The Real Costs of Growth in Oregon
By Donella Meadows
–June 5, 1997–
The myth persists. Growth is good for us. Development will bring in more tax money. The only way to get our property taxes down is to bring more people and houses and businesses to town.
If you’re one of the many who still believe this, look around at cities and towns more populous or more rapidly growing [...]
The Land Doesn’t Put the Kids in the Schools
By Donella Meadows
–April 10, 1997–
Vermont is in a tizzy over a set of gnarled-together problems that plague every state — schools, land, property tax.
I don’t suppose any place can boast of a happy solution to school funding or land taxes. Most of us live with a set of compromises that endure only out of habit. No one questions the status [...]
Beware of Social Security Fixes
By Donella Meadows
–January 16, 1997–
This country will be out of oil in 30 years. By 2030 we will pump dry much of the groundwater of the Southwest. We don’t hear a peep from our leaders about these problems. But they’re in a panic over the possibility that 30 years from now Social Security will go broke.
When the swollen baby-boom generation [...]
Corporations Already Rule the World
By Donella Meadows
–February 8, 1996–
The title of David Korten’s new book — When Corporations Rule the World — does not refer to some theoretical future state. Korten’s point is that corporations already rule much of the world, and that the consequences aren’t good, not even for corporations.
His book is a detailed documentation — names, cases, numbers — of dysfunctional corporate [...]
Flat Tax, Vat Tax, Splat Tax
By Donella Meadows
–February 1, 1996–
There are four questions to ask about any new tax proposal. Will it be simple? Will it be fair? Will it raise enough money for the government? Will it be good for the economy?
The flat tax promoted by presidential candidate Steve Forbes fails on all four counts. But so does our present tax system. Forbes’s contribution [...]
