Bigger is not better

We who do not understand history are condemned to repeat it. The Boston Tea Party was not a tax rebellion but a citizens' revolt against their government's collusion with big business. Those ships in Boston Harbor belonged to the British East India Company, as did their cargo. The Tea Act was tax exemption for this struggling giant - Parliament's attempt to prop it up. Needless to say it did not bode well for local small businesses, local working people or the tea-drinking public. Sound familiar?

Bigger is not better for the competitiveness of the marketplace. Bigger eliminates all but the lowest-wage jobs. Bigger results in a net loss of local taxes paid.

Maybe it is no longer enough to buy fair trade coffee and recycled toilet paper, to go to the farmers market and the local bookstore, to join a community supported agriculture. Leave the bread in the garden and go to a City Council meeting before we reach a complete dead end of private affluence and public squalor.

Mary Jo Daly

Iowa City