RAIN Page 11 ( APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY ) MEGA-PAPER TIGERS Individuals and communities attempting to change regulations hampering small local businesses, finance development of their own small business, or encourage public policy favoring such enterprises have to overcome the massive inertia of conventional wisdom that says that big business is more efficient, labor-intensive processes are uneconomical, and small-scale activities are less beneficial to our quality of life. The following books should be required reading for any city council that votes for a big motor inn rather than guest houses or for.bringing in outside industry rather than developing local industry; for any banker who redlines a neighborhood or loans to big industry rather than small businesses; and for anyone who needs solid documentation supporting small-scale, labor-intensive, local activities. • Size, Efficiency and Community Enterprise, Barry Stein, 1974, $5 (?) Center for Community Economic Development 1878 Massachusetts Ave. Cambridge, MA 02140 Extensive documentation of economies and diseconomies of scale in manufacturing industries showing large firms to be generally economically less efficient than small ones. It also shows how a large number of specialized small firms can enjoy more economies of scale than a large, integrated firm; documents greater inventiveness of individuals than corporations. A wealth of important data and insights into myths and realities of large and small scale business operation. As You Sow, Walter Goldschmidt, Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1947 (out of print). also "Small Business and the Community: A Study in the Central Valley of California on Effects of Scale of Farm Operations," Report of the Special Committee to Study Problems of American Small Business, U.S. Senate (79th Congress, 2nd Session), U.S. Government Printing Office, Dec. 23, 1946. The effects of small vs. large businesses go far beyond the mere question of costs of production. They influence the whole social structure of communities and nations. Goldschmidt's pioneering study of the social effects of large vs. small scale farming on towns in California showed this so clearly that the U.S. Department of Agriculture refused to publish it. Here's why: "The study showed the small-farm community had twice as many business establishments and did 61 % more retail business; the small farms supported 20%more people at a measurably higher standard of living; the small-farm community had more institutions for democratic decision-making and much broader citizen participation in such activities; it had far better physical facilities, such as sidewalks; paved streets, garbage and sewage disposal, schools, parks, neo/spapers, churches and civic organizations; aQl:i the majority of the small-farm community population were independent entrepreneurs, while 2/3 of the large-farm communities were agricultural wage laborers." Technology and Employment in Industry, A.S. Bhalla, Ed., International Labour Office, 1975, $14.95. International Labour Office Washington Branch 1750 New York Ave., N.W. Washington, D.C. This collection of specific, detailed case studies of industries and industrial processes in many countries demonstrates that a considerable range of technological alternatives exist for industry- even in "core" processes. Such alternatives provide significant latitude for different mixes of employment, machinery, materials and energy within economically competitive costs. Options are thus available that can simultaneously reduce unemployment, respond to our increasing capital shortage, accommodate increasing energy and material prices and provide mechanisms for reducing externalized costs such as transportation and unemployment compensation. Lack of awareness of alternatives by business leaders is shown to be a dominant obstacle in businesses adapting cost-effective changes to more job-producing, energy-saving processes. Worker-Owned Plywood Companies: An Economic Ana~ysis, Katrina V. Bennan, Economic and Business Studies Bulletin No. 42, Washington State University Press, 1967. One of the major fears preventing businesses from encouraging labor-intensive processes is the fear of labor/management conflicts and problems of employee boredom and low productivity. One obvious answer is to eliminate the conflict of interests between workers and owners through worker-owned businesses. Bennan's case study shows that they have been and can be well-managed and economically viable, even under difficult conditions of using abandoned plants, obsolete equipment and difficult material supplies. The firms studied actually had worker productivity 30 to 50% greater than in non-worker owned firms, along with greater flexibility to adapt during difficult times.
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