Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Live Small and Prosper: Leaders need promote a “live small” philosophy

I’d love to see politicians lead the way and incentivize a ‘live small or go home’ philosophy.

As I said in an earlier post, “(After learning) that local new housing starts continue to fall because of the recession, I thought I'd rather see governments develop a plan to incentivize the building of smaller homes [and cars, other products, etc.], one that doesn't require another large layer of bureaucracy (as would, for example, a cap and trade system).

Imagine the benefits if leaders encouraged the following:

(1) Buying a house no bigger than we actually need.
(2) Buying no more powerful a car than we actually need, with an emphasis on good gas mileage.
(3) Taking public transit to work, if possible, two days out of every five.
(4) Walking, if possible, for any errand of two km or less.
(5) Cutting back on optional air travel. For example, someone who takes two vacation trips a year by air could cut back to one, someone who takes one trip a year could cut back to one every two years.
(6) Using canvas bags for grocery shopping instead of plastic.


["Eat less food too!": photo link]

(7) Buying domestic instead of foreign made produce, goods and services whenever possible.
(8) Insulating your home, if financially capable; and if still on oil, converting to natural gas or alternatives.

What else? What else?

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