By Marty Hine

Redstone Review

LYONS – The Wall Street protest movement is sweeping around the globe gathering followers and strength. Despite differences from place to place the protests share frustration with banks, corporations and the widening gap between rich and poor. No one knows where it is all headed but it seems certain to affect us even here in sheltered little Lyons.

At the risk of sounding unpatriotic, this once again raises the age-old debate between capitalism and socialism; individualism and collectivism. And, it comes at a time when the traditional role oflocal government in economic development is being seriously challenged.

I say unpatriotic because Americans equate capitalism with the core constitutional principles of liberty and freedom. Fiscal conservatives argue that free-market policies always yield the best possible outcomes. Collectivists, on the other hand, say that equality and compassion are more important and can only be achieved through government regulation.

I’ve been following this discussion for a half century now and my conclusion is that both systems are flawed and cause pain and suffering. Socialist governments degrade into poverty and fail and capitalist states destroy the environment, foster class conflict and also fail.

In all fairness (if that is possible), there are no purely socialist governments just as there are no purely capitalist ones. If Lyons were purely socialist, town hall would provide all services and manage all businesses, employment and organizations. We would all be on the town payroll that would consist of town revenues divided equally. Health care, insurance, telephones, housing, transportation would be government functions and the food bank would collect all the food and divide it equally. With the profit motive abolished most of us would stop taking our assigned work seriously and look for alternative sources of income. The rest would stop working altogether.  If you doubt this, I suggest you visit Cuba.

On the other hand, if Lyons were purely capitalist it would trash thousands of pages of regulations including the building, zoning and business codes. Housing and commercial construction would be substandard and unsafe by today’s standards. Anyone could build anything they wanted any place they wanted regardless of impact. Fire, police, water, electric, sewage, parks and all other town functions would be provided by private firms only for those who were able to pay for it. There would be no regulation of liquor, tobacco, marijuana, drugs, pornography, guns, driving licenses, slavery, child labor or gambling.

What we have here in Lyons is a mixed bag of freedom and regulation. It’s a constant battle between personal self-interest and the public interest. It’s not perfect but it is the democratic principle in action.

These issues have played a front-and-center role before the Lyons Board and staff lately. The Lyons Town Board has, among other things, adopted new rigorous building codes, imposed strict regulations for marijuana dispensaries and modified the zoning regulations. The board is are considering far-reaching restrictions on the types of business that will be allowed in the Eastern Corridor. This reflects a controversial fear that corporate franchises could change Lyons’ “small-town character.” This is hardly the kind of anti-corporate sentiment the protesters are expressing, of course. But it does show the kind of negative emotions that corporations evoke even here.

We are sheltered here from the worst of the current recession but we are feeling it nonetheless. We have some who are living in poverty and some who are wealthy. We have some who are out of work and some who don’t need to work. There are some who lost their jobs and houses due to frankly criminal behavior by banks and corporations. Those bankers and corporate executives received federal bailout money, kept their bonuses and still pay no taxes.

We have a reputation here in Lyons of expressing ourselves with passion. I don’t expect a Wall Street type demonstration on Main Street any time soon but these protests are going to go down in history as the first step in a worldwide revolution. Stay tuned.

Marty Hine is a former Lyons Town Board Trustee and most recently he was the chairman of the Lyons Planning and Community Development Commission. He lives in Lyons with his wife Ellen.

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