The Idea of A local Economy

The Idea of a Local Economy by Wendell Berry was slightly difficult to understand. I think I understood most of it but not entirely. The most important ideas were his criticism towards capitalism, free trade, and a global economy. Even though he slightly criticizes communism, I feel the hate is mainly geared towards capitalism. When talking about the specialization and the global economy the author says, "Whatever may be said for the efficiency of such a system, its result is to destroy local production capacities, local diversity, and local economic independence. In my opinion I think he has some good arguments like the destruction of land and maybe some others but I don't agree with the main things that he attacks like free trade, free markets, and a global economy. In my opinion it does not make sense to criticize something that has worked well this far and the only future danger that I see is the destruction of land. The destruction of land would occur anyways whether it was because of free market or not. A couple of months ago I read that countries with free markets most of the time have more income per capita than  communist economies so this is another thing to keep in mind. Finally, I believe that this article raises some important concerns but I disagree with a significant amount of what was said.


I read the story titled humanitarism. The story was about an organization named doctors without borders. The goal of this organization is to bring medical help to people in underprivileged places throughout the world. The most important ideas that this writing brings up is the importance of keeping humanitarian organizations separate from the government. It also talks about the importance of having both government help and help from these organizations. A quote that I really like was when he said, "humanitarianism occurs where the political has failed or is in crisis". The writing then goes on to talk about both political and these organizations having their place in helping people.