the world’s freshwater, is likely to increase by about 20% by 2050, due to population growth on planet earth, i.e., from seven billion (the present level) to nine billion.

Dyer describes our current situation as “a six-planet civilization.” By that he means we require six Earths “to sustain the present human population in the high-energy, high-consumption style that is the hallmark of the current global civilization.” And for no other reason, in my opinion, than to provide a bit of comic relief, he goes on to say, “And for the foreseeable future we will have only one planet, not six.”

Six planets. Here we are in 2012 living as if we have six Earths from which to draw resources. And for those who haven’t been paying much attention, it was only about 15 years ago that the phrase “five-planet consumption” was first bandied about in the news. Really, in only 15 years our population and overall consumption has grown to such a degree that another Earth is needed to sustain us in the lifestyle we so richly deserve.

However, I think it goes without saying, “for the foreseeable future we will have only one planet.”

These few details make me wonder if we should take a closer look at our ‘live for today’ philosophy.

Please click here to read Gwynne Dyer’s full article.

***

Please click here for more Climate Change Concerns.

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Climate Change Concerns: PT 2 “Water, water everywhere?”

[Farmers will need to grow 70% more food by that time (i.e., the year 2050) as rising living standards mean individuals demand more food, and meat in particular. UN study, London Free Press, Mar. 12]

We humans are a very demanding bunch of creatures, and as we demand more creature comforts we’re going to run up against shortages in all of our most important resources, one being water. It’s not everywhere anymore.

As our population rises from seven to nine billion in the next few decades, the world’s supply of water will be severely strained by increased demands from three sectors at the very least:

- the agricultural sector; it already uses 70% of the earth’s fresh-water supply and will want about 90% of drinking water to keep up with rising living standards

- the energy sector; it, including Canada’s tarsands projects, can only be described as a freshwater pig

- the sanitation sector; it demands excessive amounts of water for personal hygiene, cooking waste disposal, keeping the car shiny, etc.


["Water, water everywhere? Demands are growing."]

The UN report tells us “a silent revolution has taken place underground... as the amount of water sucked from below the surface has tripled in the past 50 years, removing a buffer against drought. And just as demand increases, supply in many regions is likely to shrink because of changed rainfall patterns, greater droughts, melting glaciers and altered river flows.”

I suppose if we want to watch a perfect storm, we need to look no farther than our rapidly dwindling freshwater supply.

Without question, we must think now about stringent conservation techniques - related to food and energy production, water use and sanitation - that will guide us toward a sustainable future. Just as some turn piggy banks upside down, then shake them, in order to retrieve the very last coin, we must turn our way of life (and our way of doing business) upside down, and vigorously shake, in order to see what human behaviours, including creature comfort habits, are most steering us toward the demise of the human creature.

No stone can be left unturned.

More to follow.

[Photo of north shore, Lake Superior by GHarrison]

***

Please click here to read Climate Change Concerns: PT 1 “Water, water everywhere?”

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Zoom w a View: Windmills at the side of the road

Do windmills come in different sizes?

Can windmills be placed atop buildings?

Does Canada own “Made in Canada” windmills?

If we produced 10 - 15% of our hydro with windmills, would that segment of hydro production be a sustainable industry?

How long do windmills last?

Are coal-fired energy plants sustainable once health-related expenses are considered?

["Postcard from the side of the road" by GHarrison]

***

Please click here for more Zoom w a View

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The Canadian dream is dust?: Initial thots about pensions

[Freedom 55... forget about it. Freedom 75 is now the norm, but only if you save 15 - 20 per cent of your monthly income “as if your house is on fire.” The Canadian Dream is dust. Jan. 30, G.Harrison]

I know how lucky I am. I retired at age 53 (Freedom 53 - who knew?) with almost a full, guaranteed pension after a stellar 32-year long teaching career.

[Definition: stellar, adj. - cool, brilliant, as in “he read to his students almost everyday and not once threw a rebellious child out an open door, or window even.]

I know nothing is actually guaranteed except death and taxes, as many people, for some reason, like to remind me. So, saying my pension is guaranteed, when it relies on the veracity of the economy and on-going good health of the stock markets, is really a bit of a stretch.

