Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

NOTES ON A & M SETTLEMENT PATTERN COMMENTS

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by

James A. Bacon
in

TMT:

EMR read that WaPo story about “commuters” from Page County too. It was painful.

Steve and Ricky made location decision that they THOUGHT were in their best interest.

But it turns out they were not in their best interest.

What they believed to be good decisions turned out to be bad decisions because many other equally uninformed citizens believed the same things.

They watched the same evening news and the same sit coms, they consumed based on the same advertising… They all made mistakes and the collective impact is dysfunctional human settlement patterns.

If Steve and Ricky had only known something about the collective impact of least-common-denominator settlement pattern and consumption decisions …

But then Steve smokes so his decisions about human settlement patterns (and other forms of consumption) might have been just as bad as his decision about human health…

If location-variable costs had been fairly allocated Steve and Ricky (and their “wifey’s” and all the others who made similar decisions) would never have been tempted to make those bad decisions.

The Steves and Rickys of the world are why if markets are to work they must be informed. The playing fields need to be leveled, not tipped in favor of the Masters of the Universe.

The Steves and the Rickys are why there needs to be an end to the Business-As-Usual political duopoly. Both parties try to dupe citizens into NOT looking out for their own REAL self interest. (Want a current example? Try the McDonnell / Bolling “More Energy, More Jobs” Program. Or the programs of the candidates from the other clan.)

The Steves and Rickys are the reason there must be an end to what now passes for ‘journalism,’ The current pap fails to get to the root causes of most citizen concerns about the future – and makes those who are caught in reality seem like victims rather than coconspirators. See THE ESTATES MATRIX

Steve and Ricky might have learned about the how to make smarter decisions. Books and journals written since the 1920s lay the issue out in detail.. The 1920s was when the impact of today’s settlement patterns first started to draw attention and criticism.

More when we get to Larry’s observations.

Accurate:

Good to learn the details of your relocation decision.

You will find a lot more folks in the Houston NUR that agree with your outlook on life than you did in the Portland NUR. Tom DeLay is a local hero. Many seem to hold Bob Barr, Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee in high regard.

EMR knows something about Houston – an A & E firm for whom he was a Sr. VP planned and engineered large projects in the Region, SPI had an office there for a few years and EMR visits from time to time.

Let us know how you like the weather in July, August, September and October. Some really like it. Some, not so much.

Where did you decide to buy your $100k home? Is it near your new work and great places to get Services / Recreation / Amenity?

Have you been riding the new Light Rail system? Let us know what is happening around the stations? Does it look anything like what is happening around the Light Rail stations in the Portland NUR?

Has TexDOT figured out a way to pay for more circumferential expressways?

After you have been there a year and add up ALL your costs, let us know what you think about the total cost of living. One reason house prices are so low in the Region is that the property taxes are so high.

Depending on what you choose to do, living CAN BE cheaper in Texas and in the Houston NUR than many other places. That is because Households, Agencies, Enterprises and Institutions have been subsidized by the consumption of Natural Capital, not just in Texas but world-wide.

Look forward to getting your report.

Groveton:

You have a point about Mosquitoes and Alligators.

In the context that Larry presented, however, EMR still goes with the reverse roles. It is human settlement patterns that have citizens and their Organizations in their jaws – folks like Steve and Ricky. They think it is ‘the economy’ but it is the distribution of human activity at and near the surface of the planet.

In the long term and with respect to collective impact, mosquitoes HAVE BEEN far more deadly – like dysfunctional human settlement patterns.

No one pays much attention to the settlement pattern until it bites them – like it did to Steve and Ricky in Page County.

Mosquitos and alligators or alligators and mosquitos, either way, human settlement patterns control the economic, social and physical trajectory of society.

Larry:

You did not bother to read Deep Economy before you started asking questions about the small Urban enclaves in Georgia.

EMR could provide you with insights based on small towns in where he has lived, worked and visited in Georgia, Montana or in the Heart Land (See Column of 3 Oct 2005) or on jobs (24 May 2004) but then you would not believe EMR if he took off a month a spelled it all out for you again. You would dive into the pepper silo looking for flyspecks.

