The key point here is that we can begin today in using the paradigm of a globe of villages to solve immediate social problems. We need not be discounted as Utopians, selling a vision of a far off and unattainable perfect future. A New Future I conclude with the wisdom of John Maynard Keynes, the English economist,- “ I sympathize with those who would maximize, economic entanglement among nations. Ideas, knowledge, science, hosp ita lity , travel—these are the things which should of their nature be international. But let goods be homespun We must abandon the good life to sustain life itself We are hooked on free trade. whenever it is reasonably and conveniently possible and, above all, let finance be primarily national.” When we abandon our ability to produce for ourselves, when we separate authority from responsibility, when those affected by our decisions are not those who make the decisions, when the cost and the benefit of doing things are not part of the same equation, when price and cost are no longer in harmony, we jeopardize our security and our future. You may argue that free trade is not the cause of all our ills. Agreed. But free trade as it is preached today nurtures and reinforces many of our worst problems. It is an ideological package that promotes ruinous policies. And most tragically, as we move further down the road to giantism, and planetism and dependence we make it harder and harder to back up and take another path. If we lose our sk ills , our productive base, our culture, our traditions, our natural resources, if we erode the bonds of personal and familiar responsibility, it becomes evermore difficult to recreate community. It is very, very hard to put Humpty Dumpty backtogether again. Which means we must act now. The unimpeded mobility of capital, labor, goods and raw materials is not the highest social good. We need to challenge the postulates of free trade head on, to preach a different philosophy, to embrace a different strategy. There is another way. But to make it the dominant way we must change the rules, indeed, we must change our own behavior. And to do that requires us not only to challenge the emptiness of free trade but to promote a new idea: economics as if community matters. David Morris, a St. Paul resident, is d ire c to r o f the Wash ington D.C.-based Institute forSelf-Reliance and co lum n is t fo r the St. Paul Pioneer-Press Dispatch. © 1988, Institute for Local Self- Reliance. This was originally given as a speech to the Progressive Round Table on Jan. 16, 1988. SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIPTION FORM SUBSCRIBE SEND $20 per subscription for two years SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIPTION FORM SUBSCRIBE SEND $20 per subscription for two years Name:_______________________________.________________________ Address:______________________________________________________ City: ____ :__________________ State: Zip: SEND TO: Clinton Street Quarterly 3255 Hennepin Ave. S , #255, Mpls., MN 55408 Name:________________________________________________________ Address:______________ '_______________________________________ City: State: Zip: _________ SEND TO: Clinton Street Quarterly 3255 Hennepin Ave. S , #255, Mpls, MN 55408 Clinton St. Quarterly—Spring, 1988 33
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