I also know not everyone is as lucky as me and I should shut up about my good fortune. Many have no pension now, or are not working toward one and have no guarantee of one - even a small one - in the future. No wonder discussions related to pensions raise the heat in the room for many people.


["I'm looking for ideas about pensions": 'Toon' by GH]

But they must be discussed because most Canadians will require some form of support after their working years. And few can organize their life as well as I can, i.e., to work part-time, as I do now, until my 87th birthday, dance at the party (I’ll do the fox-trot; easier on the knees), eat two big pieces of chocolate cake after opening gifts, and then pass away peacefully in the night with nothing but a smile and smidge of icing on my lips.

Many of us can agree that the number of Canadians requiring support will rise, e.g., perhaps double over the next 20 years, as more boomers reach retirement age. And we know that the number of workers in the workforce is declining (due in part to a weakening of the Canadian economy as good jobs go to cheaper labour markets), so the ratio of taxpayers to pensioners is declining. (Has the term ‘gray tsunami’ been taken? If not, I’m coining it here, and that’s what pension funds see over the horizon).

So, what can be done to support Canadians in their post-working life, their golden years (the ‘days of denim and T-shirts’ as I like to say), so that all our dreams don’t turn to dust?

Let’s throw some ideas out, like wet spaghetti against the wall, and see what sticks...

More to follow.

***

Please click here for more about Canadian dust.

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This Old Economist: “Good jobs are going up in smoke”

["Feed the pig before it sinks."]

[No matter how Canadian jobs stats are sliced and diced, our Conservative Federal Government has no sustainable plan to bring good jobs back to our country. Thanks to its short-sighted, unsustainable, “business as usual” free market economic plan that includes tax breaks for the wealthiest among us (aka “the job creators”) ...good jobs will not grow in good numbers. Jan. 30, G.Harrison]

As if in support of my recently espoused theory - i.e., reviving the job market will be more difficult than bringing a dead mackerel back to life - a well-written letter to the editor appeared on Jan. 28 in The London Free Press.

Tax breaks don’t create jobs

“Gerry Macartney (London Chamber of Commerce) says corporations should first get their tax reduction and then work with the government to find ways to create jobs. I don’t think so.

Why on earth would a corporation create more jobs and more goods just because it gets a tax break? Short answer: It wouldn’t and never has.

The real problem is 10 years of stagnated or declining wages for the workers, with the resulting decrease in demand for goods and services. The money is now tied up in the assets of rich corporations and individuals who literally do not know how to spend their mountains of money.” Gerry H. Grand Bend

You think we’re in trouble now, Canada, with a government that can serve up no sustainable, viable Plan A for jobs yet rewards corporations for being... corporations.

(Is pushing the toxic tars sands a viable job plan once unmanageable future costs to our natural ecosystems and personal health are considered? Is there any wonder Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has drafted a plan to limit future funding to the health care systems we’ll need in the future?)

Directly related to the letter, just wait ‘til more Canadians, now up to their eyeballs in debt, start paying it off regularly as if there is no tomorrow. What will happen to supply and demand of consumer goods then? Do the Conservatives have a sustainable Plan B for that day, decade, or Age, as in The Age of Austerity, with capital letters?

It’s almost as if the wealthy, in their desire to have it all, missed the lesson the tobacco industry learned years ago. That is, if you kill your customers, you’ll eventually run out of customers.

Don’t let your dreams go up in smoke.

Reduce spending, pay down debt, and save money for tough times ahead.

***

Please click here for more from This Old Economist.

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Are we expert enough to right our wrongs?

[“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall...” Mother Goose, 1803]

Perhaps we’ve listened to experts about the economy for too long.

I feel the mighty have fallen. And some mighty men and once mighty systems seem to be in free fall.

Consider the following from Death of the Liberal Class by Chris Hedges:

Alan Greenspan, the former head of the Federal reserve Board, once treated with reverential deference by the power elite and the liberal class, announced in 2008, “I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interest of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in their firms.”

