Friday, February 5, 2016

Creating Opportunities for the Common Man and Building Healthy Economies

 

“Yes sir, my friends, the meek can only inherit the earth when the John Does start loving their neighbors. You’d better start right now. Don’t wait till the game is called on account of darkness. Wake up, John Doe, you’re the hope of the world.”

-John Doe from the movie Meet John Doe

Chapter Three and Four Concerns


What do you think about these ideas? Start some comments about these ideas and how should they be implemented? Do you have any further ideas we can grow on?
  • CREATING WALKING AND BIKE TRAILS-Reflect on the role of the car in American communities. Then look at successful approaches to creating more walking and biking paths. 
  • TOWN BASED FUN-Tell how semi-public recreational facilities made for bright summer days in Europe. Then, imagine how that model can work in communities here.
  • BOSTON ARTS AND BUSINESS COUNCIL MODEL-Look at how shared housing can be a big plus for young, old and the communities they live in. Then reflect on a number of challenges with regards to this.
  • MAXIMIZING LIFE THROUGH EDUCATION-Look at how application of the main points in education can be a boost to communities, including making “every village a university”  through town based learning.
  • SUPPORT LOCAL FARMING-Not only do they support local economies and health, but can provide fresh fruit to local schools.
  • TIME BANKS AND THE LOCAL ECONOMY-Consider some ways that time banking can contribute to local life and be a part of healthy, local economies. 
  • PROVIDING THE 5 BASIC NECESSITIES OF LIFE-Give everyone access to free housing, food, clothes, air, and water? Simple housing like tiny homes, Merton style stackable units, or Japanese locker apartments. Free no frill jeans and t-shirts and winter jumpers. Universal soup kitchens for business owners and the homeless to meet each other. Plus protection from profiteering on water and air. If you want more you work for it, but as a species we should provide the basics for one and another.

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, and the hopes of its children.”

~President Eisenhower

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