Watching the Toll

Watching AND living the toll of a political economy gone very much awry! The unemployment. Maybe worse yet – the UNDER-employment! Careers running aground with little hope of resurrection. These and other symptoms are now too long-lived to be merely symptoms but rather features of our social network. They are there. They are encountered. They are survived one day at a time. They do damage to personal lives. For some they are fatal happenings, never again to be surmounted by some among us.

 zzzzz

In the past we wondered what the Great Depression must have been like to live through. Do you remember thinking about this? Maybe you are in your 50’s or 60’s, maybe a little older. But surely you did wonder about those days that haunted our parents. They saw the dark days of the 1930’s. They did or their parents did. They did not want to revisit those horrors again. So they saved. They invested. They spent their money carefully. They built nest eggs. They spent those dollars carefully, too. Along the way they paid for the education of their kids, paid off car loans before buying the next car. They bought homes that were modest – one bathroom for 5 or 6 people; one bedroom to serve two people, or more. Home sizes then were 1000 square feet or smaller. It was only in the 1970’s that average home size grew beyond 1000 square feet and reached upwards of 1300. Now that is a small home by American standards unless you are living in an apartment, or worse, in a New York City apartment! The latter are spacious at 500 square feet! Most apartments are under 900 square feet.

No, the American space standards have grown to super sizes. Most families demand a home over 2000 square feet for starters. Many are many thousands of square feet larger than that. McMansions you say? Yep.

With rising energy costs larger homes are more difficult to afford. This will become even more a reality in the future unless we discover whole new energy methods from the realms of science and technology.

Meanwhile a growing number of Americans are skipping this discussion and focusing instead on downsizing. Not because they wish to, but because they have to.

Underemployment has consumed their nest eggs. Retirement plans are being revamped. Emergency funds are gone and living costs must be pared to regain a safety net. Salaries and wages have been repriced toward much lower averages. Smaller homes, apartments and cars will have to do.

Then too, futures need to be re-calibrated. What jobs and careers will be available for my kids and grandchildren? What kind of education should they have to prepare for these major changes? Indeed, what do I need to do to adjust and get by right now?

Tsedeye Bebreselassie of the National Employment Law Project has told us:

            “You can’t build a robust recovery with poverty-wage jobs.”

He’s right. We can’t build a recovery in this manner. We can, however, build an entirely new economy, one which invests in the future, performs rigorous research and development, refocuses on believing in people and investing in educational systems and the infrastructure needed by a society to support a vigorous new future.

If we are tired of dealing with the symptoms of a failing and sick economy, one that has lasted several years, perhaps we need to realize the old economy is not sick, but gone! I believe we are in transition toward a new economy that has yet to take full form.

It needs to be studied, but here are some of the big projects we will need to tackle to make the new economy happen:

            -Make education accessible to every citizen, of all backgrounds and age groups

            -Ensure common infrastructure is sound and reliable (bridges, roads, water and

 sewer systems, electric grid, energy infrastructures)

-Research new forms of energy to replace fossil fuels and protect air, water and

 soil from contamination

-Focus attention on quality of life issues that have less to do with inflated

 standards for automobiles and homes and more to do with relationships, human

 spirit, art and intellect

-Learn to become a collaborative citizen of the global community

Pope Francis recently shared these thoughts with the world:

“We have created new idols. The worship of the ancient golden calf has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose.”

To that I say Amen! There is something very important at stake here. It very well may be our human-ness. Last time I checked, being a healthy human being did not require a large home, a $100,000 car, or a body bedecked with jewels and designer clothes. Those trappings may be fun for those who can afford them, but they do not define them and the quality of their inner life.

We have much to do. We have much to think about. But are we prepared for the truly new?

December 4, 2013