The Missing Connection

The failing economy and our devastated environment - from a distance, it appears that these two problems are separate, but when we look closer, the connection becomes unmistakable." The Green Collar Economy by Van Jones

Some friends invited us over for dinner to watch a recorded segment from the Oprah Winfrey Show they thought we should see. It was about how ordinary middle-class people across the country are changing their lives in order to adjust to the difficult economic pressures most of the population are feeling.

It was an upbeat show obviously meant to be informative and empowering. The role environmental crises is playing in our current economic challenges was not mentioned. Instead the expert guest suggested that we as American consumers are responsible for our current economic problems because the banking system has be structured to respond to our demands. Thus, he claimed, we as consumers can solve the nation's economic problem by getting out of debt and not consuming as much.

The remainder of the show featured steps various individuals are taking to cut expenses. Two friends, for example, were swapping couches instead of buying new ones. A family was camping out in their back yard rather than taking a vacation. A mother was borrowing DVD's from the library for her children instead of buying the newest release each week. Another woman was making a full-time job of clipping coupons to save on food costs and advising others on how to do it. Another family was no longer going out for dinner. Others were only buying sale items or shopping at second-hand stores. And so on ....

All commendable efforts to be sure, but missing from the discussion was the irony that consumers were being blamed for our economic crises when consuming is the very basis of our economy. Consumer spending accounts for 70% of the US economy. As you may recall, after the 911 terrorist attacks, President Bush urged that the best way Americans could help the country was to "keep spending."

The way our economy is structured, each cut these individuals on the show are making to ease their financial woes causes greater financial woe for someone else who depends on them to spend. The restaurants owners and staff, store owners and staff, the innkeepers, the songwriters, artists, production house workers, growers, and so many more are losing their businesses, their careers, and their jobs as maxed out, financially stressed consumers cut back. In other words, your self-sufficiency is their loss of income.

These folks may seem like nameless, faceless statistics, but in reality they are neither. They are us. All of us. Our families, our neighbors, our friends and their families, neighbors and friends.

So what's the solution suggested in the headline article in the Los Angeles Times Business section this week? "Government Seeks Ways to Spur Lending." The nation is desperate for us to get back to lending and spending again. But lending and spending is how we got into this fix. We've been living beyond our means.

American consumers owe nearly $2.6 trillion in non-mortgage debt, or about $8,460 for every man, woman, and child. Credit card debt alone is approaching $1trillion. Most state governments are in debt and, as of this minute, the national debt has topped $10 and a half trillion. That's $34,521.63 per person or $3.88 billion per day since September 28, 2007. And it's not just our personal and national debt that's over taxed. The entire planet is over-taxed.

This is the missing connection. Discussion like those on Oprah and so many other evening news segments and life section features I've seen lately fail to point out that neither the planet nor our economy can continue to support the current level of consumption and resulting debt needed to keep our economy growing. We've hit the wall on growth. We've not only outgrown our budgets; we've out-grown the Earth.

The changes featured on Oprah clearly demonstrated that we don't need most of what we spend. That means most of the jobs from which we are trying to pay for what we buy aren't really needed either. So, what can we do to extricate ourselves and the planet from these mountainous deficits? Certainly not gear up for more lending and spending. We need to restructure and reprioritize our economy to recognize that our own well-being and that of all others, including the environment, is all connected.

The way out is not so much about focusing on what we spend or don't spend. It's about what we produce for ourselves and for each other.

It's about getting back as individuals, as local communities, and as a country to producing the basics we need without going into debt to do it. Right now 22% of our economy consists, not of providing such basics, but of shuffling money around within the financial sector. Or into building and maintaining 22.2 square feet of commercial shopping space per American so we can shop. This compares to only 2 or 3 square feet per person of shopps in other 1st world countries.

So we're not short of places to shop. It's the basics we're struggling to provide for. In the last 12 years mortgage payments have risen 46%, utilities 43%, and property taxes 66%. Health insurance costs have more than doubled and family food budgets are stretched to the limit.

Fortunately we don't need to wait for the Congress, the Federal Reserve, or the next US President to restructure the economy for us. Few believe that's going to happen anytime soon. As Oprah was implying, we can begin to restructure the economy ourselves, not by focusing on what we buy, but on what we can offer that's actually needed and how to rely on that to support us in having what we truly need.

