by Alan Barton, All News Pipeline:

History is a great teacher.  In studying it, you learn what works, what does not work and how to correct the failures.  Or so you hope.  Do you remember anything about the old coal mine towns, or the old railroad towns popping up along the rail lines, or the frontier towns built way out in nowhere?  You should, all major cities as well as towns began that way and many have failed and disappeared along the way.  Many towns are renowned for their origins in corporate origination; for example, Hershey Pennsylvania, Pullman Illinois and Henry Ford’s Alberta Michigan.  They were all formed as towns that were self supporting and many were also designed or located to keep its occupants inside certain limits because the mines or lumber or other owners did not want the workers to leave as it would harm the company’s production and therefore profits.  Civilization itself can be traced back to the idea that to even live, people needed to band together to help each other supply food, build shelter, educate the people in warfare and in cleanliness among so many other things, involve other families to help negate interbreeding, and so on.  The point is that they were self sufficient as far as they could be, perhaps trading with neighboring villages and swapping possible mates whether through joint religious or trading wheat for apples or rabbit hides for flint arrow points.  The main point is that to THRIVE they needed wider and wider access to other products, cultures and opportunities.  Those that did not did move around did not thrive, but died off; keep this concept in mind.