If you are serious about finding some answers to your questions, here are some places to start:

You could read Mike Shuman’s Going Local: Creating self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age. Many specifics are compatible with McKibben’s perspectives in Deep Economy.

You could look in on Rosseta, PA to get some clues – or at least read about it in Chapter 1 of Gladwell’s Outliers.

It you do not want to go that far, check out Abingdon to see why it is different than Luray (in Page County).

Or if you want to do your research in Georgia check out why Tifton, Dahlonega, Madison and St. Marys make ‘best small towns’ and ‘most charming towns and villages’ lists and the places you describe do not.

You could become a leader in one of these places and attract other ‘Lone Eagles’ to build Balance. Or you could help them evolve a Water Buffalo Commons when everyone moves to the Atlanta NUR, one of the smaller MSAs or one of the 12 Micropolitan Areas in the state.

Bet there are a lot of Steves and Rickys in the Georgia towns you describe. Hope they make good decisions about where to go next.

Some time ago EMR suggested that if a nation-state sets out to create a consumer driven economy, they must have a comprehensive strategy to educate the citizens in something beside Mass OverConsumption.

Bad information and Myths about the way the world works wastes a lot of lives.

EMR

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Comments

12 responses to “NOTES ON A & M SETTLEMENT PATTERN COMMENTS”

  1. Larry G Avatar
    Larry G

    geeze… did EMR address the “where the jobs are and where they not” question?

  2. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    I had to come back and comment on this one. You are one pompous SOB you know that EMR. I am sure if you controlled the world all of our problems would be solved. That line about those in glass houses. I know the truth about you. You are no better than Al Gore with they way you live vs what you preach.

    NMM

  3. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    “But it turns out they were not in their best interest. “

    I don’t think we really know that, yet. They are having a hard time right now, but if they get through it they will still have something.

    Would they have been better off living closer and renting because they could not afford to buy?

    Maybe. If they invested the difference in buying vs renting money oh, say, petroleum companies and utilities.

    RH

  4. Accurate Avatar
    Accurate

    I promise to try to address some of the questions you raised EMR. I’m not sure I’ll be able to answer the one about riding the light rail system; I tend to get hives when I ride light rail. Seriously, in the entire time that Portland has had light rail I only rode it three times and hated it each and every time. For YOU, I might, just might brave Houston’s light rail one time, but light rail has never appealed to me and I don’t think moving to a new city is going to change my attitude about it.

    As for property tax, as one measure of comparison I looked on the internet for reported taxes on a house that sold in both cities for $200,000. As a matter of comparison the property tax in Houston was reported at $1180, while the property tax in Portland was reported at $1685. However to put the FULL picture in focus let’s look at what $200,000 buys in both cities. In Portland, your $200,000 buys a 2 bedroom, 1 bath 807 square foot domicile (http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1220-NE-17th-Ave-APT-4D-Portland-OR-97232/53968334_zpid/). In Houston that same money buys a 4 bedroom, 2 bath, 2413 square foot house; comes with a pool too (http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/12327-Attlee-Dr-Houston-TX-77077/28132614_zpid/). In Portland, it’s an apartment, no lot size, in Houston your lot is 7740 square feet.

    After living in the Portland area most of my life, I can tell you (as you can see from this example), there are not a lot of homes that are $200,000 or less. By the same token, I don’t need a 2400 square foot house, so what I’ll be buying in Houston will cost about half that.

    It should be interesting living in what is framed as the antithesis of Portland. I know I have grown tired of Oregon (and Portland in particular) oppressive government. I’ve grown tired of gray skies 75% of the time. I’ve grown tired of rain, rain and more rain. Time to see how the heat and humidity play with me.

    One thing we do agree upon EMR – that we disagree, period.

  5. sushil yadav Avatar
    sushil yadav

    Industrial Society Destroys Mind and Environment.

