Having ignorant bullies running the country isn’t just embarrassing, it’s bad for the economy, writes Richard Florida in the Washington Monthly (January/February). He quotes from an e-mail he received from a University of Illinois entomologist: “Over the last few years, as the conservative movement in the U.S. has become more entrenched, many people I know are looking for better lives in Canada, Europe, and Australia. From bloggers and programmers to members of the National Academy I have spoken with, all find the Zeitgeist alien and even threatening. My friend says it is like trying to research and do business in the 21st century in a culture that wants to live in the 19th, empires, bibles and all. There is an E.U. fellowship through the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Amsterdam that everyone and their mother is trying to get.”
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“When poor people lose their cars, the fragile structure of their daily lives often collapses, frequently imploding into violence,” writes Joe Barthel in his chapter of a new book of essays, Story and Sustainability: Planning, Practice, and Possibility for American Cities. “If the man takes the car, the woman may not be able to get to her minimum wage job. Or they can’t deliver the kids to the grandmother who cares for them. Or they have to choose between a radiator repair and food. Or they get a couple of tickets for an ‘abandoned’ car or wrong side of the street parking, and the tickets are 20 percent or more of their weekly income, and there goes the birthday present or the Sunday meal. Or they let the registration fee slide in order to pay the tickets, and the car gets impounded, and they miss a parole appointment, and the man faces getting returned to prison. And he is pissed and arguing and drinking more and gets into a fight or impulsively decides to grab the money at a stop & rob, and something goes terribly wrong….
