Journal 4 - Lorenzo Palma

1. The thing that really spoke to me was:

XIX: Even now we dare not forget that since the attack of Pearl Harbor - To which the present attack has been often and not usefully compared - we humans have suffered an almost uninterrupted sequence of wars, none of which has brought peace or made us more peaceable. (Berry 6)

I have always felt strongly about war, not in a way that I say we should stop war (because I do believe that war is inevitable), but in a way that we need to have wars that have a purpose. Now, I know that sounds confusing, if anything stupid, but I feel that there should be "A war to end all wars" of sorts. I believe that that is still possible in a sense that there would be a time of prolonged peace between the two warring nations, not increased tension between them. I have a weird belief when it comes to war, but I see it in comparison to just two friends who have some sort of argument but then resolve their problems and become better friends off of that, not holding knives behind the other's backs in the chance of another argument.

2. The one main concept from the essay that I truly agree with would be the part where he talks about using a local economy to protect yourself from the danger of losing economic security and freedom - keep in mind, this is speaking from the perspective of a food economy. This method has its benefits and its drawbacks. One benefit would be that, the distance between the consumer and the producer is decreased, maybe significantly. This would remove the cost of delivery between the two parties therefore reducing the price of the product, while simultaneously increasing the quality. Also, questions like, "Where exactly did they come from? Who produced them? What toxins were used in their production? What were the human and ecological costs of producing them and then disposing of them?" (Berry 8) This serves to be very beneficial towards the local market side, as this information is easily accessible compared to the normal market that we have today. One drawback would be that the limitation of resources available to producers in this local economy would be much greater seeing as they do not have as many resources available to them as much as a big company would, as Wendell says, "Of course, everything needed locally cannot be produced locally." This would contribute to the availability of the mass production of products that would not be possible with most local economies. I guess, my point-of-view towards this would be that this could be applied to many other markets, not just the food market; and this is one way that I believe that we would be able to improve the economy by creating local markets, increasing demand for labor, therefore exercising the movement of currency.

3. One term that is essential towards understanding one of the main concepts of the essay is: Proxy. Proxy, by definition, is:

A document giving such authority; specifically :  a power of attorney authorizing a specified person to vote corporate stock. - Merriam Webster

The main reason why this is a key-word in understanding the essay is that the people involved in the current economic market are essentially giving away their own power towards other corporations to take care of operations such as producing and providing food, shelter, clothing, entertainment, education - that includes us. Wendell states that, in the past, people used to produce these different resources independently and inexpensively. Wendell goes on explaining how the economic practices that we have isn't simply fixed by the solutions that we've been implementing, "...a few people to whom we will give our proxies to police the economic proxies that we have already given." (Berry 2) But Wendell states that the only way that we'll be able to solve such crises is by taking back the responsibility we have given away through those proxies.

4. One thing that really caught my attention was when Berry quoted Ananda K. Coomaraswamy on the principle of justice. I was curious as what were the roles of people in the society, and whether it has evolved or not. After doing some research, I found an article from The Guardian discussing how economic success cannot be much more of a contribution to the people. It says that, "...culture has Economic Value rather than merely Social Value." (The Guardian) The article goes on to talk about the different things that would improve a person's wellbeing i.e. good governance, functioning institutions, and a healthy and pleasant environment. But then later in the article it states that one main reason why scandalous business deals start between companies is that the connection between the corporation and the community has been severed; time and time again it has been proven that a good connection between the consumer and the producer serves as a continuing, succeeding method to a business model.

The article: Economic Success Alone is not Enough to Improve Our Wellbeing