    Industrial Society is destroying necessary things [Animals, Trees, Air, Water and Land] for making unnecessary things [consumer goods].

    “Growth Rate” – “Economy Rate” – “GDP”

    These are figures of “Ecocide”.
    These are figures of “crimes against Nature”.
    These are figures of “destruction of Ecosystems”.
    These are figures of “Insanity, Abnormality and Criminality”.

    The link between Mind and Social / Environmental-Issues.

    The fast-paced, consumerist lifestyle of Industrial Society is causing exponential rise in psychological problems besides destroying the environment. All issues are interlinked. Our Minds cannot be peaceful when attention-spans are down to nanoseconds, microseconds and milliseconds. Our Minds cannot be peaceful if we destroy Nature [Animals, Trees, Air, Water and Land].

    Destroy the system that has killed all ecosystems.

    Chief Seattle of the Indian Tribe had warned the destroyers of ecosystems way back in 1854 :

    Only after the last tree has been cut down,
    Only after the last river has been poisoned,
    Only after the last fish has been caught,
    Only then will you realize that you cannot eat money.

    To read the complete article please follow any of these links.

    Industrial Society Destroys Mind and Environment

    Industrial Society Destroys Mind and Environment

    Industrial Society Destroys Mind and Environment

    Industrial Society Destroys Mind and Environment

    sushil_yadav
    Delhi, India

  6. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    “light rail has never appealed to me and I don’t think moving to a new city is going to change my attitude about it.”

    I rode the Portland light rail and the one in Baltimore. I was less than not impressed. I nearly suffered heat stroke waitng for the train and the only shelter was a greenhous like structure. The automated ticket machine didn’t work, and the trip took FOREVER.

    I don’t know what it is goin to take for light rail to live up to its hype. The real problem is that it is a lot lesss expensive to build than heavy rail, so it offers still more opportunity to make bad choices which will fail economically. Each failure will cost less, but we will have more of them.

    RH

  7. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    “After you have been there a year and add up ALL your costs, let us know what you think about the total cost of living. “

    You are wrong on this one EMR. We may have to invent a new verb for this kind fo truth abuse: we can call it EMERing.

    Glaeser has already run this analysis and concluded that, after all things are considered, Houston will leave you with more disposable income at the end of the month than some place like, say, Staten Island.

    for another example of emering we have “Both parties try to dupe citizens into NOT looking out for their own REAL self interest.”

    Which would be what, exactly? Presumably, it would be somethig that reduces the collective impact of settlment decisions.

    I’d say their real self interest includes bothe the cost and the value of those decisions as well as the cost and the value of whatever efforts we expend to prevent them. but at the end of the month it stillcomes down to what you hae left as disposable income that measures your TOTAL well being and self interest.

    Total Disposable Income or Well Being = income – living expenses – cost of avoiding collective damage – cost of collective damage that is not avoided. In this case the idea is to maximise the left side of the equation.

    If it costs more to avoid collective damage than you benefit from the avoidance, it is a losing proposition. the only thing that can change it is economy of scale: if we can FORCE a whole lot of people to make small sacrifices we might be able to pay for a few big benefits.

    It is a seductive argument, but the problem is that we have more problems to solve than we have money to solve them. If we allow the “Champion” for every problem to take a dime out of our pocket we will all be broke, and it is hard to sell well-being that way.

    —————————–

    “it is the distribution of human activity at and near the surface of the planet. “

    Precisely so. And that sistribution keeps changing, and people keep adapting and moving to make the best use of the activity and its distribution: everyone is worling to reduce their expenditure of energy and capital so as to have the msot left at the end of the month, lifetime, or whatever.

    That is why the market is the best toll we have for reaching the best distribution. We will never hit it because it is a mofving target, which is why central planning and avoidance of “collective costs’ will always fail.

    Balance is a dynamic situation, not a static one: it isn’t something you can plan for as much as react to. limiting peoples ability, opportunity, or desire to react is what guarantees that the spinning top of society will topple.

