Do your own thing…
What if we were fortunate enough to just work on what we see as important on any given day, creating value that improves our daily lives, rather than chasing money to pay someone else to do the same thing (often badly). Would that be more satisfying than, say, sitting in an office cubicle day after day. Could you do that? And if you could, would you be willing to invest in allowing other people the same opportunity. Could we sustain an economy that way?
They would make mistakes. You will make mistakes, if you try doing something on your own. It can be frustrating, risky, some days even defeating when things don’t go well. Been there, done that. And, you have to live with your mistakes … they don’t go away, no matter how much you sand and paint and try to cover them up, you’ll always know that you could have done better.
Recently, President Biden signed an executive order on climate issues, that among many other things intends to create 3 million jobs, a renaissance of the Roosevelt-era CCC, financed with public debt. My estimate (I am not an economist, nor an accountant) is that the entire program will cost in the neighborhood of $150 billion. That’s less than a tenth of the current stimulus package. Another way to look at it: that is the entire $2000 stimulus check of everybody who voted for Joe Biden. Would you give up yours (your $2000), to invest in 3 million kids working to save the environment? I would.
Why invest in human capital? The entire premise of the Industrial Revolution was that machinery was so much more efficient at production than hand labor, thus everything possible should be done by machines. The counter-argument was the Arts & Crafts Movement. Now, we have millions of unemployed workers, with no prospects and largely without a skillset to bring to the table. Businesses are still pushing the logic of the Industrial Revolution, now with Robotics and Artificial Intelligence.
It is important to understand that the current financial/business model has created some super-wealthy individuals, some of whom make a determined effort to “help” through the prevailing structure of corporate foundations giving grants and endowments to other (non-profit, 501c3) corporations. As often as not, there are expectations and agendas involved. Interestingly, it doesn’t have to work that way. Anyone who has followed Mackenzie Scott’s philanthropy just watched her give away $74 billion, no strings attached.
Green New Deal
John Maynard Keynes was the economist who designed the New Deal. The Green New Deal is predicated on a revival of Keynesian economics. The only way to finance such a venture is through the issue of bonds. Bonds are low interest investments, but remarkable for the security of the investment. Somewhat like planting trees. With proper care, the investment matures slowly, providing a measure of stability against more volatile (possible more profitable) investments.
It makes sense to me to invest in human capital, to invest in my community. I’ve spent the past thirty years doing just that, building onto my own house, helping other people build, teaching useful skills, alway encouraging people to do as much as they can for themselves, then pass it forward. My house is paid for, I’m retired (I get Social Security, anyway), I have access to Veteran’s Benefits (health care that I don’t need at the moment), and Medicare as a safety net. Socialism, plain and simple … lucky as hell. These are all programs that came out of Democratic administrations, by the way.
I don’t have any ready answers. Oh, I can crunch numbers … do some fairly sophisticated maths, but those aren’t the answers we need right now. What we’re in need of are answers to the human equation. How do we inveigle the wealthy to invest in human capital, in the environment, small farms, forestry: long term investments that don’t reckon on a quarterly balance sheet? Why should they consider the welfare of society and the planet as of paramount importance? Maybe they don’t actually have the imagination…
“Imagination is more important than Knowledge.” — Albert Einstein
