This video features some of our Village Stewards discussing villages and VillageTowns.
Our thanks go out to an Emmy Award winning news producer with one of the big-3 American networks, who flew down with professional gear on a busman's holiday to film Village Stewards to upload to this site as video clips. He also commented that if we could reposition VillageTowns as an answer to the economic crisis hitting America, that this may offer hope and a solution.
For the most part, we try to avoid presenting VillageTowns in the context of global fear. In the page on No cars in the Village for example, we listed 19 reasons why a car-free village is better, and not one of them spoke to Peak Oil, Global Warming or Economic Collapse. Why? Because we do not believe one can build a community around fear; that it is far better to build it around attraction.
However, the VillageTown may be the best answer suffering countries can find to their troubles.The prospect of a billion dollar real estate development, privately funded with no adverse environmental effects, during a time of high unemployment in the building industry, is an obvious winner.
Beyond this, however, there is a more subtle matter on the minds of ordinary people having to do with where they invest both their life savings and their future. It's been a long time since people feared going to the bank and finding the doors barred. Some fear hyperinflation as trillions are being pumped into the global economy, other experts tell us deflation is upon us. Gold is up, gold is down, the stock market is tanking, and the ordinary person knows not what to do.
Some invest in tangibles... garden tools, seed and a simpler, but more self-reliant life. Problem with this comes in the lifestyle. Unless you like living the hard subsistence living of our forebears, going it alone can mean a life not all will enjoy. In contrast, the VillageTown, especially those located in the countryside, provides safety and security, but also provides social and cultural enrichment, the opportunity of a wonderful life for all ages and stages of life. It is said that during the Great Depression, France hardly noticed, while Australia suffered greatly. France was made up of many local economies, where the important things in life were not dependent on global trade.
The VillageTown idea was conceived long before the current fears of Peak Oil, Global Warming and Economic Collapse hit the headlines, and it was not conceived as an antidote to those negatives. No cars in the local area makes sense... it's safer, quieter and cheaper. Better insulated houses make sense... they are quieter, warmer and cheaper. A local economy makes sense... it's more friendly and supportive. Decades ago, someone made a tee shirt that said "If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem."
VillageTowns are part of the solution.
Build your Village.
Pass the word.
