More Reasons Not to Buy Local

By Ocean in Buying local, Featured, Free Trade, Our Theory

Last week we published our Top 5 reasons not to go local, but we could not go without mentioning a couple others. More reasons are always found for going local, and we felt these points needed to be addressed. We also added some other points in favor of interstate and international trade.

6. You can buy what you want, not what someone thrusts at you.
Yes, in a small town you can choose to buy small town products and the vendors are more in tune with what you want. On the other hand, a closed off community will have no Ipods, TV’s, stereos, Wii’s, cell phones, etc. I personally have not bought an iPod because I feel no need for one. On the other hand I cherish having the choice to do so.

7. It supports local farmers.
This is controversial, but true nonetheless. There are fewer than a million farmers in the US now, while 3 generations ago a majority of the population dealt with farming. Cheaper goods are being brought in from abroad, while much local farming is being subsidized (so we don’t have to pay $6 per apple). Of course, this has very little to do with local farmers. 85% of US farms earn less than $100,000 per year, but farms earning $1 million and over are receiving 33 times as much in subsidies as the smaller farms are. Subsidies are doled out thanks to lobbyists employed by the big agricultural firms. As a person whose family used to consist solely of farmers 50 years ago and now has none, I can attest to this.
Free trade would cut these huge companies down to size and allow the local farmers a better chance to expand, at least in their own country.

8. It is human nature.
We all know that the Neanderthals died out, while Homo sapiens (that’s us) continued living. We now know that we apparently co-existed and interacted, and that Neanderthals may have also had their own language and were much stronger than us. So why did they die out while we didn’t? A common reason given is that the ice age killed them off. This makes no sense, however, since they survived at least 2 ice ages and their dying out did not necessarily coincide with one. A more plausible reason would be by looking at what set us apart. We (homo sapiens) developed specialization, which brought about division of labor which, in its turn, brought about trade. Neanderthals did not (to the best of our knowledge). We were, therefore, able to not only achieve the basic necessities to sustain ourselves but develop tools and luxuries.

9. It is the way of the future.
If we all decide to buy local, our communities will have fewer and fewer goods available, which will spark an exodus of the young and skilled. Goods (and services) will not be imported from other places, so the Northeast won’t have anymore bananas, and the Midwest will have no more seafood. People will migrate to places where they have more choice, both of employment and consumption.