Greenspan exposed the folly of the liberal experts and economists, who had promoted a baseless belief in the power of free markets to self-regulate and solve the world’s problems. In holding up what amounts to a strenuously defended utopianism, these leaders ignored three thousand years of economic and human history to serve a corporate ideology.

All the promises of the free market have turned out to be lies. (pg. 153 - 154)

And still, we place profit ahead of people in the hopes of shared wealth. We place the economy ahead of our environment and leave reparations to future generations.We place unsustainable lifestyles now ahead of a sustainable future for our children and grandchildren. And there are many signs we are not clever enough to see or right our wrongs.

Proponents of the free markets and globalization still rule the media.


[Link to images by Rene Milot]

Chris Hedges writes, “The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, a cheerleader for the Iraq war and globalization, became the poster child for the new class of corporate mandarins. And although Friedman was disastrously wrong about the outcome of the occupation, as he was about the effects of globalization, he continues, with a handful of other apologists, to dominate the airwaves.” (pg. 142)

As well, many North American political leaders are stymied, stuck in their ‘business as usual’ ways or just plain stupid.

Under the headline ‘U.S. lawmakers abandon deficit cutting efforts’ in Tuesday’s London Free Press I read the following:

...The admission of defeat by Republicans and Democrats on a 12-member congressional "super committee" is likely to cement perceptions among voters and investors that politicians are too divided to tackle trillion-dollar budget deficits and a national debt that now is roughly equal to the U.S. economy.

President Barack Obama has kept his distance from the talks, choosing instead to emphasize a job-creation package that has been blocked by Republicans. He said Republicans had scuttled the talks by refusing to consider tax hikes on the wealthy. [Link to full article here]

Doesn’t it seem that there’s no end to the difficulties that strangle the U.S’s chance to move forward?


["GH mantra: Reduce spending, pay down debt, save money"]

And while that is going on, in Canada, our own Prime Minister shuffles about the globe hoping to find buyers of the costly crude that is squeezed - not gently, in more ways than one - from his beloved Alberta Tar Sands, a deep dark hole where reasonable environmental standards and thoughts of a healthy, sustainable future go to die.

Our experts are falling and failing, it seems to me.

Over 200 years ago people were entertained my Mother Goose and learned the fate of one poor egg that fell off a wall.

“... All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.”

Today’s experts may think otherwise, but we may suffer the same fate soon with our belief in free markets, globalization, and unsustainable lifestyles.

It’s time for breakfast. I’m thinking... omelette.

***

Please click here for information about Catch-44 and the progress trap.

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I Ask You: Do adults suspend belief like children?

Grandson Ollie likes to consult Mr. Expert to hear the pronunciation of common words.

“How does you say ‘sock’?” Ollie asks.

Mr. Expert says, “Soock. That’s really how you say it, Ooollie.”

“What about ‘movie’?

“You should say ‘meevie’, Ooollivoor,” says Mr. Expert.

And the expert should know. After all, he’s one smart potato and has been to college. At least, that’s what I tell Ollie.


["How do you say 'cookie'?: photos GH]

Ollie loves little chats with Mr. Expert, and they will continue for a few more days, until the spud is needed to make Mr. Irish stew.

I like how children suspend belief and play along with grandfathers.

In the real world, however, I think adults have been suspending belief for far too long.

The way we run our economy and treat our environment has run its course, yet many still believe in ‘business as usual’ - as if prosperity will continue as it did in the past few decades on the back of cheap oil.

Mr. Expert would say, “Goood loock with that.”

I ask you: Do we suspend belief like children?

***

Please click here for another I Ask You.

http://itstrikesmefunny.blogspot.com/2011/11/i-ask-you-is-our-empathy-for-people.html

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“IT STRIKES” Again: Turning London into a cargo hub has a few flaws

["Count on me to shake the dust off once in awhile."]

[The following column appeared October 14, 2009, almost two years ago to the day before a news clip containing an update about London airport’s cargo terminal and its failing grade. Hey, sometimes I get it right. gah]

Headline - Turning London into a cargo hub has a few flaws

That’s right. You heard it here first.

I’m not sure if City Hall’s plans to turn London’s airport into a cargo gateway at a cost of $11,000,000 has long-term legs.

