Episode 11 Text and Sources

Hear the episode here: https://www.spreaker.com/user/14101666/episode-11-postscript-this-economy-will-

This Economy Will Disappoint You

In the latter half of last year - once it became clear that the Coronavirus pandemic was not going to leave any area of life unturned and my essay segment on a community radio station here in Tampa Bay came to an end - I granted myself a break from the entrepreneur treadmill.  I chose to focus on what I had been led to believe was the good or at least good-enough life: earning a 40-hour-a-week not-quite-living wage with outlandish aspirations of getting on the property ladder, and spending the evenings drinking.  Trust the alternative thinking weird beard to take on the challenge of normality at the exact time that society at large was anything but, even by its own bizarre standards.

Whether the dedication to inebriation or the headspace opened up by this empty downtime decision was responsible I'm not sure, but around the holidays I made some late-night notes for a project concept that would turn out to be prophetic:

I have big, exciting news.  They don't know it yet, but I'm a guest blogger for CASSE.

I figure with the scale of structural change that is coming to the U.S. with firebrand Joe Biden taking power, financial resources will soon be flowing into the Center like nobody's business.  Until it reaches an appropriate size of course.

Small underfunded groups that have muddied in the weeds for years despite the critical importance of their missions should soon be getting a boost, as the superpower once hell bent on planetary devourment turns to the task of cleaning up it's planet-eating economy.

All the sustainability organisations that have rejected me for paid employment over the years despite my humble-yet-ample qualifications and knowledge (because they can only afford to hire one jerk with half a decade of specific experience and a résumé that isn't pot marked with so-called menial jobs and stretches of time not dedicated solely to the gathering of money) will suddenly fling their gates open to all manner of questionable candidates, ready for the establishment of Ecotopia.  So rather than spending further fruitless hours applying for said jobs, smoothing out the edges of my life to appeal to these people, I thought I'd just get started on the work.

Unfortunately it seems to me that the "appropriate size" for CASSE, i.e. big enough to find mainstream understanding and support, is a long way off.  I don't know what the answer is of course, but if this honeymoon period with Joe Biden is to have any merit at all, we need to keep trying new things.  So I'm trying, uh, whatever this thing is.

Part of a "Guest Host" series sidling up to NGOs, media companies, places I'd like to work, etc.

The treadmill was beckoning me back.  I didn't end up following through on this George Costanza-inspired kernel of an idea to just start pretending that I work at organizations I admire and see if they object (Seinfeld, as everyone should be aware, remains a good use of downtime).  Regardless, when promoting my eventual next "labor of love" - a headline news and interview podcast named Climate Breakdown - a real invitation to write this guest post for CASSE was extended.  Let's see if I was on to something.

The Entrepreneur Treadmill

What do I mean by the entrepreneur treadmill?  If you'll permit me to mix exercise equipment metaphors, it's the stationary cycle that people attempting to get out of the damp basement of the American economy often find themselves stuck in, moving constantly but going nowhere.  If we don't enjoy our circumstances, where working hard is not enough to meet basic needs - let alone a level of life satisfaction - we must all be little networking entrepreneurs.  We now live in the creative, knowledge-based economy, after all, that's post-industrial without being particularly post-industrialism.  We must do this either alongside underpaid work in so-called free time, or somehow do it without even that baseline of financial sustenance; either way our personal resources are being stretched thin. 

For both immediate shelter and long-term economic health we are encouraged to think selfishly to jostle and outmaneuver one another in the housing market, even though there are plenty of carbon-intensive homes to go around and growth-addicted asset managers with much bigger "creative" pockets than us are tilting the playing field.  The free market as it currently exists within our growth economy depends on large numbers of people remaining confined to the basement.  We are trying to escape a system that prevents most people from escaping and calling that a well thought out way to organize society. 

To be sure entrepreneurship and its potential can be exciting even when it doesn't pan out financially.  But evidence suggests that it probably won't.  Take the poster child for crowdsourcing independent types, Patreon.  In late 2017 it was estimated that only 2% of creators on the site were earning the equivalent of the federal minimum wage (which is still at the same absurd level), and less than 1% were making something akin to $15 an hour.  The vast majority are not making enough money to offset the time they have to put into running their accounts.  The site for the most part continues to grow, but as in the macro economy, aggregate gains are coalescing around a small portion of individuals.  If you're part of the 99% that don't succeed?  Well you can jump back on the treadmill if you like, a slightly dimmer version of your former self, and try something different.  But the overriding message that most take away from this sort of market decree is that you just don't have the chops, Sonny Jim. 

