Urban ecology (Sociology) -- Japan; Urban renewal -- Japan
Money: It would be hard to find anything else that is so
convenient, so easily used, so powerful an instrument of
domination. The arrogant belief that, as long as one has money,
one can do anything, is not mere arrogance; money is in actuality
the mechanism by which the functions and activities of the city
are supported, and the means by which people so freely manipulate
the city's functions in order to bring about prosperity. The
reason burglars and thieves (in this case I am not referring to
the dominators) always take money is because they too, as long as
they have money, can get anything they want, be it goods or
services. Big shot politicos get sweaty palms at the thought of
fat bribes because as long as they have money they can feed great
numbers of hangers-on and wield great power.
Simple logic, then (and here we at last come to the stage where
we get rid of the cities), dictates that all we have to do to get
rid of the cities is banish money.
This is not idle speculation, for the Cambodian regime of Pol
Pot actually proved it could be done (forgive me for harping on
this one example, but no other government has had the guts to do
the same thing).
Proving no exception to the rule, the growing urbanization
phenomenon in the developing countries has brought about
unfavorable trade imbalances and the devastation of the
countryside, as well as the importation of food, which engenders
even more losses of foreign currency. No matter how high the
government raises its voice and orders the citizens to till the
fields, once the people have had a taste of idleness and gluttony
they squat in the city and refuse to budge. The Pol Pot regime,
which had come to the end of its rope, prohibited the use of
money and made everyone barter. So the citizens, who could no
longer get food with money, went from one farming village to
another in search of food, and the capital of Pnom Penh
immediately became a ghost town. This was a great experiment
which proved that, without dropping a single bomb, and by merely
banishing money, the glory of the city can be wiped out in the
space of a day.
Criticism of the Productivity Remarks by Sony's Honorary Chairman
Ibuka Masaru, the honorary chairman of Sony, said, "There is a
1,500-fold difference in productivity between agriculture and
industry." (A statement made during a committee meeting on the
issue of internationalization in agriculture, and included in the
book Food, published by the Asahi Shimbun.) He also said, "Rather
than having the farmers produce crops, it would be better to hand
them money and let them be idle." And, "All agriculture should be
transferred to Southeast Asia." [33] He even declared that
"hanging on to an industry which has lost its competitiveness is
none other than a big loss to the country."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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