There is a story told about Henry Ford who, when asked about how much one needs to be happy, replied “More”.
Henry Ford was right. And the desire for MORE does not stop, because when you amass MORE you are still not satisfied because there is still MORE to be had, and maybe if you get that missing MORE you will be contented. But you aren’t.
We can see this effect in the efforts of Tobermory’s two heavyweights to build more parking lots whose result, apart from increasing the profits of the heavyweights, will be more traffic chaos, more trees cut down, more inconvenience to the private taxpayers of the Municipality who derive zero benefit from the overtouristing of the area and suffer increasing inconvenience.
We need to keep in mind that the private taxpayers pay the vast proportion of property taxes and the businesses pay a relative pittance. But it is the businesses, with their insatiable desire for MORE who are indifferent to the annoyance they cause.
In my fifteen years in Tobermory I have been struck by the pliability of successive Councils to bow to the wishes of the businesses, to the detriment of every one else.
Leon Baltas,
Tobermory
