Before you think about patronizing a local store rather than SprawlMart, remember that Justin Katz over at Anchor Rising urges deep suspicion of Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts and her call to Buy Local, RI because it asks individuals to take action, rather than looking for big government to step in.

Hunh?

I read Anchor Rising all the time, and while I may disagree with Katz's politics, his ideas are generally pretty buttoned up. This screed, however, goes right off the rails:

Where's the call for immediate action at the statehouse to provide incentives to shoppers to buy locally? Where's the demand that the legislature cut sales taxes below those of our neighbors? Where's the call to shrink government so that taxpayers can retain more money to spread around?
— via Anchor Rising

Yes, there is no issue so simple and straightforward that it cannot be twisted to buttress a conservative argument for shrinking government.

Sure, it's easy to pick on Roberts' initiative as not attacking the root problem of our economy, but claiming that to buy local is "probably to act in contradiction to your direct personal interests" is the same mispricing trap we have fallen into as a society for years. Looking solely at the register tape when determining self-interest ignores the societal implications of offshoring, the impact of low-paying big box stores that siphon money out of our towns, and the environmental effect of transporting goods and shoppers greater distances.

Is it the case that you may pay a little more at Irving's shoe store than Buy N Large? Or at Clements Market rather than Dutch Conglomerate and Shop? Sure. But the multiplier effect of that transaction as money circulates though Portsmouth provides jobs and very directly benefits our neighbors. I don't need an incentive from Providence to tell me that's the right thing to do.

Failing to recognize indirect costs mistakes purchase price for total cost of ownership. Those other costs don't disappear, they just get shifted somewhere else, and believe me, we end up paying for them eventually. This is how we have, for a century, woefully underpriced the cost of carbon emissions associated with everyday activities because the impacts were too far away to comprehend. Now we are finally at a point where economic models are sensitive and computers powerful enough to crunch the numbers.

Just as the photo of Earthrise taken by Apollo 8 (40 years ago next month) helped humans recognize the importance of ecology, perhaps there is an opportunity in this financial crisis to help us see the our economic choices the same way. We would do well to remember that the Greek root word from which ecology comes is οικος, or household, the same place we get the word "economy." If we can learn to see the global economy (and its true indirect costs) the way we have begun to comprehend global ecology, we may be more likely to be able to correctly perceive and navigate the choices we will have to make as a society, and yes, as individuals.

Enough of my yapping. Bill Gerlach over at Sustainable Sakonnet has a very thoughtful, reasoned post on the topic. Go take a peek.