Introduction
by Kate Koch, Editor
Dear Reader:
You wouldn’t believe how difficult it is to determine how many acres of Whatcom County are covered with mini-storage facilities. So difficult in fact, I couldn’t figure it out. I think I called every imaginable department in county government. I talked to planners, assessors and the operator countless times.
I posed the question to friends, acquaintances and people in coffee shops but nobody seemed to have any idea. Guesses ranged from 50 acres to 5,000 acres.
Most of the time people just looked at me funny and asked why I wanted to know. Well, the concept of mini-storage fascinates me. Think about it. People pay money every month for space to store the stuff they buy.
Virtually everyone I talked to had either thought about getting or knew someone who had a mini-storage unit. One woman even mentioned mini-storage condos. Instead of renting monthly, users buy the whole space for a couple thousand dollars and use it until they sell it off to the next guy with too much stuff.
As you will hear repeatedly in this issue, Americans work longer hours than citizens of any other industrialized nation in the world. As a result of longer work hours, the middle and upper level wage earners have the ability to buy more. So much stuff, in fact, that the size of garages in this nation has increased from the typical one or two stalls to three, four, even five or more car garages. And, still people rent mini-storage.
As Americans work longer hours to buy more stuff, everything else in their lives begins to deteriorate.
Collectively, our nation makes more money today than it did in the 1950s but Americans have more debt today. Parents are working longer hours and allowing their children to grow up in day care.
In an effort to achieve the American dream of a house, yard and three-car garage (to put their stuff in), people are moving in record numbers to areas on the urban fringe — suburbs — causing cities to sprawl uncontrollably, eating up farmland at unprecedented rates.
Pets are being ignored, dream-vacation plans abandoned and human health overlooked. It’s time for a change. This is why we are covering this topic.
The impacts of overwork and over-consumption on the environment were brought to our attention by a small group of environmental and social activists who are working on launching a new holiday — Take Back Your Time Day. The day’s planners are asking people to take the day off of work to attend lectures and teach-ins that will be held on campuses across the nation. Check out www.timeday.org for more information.
While this new Time Day isn’t the solution to overwork, it is the beginning step in solving a huge problem. Education about these issues is essential to helping a nation of over-workers and over-spenders climb out from under their bills and products, hug their families and begin a new life.
So, sit down, put your feet up and take a look at this issue.
