The Reagan Revolution Isn’t Over Yet
By Donella Meadows
–August 12, 1993–
Well, yes, I guess it’s true what they’re saying, that the just-completed budget battle does reverse, partially, by a hair, the momentum of Reaganomics. Government spending, especially military spending, will go down some. Taxes on the richest one percent of us will rise to about half of what they were in 1980. The gas tax will [...]
Power to the Planners or to the People?
By Donella Meadows
–August 5, 1993–
We had spent two days indoors, talking, talking, talking, and not agreeing. We had to go out into the community of Guarari before we saw that both sides of the argument were right.
It was a conference on human settlements in Latin America, held in San Jose, Costa Rica. The argument was about who should shape cities, [...]
Brazil Has Yet to Learn the Meaning of Sustainable Development
By Donella Meadows
–July 28, 1993–
Since the assassination of Chico Mendes those who govern Brazil have been trying desperately to recover their image as fit leaders for a large, dynamic, civilized, sustainably developing country. The government stopped its subsidies to destructive cattle-ranching and set aside “extractive reserves” in the Amazon. It hosted the Earth Summit. It ousted a corrupt president.
Those were [...]
Dear Folks: July 26, 1993
Dear Folks,
This is going to be such a busy month, I’d better write a bit now, or I’ll forget what has happened so far in the rush of what is going to happen in Costa Rica.
We got in a beautiful cut of hay. It dried in one long, brilliant June day and was dark green and sweet-smelling and full of [...]
Walking Awhile in Each Others’ Moccasins
By Donella Meadows
–July 22, 1993–
Last year Barbara Sable, head of the Human Services Agency in New York, sought welfare payments from her own agency, to see what the process was like. She applied in February, and finally got the help she was pretending to need in May. She had to fill out forms and more forms, get documentation from her [...]