Or wings.

Some city councillors and business leaders will wonder, why don’t I just sit still, be quiet and let the experts get on with the job?

For three reasons.

First, the ‘sit still, be quiet’ approach didn’t work for me while a kid at home or a student in public school and university after I discovered I learned more by asking questions, even if I just blurted them out. And today I have a few questions about an air cargo hub.

Next, I can’t sit still about our economy - and never very quietly - especially after what I learned recently and mentioned in last week’s column (Maybe a ‘zero growth economy’ shouldn’t really be a shock).

For example, many Canadian consumers (some of them surely right here in London) are worried about their wages and pensions and are reducing their spending on many types of material goods (ergo cargo) in their desire to save money and clear up their debt load.

If polls out of the US can be trusted (I think they can be), the new age of frugality may last for months and months. If US consumer spending (which makes up about 70 per cent of the American economy) continues to decline and their unemployment figures continue to climb (9.8 per cent last month, numbers not seen since 1983) they will soon match our own and their great and mighty recession might last for years and years.

With our chief trading partner in such dire straits, does that bode well for a cargo-based economy in London? Unless, of course, it’s cargo people really, really need, e.g. small amounts of food, clothing, basic household supplies and hockey pucks. (Winter’s coming, eh, and my 50-plus team loses about four per week).

Finally, not only are North Americans learning they can’t live forever or much longer beyond their means, they’re learning there are other worries larger than pension shortfalls and more frightening costs to unlimited production and consumption than unmanageable debt.

Large numbers of North Americans are now joining the dots between an excessive lifestyle and fossil fuel consumption and the production of pollution and carbon and climate change.

According to the book The Suicidal Planet, surveys reveal that two-thirds of the US population ‘are mostly or completely convinced by scientific consensus on global warming and the causal effect of carbon dioxide emissions. Only 6 per cent now think that it is not a problem requiring action. Polls also show that the great majority now subscribe to the view that greenhouse gas emissions should be limited and say they would support legislation requiring large companies to cut their emissions.’

As well, ‘three-quarters consider that doing nothing about climate change is irresponsible.’

I’m sure many Canadians feel the same way and will keep their wallets in their pockets rather than continue to buy into excessive consumption as we’ve done for far too many years, thanks in large part to the availability of cheap oil.

In other words, does shipping cargo (whatever it is) to and fro in one of mankind’s most carbon-intensive ways look promising economically?

Author’s note - re The Suicidal Planet by Mayer Hillman: I’m only half done but it looks more like a homicide to me.

***

Please click here to read another exciting episode (How could it not be?) of “IT STRIKES” Again by G. Harrison.

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100 Challenges Ahead: 4b “Today’s blind spot about taxes”

[“Ontario is indebted to the tune of $244 billion... taxpayers will be on the hook for almost $500 billion in eight years’ time...” Oct. 14, J. Daubs, London Free Press)]

Today’s generation can spot ‘challenges ahead’ pretty quick - growing debt is hard to miss, eh - but something related to debt remains in our blind spot.

Yesterday I wrote about the blind spot, as seen in a recent letter to the editor of a local newspaper. (A link is provided below).

Below is another example of it.

In a news article entitled ‘Debt must be MPPs’ priority’, Gerry Macartney, CEO of London Chamber of Commerce, sees debt not only as a priority at least for Members of Parliament , but uses several phrases to describe how serious the situation is.

For example, when speaking of serious issues facing MPPs, he says that “chief among them is the 400-pound debt gorilla in the room...”, and every Canadian who has been in a room with, or who has played hockey against, a 400-pound gorilla knows how dangerous one can be in the corners. Why, the smell alone will knock you over!


[Photo link to blirk.net]

As well, we know things are serious when Macartney says “we have to start focusing seriously on debt and deficits - “an unprecedented $236 billion” with “$40 billion in annual borrowing (costs)” - or jobs and the economy may be rendered moot” and adds “we could easily slip into the same ugly predicament many European countries are facing.”

No kidding. Serious details every one.

However, in another paragraph a blind spot concerning debt is revealed once again.

