Los Angeles is desert - not a cultural desert, but a real desert. The millions of trees, and miles of other plantings are kept green by irrigation. That's how we use the water. Next to us is the San Joaquin Valley, where the farmers use water pretty indiscriminately, spraying in 100 degree temperatures. That's because they don't have to pay for it - or not much. We pay as much as 100 times as much (government privilege you'll recall). However, further up the San Joaquin, water privilege really comes into its own.
In these hot desert conditions, growers receive subsidies for growing rice, which is then exported cheap to ruin the markets of those we pretend to be friendly with.
It is estimated that these desert paddy fields evaporate more water than is needed by the whole population of the city of Los Angeles.
Not to worry. If we need more water, we'll get it from Oregon when Karen isn't looking.
The power of the mining companies springs not from corporate strength, but from ownership of natural resources. But, in the battles between labor and capital, we see only the management.
Jim Carson was a Georgist during the depression. He sold from town to town and wrote of his experiences. He told of visiting a Pennsylvania mining town. The miners were in the middle of a long strike and had been locked out. Many were starving. Jim went to a town meeting, where help was being asked. The contributions were slow in coming, when a nice little old lady in front contributed $500 to great cheers and congratulations.
Jim asked who she was and was told she owned all the mine land around the town. Yet, the battle, of course, was with the corporation - that had to pay the old lady for the right to mine.
Another anecdote that perhaps makes a Georgist case. During the depression, thePennsylvanian miners were mostly out of work and in a bad way. Then some of them discovered that if they dug down in their back gardens they would hit seams that ran close to the surface.
So, they dug.
Before the end of the 30's, this back garden mining was taking out an annual $35 million worth of coal. (Phil Grant - the Wonderful Wealth Machine)
Harry
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Ray wrote:
Bruce, Karen and Harry, I'm not going to talk behind one's back on this. Harry lives in an area that is notorious for its use of water. That us is both wealthy individual and corporate. California in dealing with such individuals has the most state dept in the country and more debt than many of the other states put together. But that is not real to me as it must be to Harry. What is real is my own experience with the market and corporations. For over forty years the major Corporation on the reservation that I grew up on was the Eagle-Picher Corporation. They provided all of the jobs, suppressed the studies of what the lead and other heavy medals were doing to the children and told the kids that it was safe to swim in lead laden mill ponds that had crystal like clarity due to the chemicals in the water. Not only that but it was said the fish were safe to eat as well. And they did since many of the miners were Catholics. The largest of the slag piles called chat piles was flattened at 400 feet in height and covered 80 acres. All of the rest can be seen at http://www.homestead.com/schehrer2/index.html BUT don't look for any Indians. Even in the town where most of the Quapaw live there will be a hole as large as a cave-in. I guess that is where we all went, down that hole when the white miners came. And I do mean white because there were no Orientals and Blacks were not allowed to spend the night. The entire county was closed to blacks. The only way they could do that of course was by virtue of the fact that they leased the land from the Quapaws and being government land and a special entity the mine owners could eliminate a whole race from the county. Today they have erased the Indians as well. But you will hear a little up close and personal view of the government when at one point he speaks of the "great industrialization" of the past and poo poos the pollution issue calling it a government invented problem. I think he got too much lead dust in his brain. But the pictures are true and my old house is even included. The shacks are real and still existed when I was there. There are now many more holes in the ground than he notes and most of these places are ghost towns.WATER: Now back to the water issue. The mines didn't protect the aquifer when they closed so the polluted alkaline and heavy metal laden water has now polluted the aquifer for three states and is spreading. As for the private oil corporations, they put high pressure boiling salt water into their wells to get the last little bit of oil out. As a result they too have caused a huge problem with the aquifer. I believe it is called the Rubideaux Aquifer if my memory serves me correctly. How do I know this? I had relatives working on those wells and they told me but they don't tell Congress and the Corporations who have individual protection under the incorporation law don't have to tell. But it is a coming hell and asbestos suits won't help when you can't drink. But that is OK, it will just create more jobs trying to find the solution to creating fresh water from the seas. That is the way Western thinking works. If the point is to create jobs then making a mess and cleaning it up is an exercise in the creation of jobs and the future of work. They call it "development" and "progress" you go figure. Ray Evans Harrell
****************************** Harry Pollard Henry George School of LA Box 655 Tujunga CA 91042 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: (818) 352-4141 Fax: (818) 353-2242 *******************************
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