
  But the "values and systems that make the rich rich" all basically
  amount to freedom of choice. 

  In New England in 1800 the entire economy was based on the small family
  farm.   Farm economy households were economically diversified, producing
  not only agricultural goods but also "manufactured" goods, especially 
  cloth.  Many farm women carded, spun, and/or wove, producing not only
  cloth for their own family but also to sell, generating extra income.

  But about this time the Industrial Revolution was underway in England
  and by the 1820's it had moved to the US, in both cases in the form 
  of textile mills.  These mills could produce cloth far more efficiently
  and cheaply than people at home.  

  The result was that an important source of home income was wiped out
  and many of these women were compelled by economic circumstance to 
  go to work in these same mills in Lowell, Mass, or Nashua, NH, where
  they worked 73 hour weeks in deafening, dangerous conditions, living 
  regimented lives and being exposed to cotton-dust and infectious dis-
  eases due to the work.

  Now people didn't *HAVE* to buy the cheaper factory-made cloth. 
  They were free to keep buying the home-made variety and support
  their local economy . . . 


  . . . but (sorry for the cliche), "it takes two to tango".   The big
  rich corporations achieved that wealth because we buy their stuff.
  It used to be the case that the business center of a town was also 
  its social center.  You KNEW the merchants you did business with 
  or even local kids working behind the counter.   You would see
  people on the street whom you knew and you could stop for a chat.

  Nowadays local merchants are going out of business and people shop 
  at huge anonymous malls serving regional populations of hundreds of
  thousands or millions.  You have no particular relationship with the
  companies you do business with, and feel no particular commitment
  to them, nor they to you.   Major components of what defines a "com-
  munity" have been destroyed.   On the other hand the products we buy
  at these malls are a lot cheaper due to economies of scale and foreign
  manufacture, and they are probably of better, or at least more consistent,
  quality.



  Don't blame the conservatives for this.  Everyone makes their own
  individual choice and the liberals and the fence-sitters are just
  as guilty of pretending there are no social and cultural consequences
  to economic choices.