He says, “Annual budget deficits... leave a huge burden for Ontario’s next generation who will face either drastic spending cuts, increased taxes, or a combination to get the province’s house in order.”

He sees that debt is high at the moment (it’s “serious” and “unprecedented”) but not high enough for tax increases for his readership. Future generations will face them, it sounds inevitable, but not today’s taxpayers. We’ll be okay. (Thank goodness we’re alive today!)

But, I have to ask. Why should our generation escape a tax increase and leave our unprecedented debt to the next generation? Why do we have such a blind spot about raising taxes?

Is it because our province’s house isn’t in enough of a mess yet?


["Pay down the gorilla, then feed the pig for tough times ahead": GH]

Is it because modern-day governments, businesses and households want to live like the proverbial grasshopper rather than the ant?

I recommend we take off our collective blinders and face the serious, unprecedented problem of debt head on, not leave it - as if it's inevitable - for our grandchildren. I would say a 0.5 to 5% tax increase spread out among home owners (from middle to high income), businesses and corporations

It’s time to step up and face the gorilla.

***

Here’s a challenge for you to answer.

How long do you think the blind spot will last?

Please click here to read “100 Challenges Ahead” 4a.

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100 Challenges Ahead: 4a “Today’s blind spot about taxes”

Today’s generation can spot ‘challenges ahead’ around every corner, and one on many peoples’ minds is growing debt.

A recent letter to the editor offered grim details about Ontario’s debt:

“Ontario is indebted to the tune of $244 billion... taxpayers will be on the hook for almost $500 billion in eight years’ time... this year’s budget would need to be slashed by about 40% and left there for the next ten years in order for us to eliminate the current debt.” (J. Daubs, Oct. 14, London Free Press)

Grim details indeed. But Mr. Daub’s next sentences reveal he has a fairly common blind spot. Can you guess what it is?

“Young people in Ontario will not stick around to pick up the tab through higher taxes. As the young workforce leaves to escape higher taxes, the government revenues will dry up and all that will be left is a bloated, bankrupt public sector.”

Some astute readers will spot that Mr. Daubs says the public sector will be at fault for the mass exodus of workers in the future, but is blind to the fact that the private sector, with historically low tax rates, is not as great at job-creating as many suggest (it’s better at profit-taking) and must also share part of the blame. That, however, is not the blind spot I mean.

Please note: Daubs feels that the debt will become very high in the future and higher taxes are not only inevitable but will drive away our young workforce.

But... doesn’t he see that debt is large enough now to consider higher taxes? Are higher taxes only to be considered once the $244 billion debt reaches or exceeds $500 billion?


["Let's pay down debt today, then save for tough times": photo GH]

Perhaps taxes should be raised when the debt reaches $450 billion, or $400 billion. Perhaps the acceptable ceiling should be $350 or $300 billion. Maybe $250 billion is better, maybe even $200 or $150 billion.

I feel many of today’s taxpayers are blind to the need to raise taxes now. Leaving debt and inevitable higher taxes to future generations is definitely the wrong course in life.

Another example of modern day blindness to follow.

***

Please click here to read 100 Challenges Ahead 3.

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London’s Small Houses: “Have we stopped building them?”

I cycled past this house last Sunday - I was on a ramble - and wondered who lived there. Someone short like me?


["There are many lovely small houses in Old South": photo GH]

I like small houses because my wife (also relatively short) and I fit well inside a cozy space.

When this particular house on Cynthia St. in Old South (between Byron and Askin St.) was built in the 1930s or ‘40s, however, I bet it held more than a husband and wife.

Would you be surprised if you learned it once was home to a mom and dad and three kids? I suppose your answer depends on when you were born.

For example, I was born in 1949 and my four siblings and I shared two bedrooms in the upstairs of a small century-old house in a village 40 miles east of London.

I notice this house (800 - 900 sq. ft.) not only has a lovely porch but a small upstairs as well, and years ago it was very common for kids to share a bedroom. (Some still do, but I hear that it’s not the norm. Please note; I'm rambling).

