Fascinating article about how “the commons” are best preserved by people at the local level who actually use the commons, rather than having distant bureaucrats oversee use, as our enviro-fascists and sundry liberal totalitarians wish. From the article:
…In the interview at the Mercatus Center, she explained the advantages of trusting locals:
The strength of polycentric governance systems is each of the subunits has considerable autonomy to experiment with diverse rules for a particular type of resource system and with different response capabilities to external shock. In experimenting with rule combinations within the smaller-scale units of a polycentric system, citizens and officials have access to local knowledge, obtain rapid feedback from their own policy changes, and can learn from the experience of other parallel units.
Which is one of the biggest “no duh” moments in history. I do appreciate the Dr. Elinor Ostrom, the author of the italicized quote, for her clear thinking on the matter. But she’s discovering what everyone knows – or, at least, what everyone knew before half-educated dimwits came along and decided that they were smart enough to sit in judgment on 20 centuries of human effort. Everyone who thinks about it for a moment knows that the people concerned are always best equipped to figure out the best solution to the local problem. Outside forces can help – but unless the help is freely granted with no strings attached, it is apt to hinder.
Take the example of Las Vegas – we’ve got this sprawling metropolis out here suffering close to 14% official unemployment. What are we built on out here? Gambling and the California housing market. Gambling because its just what we started going back in the 30’s, and housing because California’s housing prices rose so fast that you could sell a shack in Los Angeles and buy a mini-mansion here in Las Vegas on the proceeds. So, we had people coming to gamble which provided money and then we had people moving to Las Vegas because you could buy a lot more house for the money…and it became a circle. As more people came, more gambling was done and more houses were built and more people came and more gambling was done and more houses were built…until the housing market died and now we’ve got ever more empty houses and less and less gambling going on. My fear for Las Vegas is that it will by and large die away – not Strip; that is too much an international tourist destination – but that the rest of the city will die. If no one can buy more houses and there is no market for local gambling, what are we here for?
Why did this happen? Because most of our land is held by the federal government – close to 85% of Nevada is owned by Uncle Sam. Which means that bureaucrats and politicians in DC decide what is to be done with the land. Who do you think had the ear of the distant government: regular folks, or those who represented casinos and home builders? We got more and more land out of Uncle Sam – at a price, naturally – but only to build more houses and more casinos. Where are the farms? (yes, I know, we live in a desert, but there are things which can be done agriculture-wise…example being a local pig farm which feeds the hogs off the refuse from the casino kitchens…naturally this one non-casino, non-housing enterprise had been under fire from government officials who want it gone…so they can build more houses and casinos on the land) Where are the factories? Where are the mining operations? All we’ve got is glittering casinos and houses worth 50% or less of their mortgage amount. Oh, and a few preserves and parks as a sop to the environmentalists…but still not usable to the locals, except to look at…
I’m not saying that if we, the people of Nevada, had full control that this would paradise – but I’ll bet that we wouldn’t be caught in an economic vise where we now have to try to figure out ways and means of diversifying our economy when all we’ve got are houses and casinos – and with still almost all the land not developed held by Uncle Sam, who doesn’t just want us to build a future on the land…that land is only to be used as part of political back-scratching, you fool! As an object lesson in why locals should rule, Las Vegas is perfect – and keep this sort of thing in mind as people propose to allow the same distant bureaucrats to run health care for the locals.
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