Labor
We have always had this unfortunate habit to point to the
other little guys first when we feel threatened rather than the big guy who is
actually bullying us all. People in America like to say the Chinese or
the Mexicans took our jobs. They are slightly less quick to blame the
executives who outsourced their jobs and usually too daft to realize that, more
likely, no one took their jobs.
Indeed, for every outsourced job there are just as many, if
not more, jobs that have completely vanished. Corporations merge and throw out
thousands of redundant employees. The corporate beast has been getting more and
more efficient and while we should like to think of that as a good thing, it
has not been so good for the worker, no matter where he lives.
Every year we become more productive per worker. Every year,
new machines are invented to do the work of hundreds or even thousands of
people. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution we have been making
machines to do the work of people and now we have reached the point where most
people can be written off entirely. We have robots to stand in our assembly
lines. A farmer who, not that long ago, would have struggled to manage 40
acres now struggles to pay the bills while managing 40,000 acres.
This is not a simple matter of factories becoming more and
more automated. Our consumption is becoming more and more automated as well. I
love my computer but it is an economic disaster. I can purchase music without
every setting foot in a record store. I can take a thousand pictures without
ever visiting a film lab. I can find out what is going on without reading a
newspaper. I can make an album without ever going into a studio. On and on it
goes. Entire industries are going the way of the dinosaurs.
President Obama likes to speak of building up a new
technologically savvy workforce able to compete in the new economy. Sure, that
sounds pretty good but what he does not tell you is this new economy will not
offer anywhere near the number of jobs it has already replaced. In fact, no
matter how well people prepare themselves, jobs will be increasingly tenuous.
More and more people will be only able to find employment as subcontractors or temps.
They will be brought in for a project and discarded when it is completed.
People will be forced to become dynamic.
They will have to constantly update their skills or get left behind. This might
keep people going in their 30's but as they get older it will be a lot
harder to convince employers that they are as dynamic as the new crop of young
hotshots. Given the new mantras of raising retirement ages emerging from
governments in Europe and in the US, people who find themselves
unemployed in middle age are going to be in serious trouble.
Similarly, while the new "green economy" will grow, it
offers only limited job opportunities. Those opportunities may be further
limited if our economy continues to struggle and people lose their ability to
address long-term issues in the face of clear and present dangers.
With the American economy limping, if not sinking, that ever-increasing hunger on which capitalism depends will take a hit as well. The world economy can no longer depend on American over-consumption. Increasingly, not only are Americans going to buy less crap overall but they are going to demand that what they do buy outlasts its warranty. As a culture, we are beginning to realize the perils of our disposable lifestyle. While this is perhaps a great thing in many ways, it is yet another economic disaster. It would be naà �ve to think that the emerging economies in China, India or Brazil will ever become the big mouths we once were. Those markets will grow some, but the peak of global consumption is likely much nearer than people today realize.
It is hard not to guess the results of these emerging trends
in the global economy. You can see them already. Long term unemployment. This
not likely to go away any time soon. We can "throw the bums out" every two
years and it will make no difference. A great many jobs are gone and will never
return. Those who do find work will often find themselves underemployed. Even
more people will find themselves knocked down into a life of perpetual panic"
living paycheck to paycheck" one bad break from complete disaster. Those of us
who manage to get by a little better may find their 30-something child with
a college degree sleeping on their couch or even their 50-something parents
needing their spare bedroom.
Welcome to the Real New Economy
Although it is probably hard to accept the notion that the economy is not going to really "recover," it is easy enough to make that case. What is harder, of course, is finding a solution. What is known for sure is that we will get no help from either the Democrats or Republicans. All they offer us is a choice between bad ideas and terrible ones. Obviously, neither was able to conceive of the very real possibility that had we let the big banks collapse, it could have possibly cut off a great deal of the cancerous growth or what could be best described as the "fake economy" and given room and fertile ground for smaller -- more ethical and nimble -- new banks to emerge along with a more realistic economy. No one can know for sure but the prospects of success for a repaired broken system to work are limited at best.
As I said at the outset, this is no time to argue for "communism" or any of the other "isms" of the past. I think history has panned out that simple solutions don't fit complicated problems. It serves us no better to have the government take over the economy than to continue to let mega banks have the reins. If we can learn one thing from history it is the veracity of this one simple equation: Power given to the few equals misery for the many.So where is the "hope" in the new economy?
It is all around you. It is in the local farmer's market. It
is down the street at the local brewery. It is in the communities that most of
us have long since abandoned behind our white picket fences and down the aisles
of Wal-Mart. We have been duped into thinking that we need these
mega-corporations for everything. It
is perhaps this terrible mistake that dooms us above else. Sure, maybe you need
to get the latest smart phone from Apple or Motorola but there is no reason you
need to go to Budweiser for beer or Wal-Mart for food. There is no reason you
can't go to a cobbler instead of Foot Locker or a reupholster instead of Ikea. We
can no longer afford to b*tch about our jobs going away. We need to start
employing each other ourselves. It is
either that or we will have to live in a country with a lot of people sleeping
on couches or under bridges feeling useless.
Like it or not, the party is over. Corporations will not
help you. The government will not help you. We are all going to have to help
ourselves and each other. If we are going to survive as a people, we are going
to have to start thinking outside the box -- the big box. It is sad to say but it
is probably true that there is going to be a lot of suffering ahead no matter
how our government acts. Like it or not, our great swaths of outer suburbia are
unsustainable. No amount of government intervention or idiotic attempts to resuscitate
the asinine concept of laissez faire economics will save them. We cannot afford
to live in little isolated castles anymore.
Though the prevailing winds of the great economic machine of
our time would have us all believe that there is only enough for the few and
none for the many, deep down we know they are wrong. We are a smart, efficient
and technologically advanced race. There is enough. We just need to offer it to
each other rather than let the greed machines take it from us, hoard it, and
then distribute it as they see fit.
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