Small is Beautiful
I have really enjoyed the book Small is Beautiful by E.F. Schumaker. It has been a book that has significantly changed my views on ‘the invisible hand” that Adam Smith speaks of. I agree that if left to it’s own devices, that the invisible hand will come to the optimum economic outcome. This is where my thinking has been changed by this book. I have thought that the best economic outcome = the best human outcome, which is obviously not true. If we look at industrialized agriculture, big business in many cases (including wal-mart), mass produced almost anything… It seems we lose the human component in our quest for efficiencies and economies of scale.
In the argument about Wal-Mart coming into a new community, I have always been on the side of- “let’s not tinker with the invisible hand- it will always come to the best conclusion, and beside, I appreciate the low prices that Wal-Mart provides me as a consumer.” I think I have officially moved to the other side of this argument. Even though Wal-Mart can provide me cheap, Chinese made stuff, and Tyson can sell me cheap chicken, I no longer feel the high human cost of cheap stuff is worth the real price we pay as a society. For a couple years I have been interested in locally grown foods and smaller scale agriculture. What I am learning now, is that this model fits “life” not just agriculture. I hope we will again see the day when the “little man” can compete well against the Wal-Mart’s of the world because we are interested in more than just low prices.
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Our Bargain with life
Becky recommended a book that I read this past week called Three Weeks With My Brother by Nicholas Sparks. It is a journal of a 3 week trip he took around the world with his brother along with a memoir of his life. It is a good reminder of the importance of family and of the fragility of life. By the time he was 30 his mother and father had both passed away in separate accidents and his sister had a malignant brain tumor.
Nick was always a high achiever and set specific goals for himself through his life. He grew up in a poor home and said that he would be a millionaire, his brother also said he would be a millionaire, but by age 35. Neither one was really focused on money, but they did want to be poor like they were growing up. Nick worked in various jobs and was not set on being a writer. Even though he had not yet defined his hedgehog concept, he was scrappy and was moving forward searching for what his real niche in life is. 2 months before his 30th birthday, a publisher sent him a check for $1,000,000 for the advance rights to his book The Notebook. His brother, right before his 35th birthday had earned $1,000,000 through a small business he was owner of. These two cases reminded me of the following poem…
"I bargained with Life for a penny, And Life would pay no more, However I begged at evening When I counted my scanty store. For Life is a just employer, He gives you what you ask, But once you have set the wages, Why, you must bear the task. I worked for a menial’s hire, Only to learn, dismayed, That any wage I had asked of Life, Life would have willingly paid."
Do we bargain with life for much less than life is willing to pay? If we expected more, how much is life willing to pay? I plan on spending some time thinking about these questions in many areas of my life.
When we draw a line in the sand, I am confident that providence gets behind us and we, through serendipitous events are able to accomplish things that will happen in sometimes unexpected ways.
Becky recommended a book that I read this past week called Three Weeks With My Brother by Nicholas Sparks. It is a journal of a 3 week trip he took around the world with his brother along with a memoir of his life. It is a good reminder of the importance of family and of the fragility of life. By the time he was 30 his mother and father had both passed away in separate accidents and his sister had a malignant brain tumor.
Nick was always a high achiever and set specific goals for himself through his life. He grew up in a poor home and said that he would be a millionaire, his brother also said he would be a millionaire, but by age 35. Neither one was really focused on money, but they did want to be poor like they were growing up. Nick worked in various jobs and was not set on being a writer. Even though he had not yet defined his hedgehog concept, he was scrappy and was moving forward searching for what his real niche in life is. 2 months before his 30th birthday, a publisher sent him a check for $1,000,000 for the advance rights to his book The Notebook. His brother, right before his 35th birthday had earned $1,000,000 through a small business he was owner of. These two cases reminded me of the following poem…
"I bargained with Life for a penny, And Life would pay no more, However I begged at evening When I counted my scanty store. For Life is a just employer, He gives you what you ask, But once you have set the wages, Why, you must bear the task. I worked for a menial’s hire, Only to learn, dismayed, That any wage I had asked of Life, Life would have willingly paid."
Do we bargain with life for much less than life is willing to pay? If we expected more, how much is life willing to pay? I plan on spending some time thinking about these questions in many areas of my life.
When we draw a line in the sand, I am confident that providence gets behind us and we, through serendipitous events are able to accomplish things that will happen in sometimes unexpected ways.
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