Code Red for RI economy
To the editor, The front page of the November 10, 2009 Providence Journal has another headline on how poorly the RI economy is doing, now using the term Code Red to describe it. Yes it is likely that the RI economy will continue to fall apart. All the kings horses and all the kings men can not put Humpty Dumpty together again.
We get experts in government telling us what to do, we get professors at URI telling us what to do, we get think tanks telling us what to do. But they fail, fail, fail. The reason they fail is that the prescribed wisdom is to do whatever Wall St wants us to do and to appease the rich. Lets be very clear. Wall St looted the country, and doing what they want us to do will only get us looted again. The prescriptions by the experts to appease the rich have been the standard potion for 50 years and they have been nothing but failure.
You can not fix the economy of Rhode Island from the top down. It must be fixed from the bottom up. If we are to fix the RI economy here is what we ought to do. Recycle a lot more, and get to zero waste. Compost everything that can be composted and use it to build soil fertility. Grow more food. Make our rivers fishable and swimmable, and return fish to abundance in them. Eliminate the use of all fossil fuels, make sure every building is fossil fuel free and actually affordable, use mass transit instead of autos, and stop confusing the depletion of the natural world with income. Using the medical industrial complex to grow the economy only makes healthcare more expensive and puts it out of reach of the poor. Focus on primary care.
I doubt the so called leaders of RI are ready for such an endeavor, but I also know that if they stick with the usual prescriptions they will fail to revive our community. If any of our leaders or candidates are ready to stop being stupid, they can find me at ProsperityForRI.org and I would be happy to help them develop an economic plan that will work. They can also stop by and see me at the Buy Nothing Day Winter Coat Exchange on Nov 27 outside the State House.
Greg Gerritt