Blue Skies Ahead?

These feelings of inadequacy (which contribute to GDP via dopamine-chasing conspicuous consumption, including in the aforementioned drinking sector) are sometimes compounded when imbibing the wise work of those who have made it into a glistening and enviable world of relative comfort and professional satisfaction, as signified by the likes of the glamorous pages of the Steady State Herald. 

How much more advanced would my analysis be if I didn't spend most of my waking time and energy thinking not for the benefit of myself, my community or our planet, but for the benefit of large companies with little to no redeeming social value and often a straightforward commitment to uneconomic destruction?  How much more wonderfully insightful would this paragraph be if my back wasn't this week killing me due to a chaotic flextime work schedule that makes healthy sleep impossible, or the myriad other ways that frontline worker health is undermined even outside of a pandemic?  In order to draw disparate threads together in fresh or compelling ways you need to have the resource space in your life for a blue skies consumption of knowledge (i.e. on topics whose relevance to your main field of study are not immediately apparent, driven by curiosity rather than a direct goal).

This structural inefficiency when it comes to the allocation of labor is repeated across much of the country.  The point is not that my situation is unique.  The point is that it's common.  This economy centered around insatiable growth that benefits small numbers of people while desperately needed enterprises struggle is killing our potential as a species in tandem with killing our species.  Efforts and funds that could go into directly solving problems and improving businesses, organizations and societies are instead directed primarily into economic expansion and payouts (in other words, being big beats being great).  It's why Brian Czech can't just hire two new Communications Specialists for CASSE, or a coordinated team of ten, maybe ones with different skill sets and perspectives.  Should the day come that the Center actually reaches its optimal size he's going to need a lot more than ten people to explain what the heck is going on.

You're Fired

As for my firebrand Biden prediction, a full judgement of a politician's climate record is a bit like observing peak oil: it's only comprehensively visible in hindsight.  But even before the remains of Biden's investment proposals have emerged from the progress shredder of Congress, a picture is forming that is not altogether encouraging for the future of domestic sustainability employment.

In late May two Biden officials told Reuters that the administration intends to rely on ally nations to supply the U.S. with most of the materials it needs for its electric vehicle push.  Supposedly this is an "out of sight" decision to avoid confrontations with environmentalists over mining (which, given the apparent fracking-like impacts of a proposed giant lithium mine in Nevada, and the opposition it has spurred, is not an unreasonable concern).  While other recent announcements do indicate an intent to pursue at least some further domestic mining, a newly released Energy Department document (the National Blueprint for Lithium Batteries) doesn't give any indication of the planned proportion of domestic to international sourcing, other than to suggest that the U.S currently has only a small portion of the world's reserves of the necessary EV minerals. 

Around the same time, analysts in the U.S. wind industry suggested that most of the jobs created by any expansion of offshore wind will be in Europe for at least a few years, as the U.S. lacks the capacity to manufacture all the necessary equipment it needs.  You could argue that Biden isn't to blame for the lack of American renewable manufacturing capacity only a few months into his term.  But like a certain Al Gore he was in a strong position of power not that long ago for a rather long time.  And now, as then, climate legislation faces the prospect of being sidelined. 

Further skepticism of a new way forward is found in Tom Perez - former Obama labor secretary and, until January, Chair of the Democratic National Committee - who recently became the latest Obama official to take a job at a company that busts unions, including in this case in the energy sector.  The Biden administration also recently nominated a lawyer to the Treasury Department who sued the department on behalf of Exxon just a few years ago.  If these are the people at the helm it's no wonder the jobs we need don't exist.

Nothing will fundamentally change until policies such as The Full and Sustainable Employment Act and steady-state concepts such as universal basic income and shorter working weeks hold sway in the corridors of power.  In their absence, millions of people have good reason to hold on to the cynical feeling that this economy will disappoint them.