Ecatherinoslaw og Paris

SPs Trygve Slagsvold Vedum mener distriktene trenger nye statlige arbeidsplasser mer enn hovedstaden.

Distrikspolitikk er ikke noe nytt og det er nyttesløst. Jean Baptise Say kommenterer dette i sin "Treatise on Political Economy" som kom i første utgave i 1803 og avslutter med en morsom anekdote.

If towns owe their origin and increase to the concentration of a variety of manufactures, great and small, manufactures, again, are to be set in activity by nothing but productive capital; and productive capital is only to be accumulated by frugality of consumption. Wherefore, it is not enough to trace the plan of a town, and give it a name; before it can have real existence, it must be gradually supplied with industrious hands, mechanical skill, implements of trade, raw materials and the necessary subsistence of those engaged in industry, until the completion and sale of their products. Otherwise, instead of founding a city, a mere scaffolding is run up, which must soon fall to the ground, because it rests upon no solid foundation.

This was the case with regard to Ecatherinoslaw, in the Crimea; and was, indeed, foreseen by the emperor Joseph II, who assisted at the ceremony of its foundation, and laid the second stone in due form: “The empress of Russia and myself,” said he to his suite, “have completed a g eat work in a single day: she has laid the first stone of a city, and I have laid the finishing one

Say forteller også at politikerne på hans tid forsøkte å begrense størrelsen av Paris. Paris er i dag en storby. Ecatherinoslaw er borte.

Folk kan og vil bare bo der det er liv laga.