Today, I bet a retired couple live inside, with one car for the small driveway. And with more people retiring, I think this kind of house would get snapped up in a second if it was priced reasonably.

Would you raise a family here or consider this house as a retirement home?

Do we still build houses this size? If not, why not?

***

Please click here to view another small house.

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Long-term Thinking PT 1: The world’s best example

In many, many ways - financially (e.g., so many Canadian families are deep in debt), economically, socially, environmentally - we need to develop our long-term thinking ability.

I want to give you an excellent example of long-term thinking, then suggest its benefits and encourage its use, because I think the average person has this valuable commodity in short supply.

I would feel, oh, so important and wise, if I could give you a great personal example, but I can’t.

Yes, I’ve done some little things well. I have an RRSP that I won’t touch until I’m 69. I’m judiciously paying down manageable debt. I’m am looking to buy a three-wheeled truck to save on transportation costs. I have several pairs of sturdy used jeans with stretchy waists in the closet waiting for use. But - and this is a big but - I’m short on powerful personal examples.

However, I came across the following paragraph or two in The Sacred Balance by David Suzuki. It jumped out at me as the best example of long-term thinking I’d read in a long time, if not 62 years.

“At New College in Oxford, England, the huge oak beams of the university’s main hall are some 12 metres long and 0.5 metres thick.”


[“Or, 20 inches thick, from ground to pencil mark.”]


[“And 40 feet long, from post to sawhorse”: photos GH]

“In 1985, dry rot had finally weakened them so much that they needed to be replaced. If oak trees of such size could have been found in England, they would have cost about US $250,000 per log for a total replacement cost of around US $50 million.”

(I have to ask myself, is there a university on the planet that would spend $50 million on such repairs? Chances are very slim.)

“Then the university forester informed the administrators that when the main hall had been built 350 years earlier, the architects had instructed that a grove of oak trees be planted and maintained so that when dry rot set in, about three and a half centuries later, the beams could be replaced. Now that is long-term planning...” pg. 315

Yes, that’s long-term planning or thinking. It is also ‘rare’ long-term thinking - perhaps the best example in the world - and we may be hard pressed to find other similar examples. (If you know of one, please let me know).

We certainly would find few examples if we studied the financial picture of the average Canadian family or the use of our natural resources and surroundings.

More to follow.

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Please click here to read a post related to short-term thinking and climate change concerns.

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Live Small and Prosper PT 5: “I love my three-wheeled truck”

Falcon Heights (the hopefully soon-to-be reopened Ford Talbotville plant, once home to Ford Falcons and Crown Vics) is the size of a large village and could easily accommodate two of my wishes on my long and healthy wish list.


["Falcon Heights. The plant is empty... for now."]

One. I wish for a peppy three-wheeled truck, 500cc engine is plenty, mainly for urban use. Made in Canada.

Two. I wish for an enclosed adult tricycle (or funcycle) to fill my main travelling needs inside London. Made in Canada.


["Made in the USA. It gives me an idea!": photo and info link]

Falcon Heights is so big it could also be home to a hundred other useful, sustainable enterprises. (See PT 4, link below)

For example: Recycled plastic could be reused in picnic tables, chairs, benches and dozens of other products built on site.

Most of us know recycling-reusing types of industries can and should be done in every corner of every country.

Here’s one of several benefits I read about recently in You Are There by T.M. Kostigen:

“We can and should accentuate the positive news about recycling efforts. Already, by recycling nearly 7 million tons of metals a year on average, (the US) eliminates greenhouse gas emissions totaling close to 6.5 million metric tons.” pg. 128

Many readers will know my suggestion about making “picnic tables, chairs, benches (etc.)” is not new.

For example, Kostigen mentions that “Brazil generates so much plastic bottle waste that they actually make park benches out of them.”

With unemployment at high levels in both Canada and the US (What’s it like in your area?), new industries established in closed plants could become the heart beat for many laid off workers.

Yesterday I listed several enterprises that could fit under the roof at Falcon Heights and another idea popped into my head (actually two - can you guess what they are?) after reading about the new career path one laid-off Ford worker pursued.

