SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY SYSTEMS

An Outline of the Major Domains of Public Policy/Program Needed for a Healthy, Sustainable Community

Much as houses are constructed out of bricks or timber, societies are constructed out of ideas. Two of the most persuasive moral ideas (or ideals) in the postindustrial /postmodern world are:

• Ecologically sustainable economic development
• Democratic inclusion and participation

Social communities have a unique role to play in the larger, globally integrating social order. They operate on a scale that is appropriate for the micromanagement of the earth's ecological systems. And they represent the stage on which the whole-person dramas of most of our lives are played out. The community in which one lives may be the most important single systemic factor in determining the quality of one's life.

A healthy, sustainable community needs public and/or community-based policy and/or programs in all of the following areas in order to effectively manage the bioregional ecology and economy and provide for sustainable economic development.

Full employment and Efficient Resource Use

• Liquidity, Complementary Currencies
  --Time Dollars
  --LETS, Hours, ROCS
• Public Investment
• Public Spending
• Sustainable Commerce (Planning)
• Support for the Working Poor
  --Affordable Child Care
  --Affordable Housing
  --Affordable Health Care

Public Infrastructure

• PubliC Safety
  --Police
  --Fire
• Transportation
  --Roads
  --Public Transportation
• Communications Systems (internal & external)

Land Use

• Land Value Taxation (H. George)
• Affordable Housing
• Sustainable Agriculture
• Sustainable Forestry, Mining & Other Natural Resource Use
• Conservation & Recreation

Health Care

• Prevention & Health Education
• Acute Care Services
• chronic Care Services
• Catastrophic Care Reinsurance
• Universal Coverage

Education & Culture (including Political Education)

• Learning Networks & Communities
• Public Education
• Youth Services
• Family Services
• Spiritual & Cultural Networks

--Copyright © 2000 by
Arthur Warmoth, Ph.D.