Chapter 10, Restoring the Guardian Summary and Analysis

Installing energy saving devices and mechanisms allows people to take tax credits if they have enough income to do so. Lower income entities do not enjoy the income or the tax breaks that the middle and upper income classes do. The lower income brackets sometimes see energy savings measures as an infringement on their lifestyles. Any such pro-ecology movement must take place from the bottom up in order to be successful. Jane Jacobs maintains that there are two different systems at work here. One is the guardian and the other is the commercial. The guardian system is basically one of governance. The virtues of one system become the vices of the other when they mix and the system of governance does not have the efficiency of the commercial system. This occurs when one tries to...