Distributism, as an economic philosophy, is totally new to me. (My decision to circumvent Pennsylvania's high school graduation requirement of a course in economics, which I ditched in favor of AP physics, continues to haunt me.) I came upon it while looking for a good G. K. Chesterton link for my O God of Earth and Altar post; Chesterton was one of distributism's more vocal proponents.
Since one obviously doesn't hear much about it, distributism may be outmoded, impractical, unworkable, or just plain wrong; I don't have time to learn more about it now, and Li'l Writer Guy is still chanting with the monks. However, I find it most intriguing, since at first glance it accords well with my own philosophies, bringing together such diversities as homeschooling, home birth, home cheesemaking, family farms, independent businesses, public transportation, artisan breads, adn above all recognition of the family unit as the basic structure of society. Here are some quotes from the Wikipedia article: (More)I checked the date of the article; it's not April 1. Mexican physicists have made diamonds from tequila. One can only speculate how they came up with the idea of heating tequila to around 800 degrees celsius and turning the resultant carbon atoms into an extremely thin diamond film, but it might make a good comic routine. Uses for the diamond film include the manufacture of ultra-fine cutting instruments, and as an alternative to silicon in computer chips.
The cost of an 800-degree oven might keep this from becoming a do-it-yourself project, however.The scientists found that even the cheapest of tequila brands, averaging at $3 a bottle, are good enough to make diamonds.
Maybe commenter Phil had the right idea after all. Since the government is bound to foul up even the best plan when it involves too much money and power, doing nothing might have been the better course. We had a liquidity crisis from which we probably could have recovered with relative ease had the government bought up massive amounts of undervalued bank debt and sold it at a profit when stability returned. That would have been a $700 million investment, not a bailout.
Instead, we're all but nationalizing our banks, and now Paulson wants to turn this into a bona fide bailout, pouring money into credit card debt, which must be the worst possible kind short of getting involved with a Mafia moneylender. (A friend's credit card company, which recently raised his interest rate to thirty-four percent, might be taking lessons from the Mafia, except that his kneecaps are still intact.) I know we can't change immediately from a society based on massive debt to something more sane, but do we have to discourage reasonable behavior?
It's like Florida taxing people who know better than to build high-rise condominiums on the beach to support those who don't care if a hurricane blows down the building as long as the state continues to underwrite insurance for them.Thanks to Janet's question about one of my favorite hymn tunes, LLANGLOFFAN, I was reminded this morning of one of my favorite hymns, O God of Earth and Altar, with its amazing and always-timely words by G. K. Chesterton. (KINGS' LYNN is another great tune for this hymn.)
O God of earth and altar, bow down and hear our cry,
Our earthly rulers falter, our people drift and die;
The walls of gold entomb us, the swords of scorn divide;
Take not Thy thunder from us, but take away our pride.
From all that terror teaches, from lies of tongue and pen,
From all the easy speeches that comfort cruel men;
From sale and profanation of honor and the sword;
From sleep and from damnation, deliver us, good Lord!
Bind all our lives together, smite us and save us all;
In ire and exultation aflame with faith and free,
Lift up a living nation, a single sword to Thee.
I'd hate to see local bookstores go out of business, even chain stores like Borders and Barnes and Noble. Nothing long-distance and electronic will ever replace the atmosphere of a physical store, and the ability to wander, browse, and hold a book in your own hands. However, I am also one of Amazon.com's more loyal customers, and not solely for their discounts. Frequently both Borders and Barnes and Noble will send me coupons that I would love to use in their local stores. Borders is an easy walk from our house, and I could easily be a frequent shopper there.
Except for one problem: they rarely have what I'm looking for. This morning I received a 30% off coupon offer with pleasure, because there's a book that I thought to buy only after sending of my most recent Amazon order. It's a children's book, and not an obscure one, so I figured the odds of my convenient Borders having it were great. But alas, no. It does no good for the sales clerk to suggest that he order the book for me; I can do that myself. It's rather like calling a reference librarian, having exhausted my own resources, only to hear her typing my question into Google.
Too often, also, the stores not only don't stock what I'd like to buy, but fill their stores with items I most definitely would not like to buy. The experience is similar to that I've had at so-called farmers' markets, which were populated more by gourmet popcorn stands and vitamin sellers than fresh, local produce.
Regardless, I'm thankful for Amazon and other online sellers. The local stores are worse-stocked now, but they never did have much of what I was looking for. How wonderful to have such resources available now for a few clicks (and a credit card).
