By: Ozboy
There is an excellent opinion piece in today's Salt Lake Tribune about "growth for growth's sake." It is written by a WSU professor, Eric C. Ewert and is about as rational a discussion of this idiotic phenomenon as I have ever read.
Several of the more pertinent paragraphs:
"From business people to elected officials to community leaders, Utahns embrace growth with the fervor of a religious zealot. In fact, not to grow, or to not grow fast enough, is labeled failure in our calculus of economic development.and...
"Utahns, it seems, have conflated “quality of life” with “quantity of life.” Somehow we have decided that more is always bigger, better and more desirable. For a business person thinking simply, more people means more customers and more money. The reality is, though, that once a certain threshold is reached, another business will open to handle the demand and compete with the first."and...
"Well, like the out-of-control cancer cell, eventually the host organism loses its quality of life, gets sick and dies. Utah has a chance right now to leave a high quality of life to its future generations, but will we be wise enough to slow and plan for growth?"See the complete article here:
Well???
16 comments:
"Well, like the out-of-control cancer cell, eventually the host organism loses its quality of life, gets sick and dies."
Whoa!!! I'll be moving from Powderville to Montana very soon!
... where you can be a dental floss tycoon ...
js,
BB
SLOW DOWN! I DESPISE the exponential growth we have here! When is enough enough, or just too damn much? SLOW DOWN!
Last Friday, while on the way to Moab, I passed throigh Spanish Fork on I-15. The air was awful but we are busy widening the freeway so even more traffic can be accomodated.
We cannot expect to provide a decent quality of life if our population continues to increase exponentially. Malthus, anyone?
As usual, Ozboy has nailed it. But I'm not sure I agree with Ewert about his demographics. Unless I read it wrong, and that is possible, he seems to be saying that the growth factor has been contributed to by "babies" and more babies, and even though he didn't come right out and say it, it smacks of making that call on the Mormons. Reminds me of the Lebensborn program of Nazi Germany, where SS Troopers and Aryan women actually bred to populate the Reich with a genetically pure gene pool.
Of course, we could implement a law similar to that of the Chinese, where parents can have only one child and I think they kill the one if it happens to be female.
According to most demographics I've read, the main reason for this population growth is the Lain American immigrants, who arrive either legally or illegally. Maybe a law aimed at certain aspects of immigration would be better suited to slow this tide and to ensure that we have growth for quality sake than growth for quantity sake.
Two to one says that Ewert is a left wing liberal.
joe,
You make it sound like a "left wing liberal" is such a bad thing.
"There is no one you can be that isn't who you're meant to be"
"Love"
J.L.
Joe
It has been in the press very lately that the number one source of growth in Utah has been from the influx of people moving here from California. That was followed very closely by the high birth rate which is even higher with the hispanics than with the MoMo's (who ain't no slouches in the multiplying themselves department fer shure)
By the way Joe, thanks for saying I "nailed it". An undeserved credit however, as it was Perfesser Ewert who "nailed it" with his very well done OpEd piece.
And one final thing Joe, it was my understanding that Perfesser Ewert is actually a dyed in the wool conservative, Flag wavin Republican, Gun totin Patrick Henry member, Eagle Forum Chapter president who got his start as a member, and later, leader in the Reagan Youth movement. Don't know the guy personally, but that is what I heard about him.
Our very own Jeremy Peterson is deluded with this "growth is good" philosophy:
Delightful Demographics: Weber County's Coming Population Explosion
Endless frontier, virtually for free, created Americas wealth.
If you don't have endless growth, the house of cards called capitalism collapses, and eats its own children in a death spasm to stay alive.
Capitalism is simply Greed on an altar..
And it killed the planet.
'Cept for the pygmy ponies, who had the good sense to hide behind the dental floss bush.
Actually, most of our legislators and elected officials are deluded by this mentality - not just JP. It is what helps drive it. The real estate caucus in the legislature is one of the most influential. Unsustainable growth and development is THE priority. More shortsightedness. What a mess.
Ewert. a regular old John Bircher, eh? Guess I owe Ozboy a double whatever.
That being said and acknowledged, how does one go about stemming the growth which is, I admit, out of control? Maybe the one good thing about it is, if they'd count the missionaries, maybe Utah would gain another seat in Congress. Lord knows, we could use one, even if the guy turned out to be a Democratic left winger. Probably beats being one of those right wing shmucks who make up the Legislature that is torpedoing just about any and everything that's progressive in the state, not to mention curtailing the people's right to know with HB477. I see Stewart Rhead is a vocal part of that crew, which comes as no surprise.
Last thing we need is another member in our goverment.
Want to cut spending let's get rid of half the elected officials overnight.
Less is more!
Oz, the real story here is that the concept has finally dawned on a conservative type. His conclusion is not some new revelation or belief at all, many of us lifelong treehuggers have held this belief for more than four decades while we watched so much of our western lands sucome to the misguided principle shared by the strange conservative wave that has dominated the region for about that the same amount of time.
There has been a total disregard for any real evaluation of growth limiting factors such as available resources and their ability to support the increase in population.
Somethings always got to give, look at Los Angeles and the total destruction of your namesake, the Owens Valley. Now Las Vegas is attempting to do the same with Eastern Nevada as well as Utahs western valley aquafers. The whole Wasatch front is facing water resource problems as we speak yet our elected leaders continue to sing the eternal growth anthem. Insanity, the real story has to a conservative finally seeing the light.
Joe & Bill
Welllll, actually I was lyin in the last post about this Perfessor being a right wing wacko. I don't know the guy and have no knowledge of his politics. I did think his article was right on the money however.
Lying, huh? Now that you fessed up, remember what Jimminy Cricket said: "Let your conscience be your guide."
Joe
Thanks for forgiving my lie. My only excuse is that I was a Republican for many years and old habits are hard to break.
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