We can begin right now by asking ourselves two key questions. What do I and my family actually need? And, do people actually need what I doing now to earn a living? Would people be just fine without what I'm doing? Then here's three steps we can take to be sure we can both provide something needed and provide for our needs in the process:

(1) We can develop an independent career or secure a position that serves a basic need for the people in our own communities, something they can't usually provide for themselves, i.e. health care, education, and production of other necessities. Such a career will be far less vulnerable to market fluctuations and the whims of multi-national corporations looking for the lowest labor costs and highest profits where ever around the world they can find them.

(2) Then we can begin doing as many things for ourselves as we possibly can. Without the necessity of spending 8-10+ hours a day getting to and from and working jobs that don't produce what we people actually need, we will have time to provide for many of the things we need ourselves, like growing our own fruits and vegetables, mending our clothes, repairing household items, and so forth.

(3) We can begin supporting the enterprises of our local neighbors and nearby fellow citizens by doing as much of our shopping as we can locally and using equitable personal and community exchanges and local currencies when possible.

Life in such an economy, might not be as convenient as what we're accustomed to, but living within our means will be simpler and make our lives more secure. Such an economy will also take the pressure off our overly stressed environment, allowing eco-systems we depend upon to recover and reducing the threats of climate change and depletion of water, energy, and other valuable natural resources.

Additionally such an economy will mean in support ourselves we will be simultaneously supporting the well-being of others, instead of compounding their problems by leaving them without a means of support.

Did you see this particular Ophra show? If so, what did you think? Leave a comment.

(c) Sarah Anne Edwards, 2008
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Hope

Gracious what a roller coaster ride our economy has become. This past week conversations and news headlines have been on little else. There are dramatic national and international concerns, yes, but also a lot of very personal individual concerns.

A recently single parent who can no longer afford the house payment after her ex lost his job and can't contribute his monthly child support amount, but also can't sell the family home because there are so many houses on the market and no one is buying.

A widow whose investment income she lives on along with social security has lost 37% of its value over the past few months.

A couple whose income has suddenly disappeared because past clients aren't paying their bills and new clients are cancelling or postponing plans to use their services.

A middle-aged man with a chronic illness who worries about whether he'll be able to continue to afford the medication that keeps him going.

One way or another most of us have growing concerns. We're sensing the economic difficulties that we, our communities, our country, and the world market are facing are not temporary aberrations that will be passing soon. I know I am. I believe fundamental changes are taking place throughout the world that will mean things aren’t going to be the same today or tomorrow as they have been in our recent past. Just what that future will look like isn’t clear, only that won’t be what we’re used to.

But that doesn’t need be reason for despair. Our well-being doesn’t have to depend on keeping things as they have been. In fact, our well-being will depend on recognizing that things are changing and that we can change with them. In other words, as author Bertha Calloway is widely quoted to have said, "While we cannot direct the wind, we can adjust the sails."

Yes, we can adjust the sails, our sails. We can adjust how we live so we’re not so vulnerable to unpredictable economic ups and downs and so we’re not using up or destroying our vital natural resources and ecosystems. In her book Depletion and Abundance Sharon Astyk explains what that means to her and why it gives her hope:

"When I realized that everything was going to change, I was at first afraid. Because I thought, if my government or public policy or other choices weren't going to fix everything, what could I possibly do? What hope was there, if I had to take care of myself, if my community had to take care of itself?

But when I began looking for solutions that could be applied on the level of ordinary human lives, that involved changes in perspectives and pulling together, the reclamation of abandoned ideas and the restoration of strong communities, I began to feel hopeful, even excited. Because I realized that when large institutions cease to be powerful, sometimes that means that people start being powerful again."

I agree we can be hopeful. We are far more powerful and resourceful than we acknowledge, especially when we join with others within strong and close communities to find solutions that suit the reality of our finite yet abundant world.

We shouldn't look for some blanket solution, though, that someone else can pass along. As philosopher Viktor Frankl once said to me, "We must find our way." We must search for solutions because those that will sustain us will be different for each of us and for each of our communities.

In the process be we near or far, however, we can most certainly support, care for, and support one another along the way.

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