This from www.strathroytoday.ca :

Paul Corriveau has worked at Ford for the past 11 years and will punch in for his last midnight shift this Thursday. He says it's a painful time for everyone.

For Corriveau, the end of the line means he can spend more time developing his company which launched three years ago due to the expected closure, i.e., "Railway City Brewery".

Since it's launch the brewery has garnered some clout winning Gold for its Iron Spike Amber beer and a People’s Choice Award for the Iron Spike Copper at the Ontario Brewing Awards.

[Please click here for the full story.]      

My thot - maybe Corriveau could be persuaded to expand into Falcon Heights or assist another new brewer. That’s idea number one.

Number two. You can’t brew beer without... ... hops.

Falcon Heights is proud owner of fine arable land. Does anyone know how to grow and harvest hops? It would be good, healthy work.

Other ideas have also come to mind for list of ‘Falcon Heights enterprises’:

Bicycles from recycled parts and metals

Second hand clothing store

Flea markets for home crafts

Food markets stocked with homegrown produce

Food vendors selling ready-made meals from local meats and vegetables

Birdhouse Shed, selling wee houses from rescued lumber (I have somebody already in mind for this spot)

Any other ways to make Falcon Heights a productive plant once again?

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Please click here to read Live Small and Prosper PT 4: “I love my three-wheeled truck”

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Live Small and Prosper PT 4: “I love my three-wheeled truck”

[“Our local and provincial governments should put their heads together and find a way to reopen the Ford Talbotville plant and manufacture small three-wheeled trucks.” G. Harrison, Sept.21]

In the future - when I own my three-wheeled truck - my monthly transportation costs (car payment, insurance, gasoline, repairs) will be lower than at any other time in my life, except for the two times my wife and I did without a car.

And driving around Wortley Village to pick up groceries and the odd bag of nails in a three-wheeled truck will make me the outstanding rebel of the entire community.

I so look forward to driving a new “Made in Canada” vehicle, the cheaper costs and my top position in the Village’s pecking order. (I’ll try to remain humble).

Of course, a large committee of politicians and community leaders still need to meet and formulate a plan to REOPEN and REUSE the now closed Ford Talbotville plant outside London, Ontario as a three-wheeled truck maker, and - just as important, eh - a manufacturer still needs to build them.


[“Let’s REOPEN Ford Talbotville aka Falcon Heights”: photo link]

The plant is absolutely huge. Three-wheeled truck making won’t fill the place, so perhaps the aforementioned committee will consider other uses for the building at the same time.

For example, I see my three-wheeled truck as the second-last vehicle in my life. Once fuel prices get right out of control (“It’s stratospheric, Baby, stratospheric!”) I’ll talk my wife into sharing an industrial tricycle with enclosed cab and small red cedar box on the back (homemade, perhaps) for carting our weekly groceries and specialty beverages.


[“I see red paint and a red cedar box on this perky model”: photo link]

The REOPENED plant, aka Falcon Heights (a Ford Falcon was the first car off the line in 1967), could be home to a hundred other useful, sustainable enterprises as well.

For example:

Recycled plastic could be reused in picnic tables, chairs, benches and dozens of other products built on site

Rescued lumber could be reused in birdhouses, tables, chairs, boxes (for the back of adult funcycles) and dozens of other products built on site

Local landfills or refuse destined for landfills could be mined and sorted for reusable materials or products on site

Rescued landfill materials, e.g., plastic, lumber, metal, etc., could be reused on site or sold to other manufacturers

The arable land around the plant could be farmed annually and its produce sold at the Falcon Heights Farmers Market on site

Some of the acres of tarmac, once covered by newly-manufactured Fords and the parked cars of plant employees could be removed and recycled and the land (once returned to full health) used as a reforestation project by Reforest London - to help them reach their goal of planting one million trees in ten years

Other acres of tarmac could be covered with solar panels and wind turbines built on site - to help power certain enterprises

Many other ideas will spring to minds more fertile than my own.

Let me know what you think would work at Falcon Heights.

Do you love your current or future three-wheeled truck as much as I do?

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Please click here to read Live Small and Prosper PT 3: “I love my three-wheeled truck.”

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