    Just watche the Taliban in action to see the direction EMR would hae us travel.

    RH

  8. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    You cannot eat money.

    But you also cannot take a fish out of the environment to eat, without incrementally damaging the environment. At the very least the fish himself will object, and usually as violently as he is capable.

    If we all go down and take a fish we will do what EMR calls collective damage, and we all know that has to stop.

    People are part of the environment, too, so we cannot worship the environment without taking care of ourselves as well. we are faced with a trade between damaging ourselves by preserving too much environment and damaging ourselves by preserving too little.

    We had better figure out who among us is going to suffer the damage and what we will do with all the damaged people, just as we have to decide what parts of the environment we will harvest, and what to do with the damaged parts.

    As for me, I’m going to stop eating my fish when you pry it out of my cold dead hands.

    RH

  9. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    So, Ed, whne Nissan and Ford come out with vehicles that get the equivalent of $350 miles per gallon, what do you think that will do to how far people ar willing to drive to qualify?

    Are we better off wasting fule with idling engines while we sit in traffic, or is it better to wast some electricity while transmitting it to all the far flung homes with economical electric vehicles?

    RH

  10. E M Risse Avatar
    E M Risse

    Accurate:

    Thank you for the report on your Light Rail views. Let us know what is happening around the stations when you have a chance.

    At to total property tax, that is different than the last time EMR saw the numbers.

    Did you add both municipal taxes (City and County?) how about the MUDs (Municipal Utility District tax). Was this just the City of Houston or did you check other Cities and places outside Harris County?

    Look forward to your further reports on the other issues.

    EMR

  11. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Just looked at the Hard Times, the ripple effect in rural Virginia, Commuters No More in the May 5th Post.

    The most ironic thing is the Steve raises nothing on his acre in Page County except stuff that has to be cut down with weed whacker and mower – gasoline, fumes, noise.

    When would he enjoy the oriental garden back by the creek?

    What sort of buffer did Steve provide between his grass and the creek?

    Talk about ecological footprint!

    By the way ‘NMM’ I once witnessed an off-grid greenie challenge Dr. Risse on his eco foot print.

    While the good professor is no Gandhi, he has been praticing what he preaches for so long that his footprint is smaller than most.

  12. Larry G Avatar
    Larry G

    “But you also cannot take a fish out of the environment to eat, without incrementally damaging the environment.”

    not true Ray and I’m surprised as your lack understanding here on a pretty basic thing.

    If you take a fish or a squirrel, it will get replaced just as if that fish or squirrel dies in some other fashion.

    More squirrels are killed by automobiles by far than for food these days but there is no “incremental” damage in terms of sheer numbers of squirrels because as long as there are trees and acorns (habitat) the squirrels will produce more than enough to fully populate (and then some) that habitat.

    The problems come when the habitat itself is destroyed, or damaged such that it can no longer support a healthy population.. or if really bad – a viable population.

    On the other end – if you take too many squirrels then they’ll not be able to keep up with replacement….but you have to kill one hell of a lot of squirrels to wipe out an entire forest of squirrels – forever.

    It’s the same deal with fish or most any other thing that is in the food web.

    You can take a fish and I can take a fish and they will be replaced.

    But if you take a 1000 fish.. it may take a long time for them to be replaced.

    It’s called “sustainability”.

    the word actually does mean something – to wit:

    “Sustainability, in general terms, is the ability to maintain balance of a certain process or state in any system.”

    that’s wiki’s definition.

    People have been eating fish for thousands of years and there was even a bible parable about it and people can continue to eat fish for as long as the oceans and rivers support their populations – as long as we do not eat more of them than they can reproduce and replace.

    EMR’s approach (if I understand it) is that civilization as we know it and practice it currently is – not sustainable though it could take quite some time to dry up and blow away – so his tomes, to some of us, remind us of the disheveled guy on the soapbox in the park waving a “the world will end tomorrow” sign.

    Of course if the worst is true about global warming – EMR will have the last laugh for sure.

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