The Real Wealth of our Nation is Its People
Over half a million people lost their jobs last month. There's no question we need a job-creation plan. The real question is what kind of plan will most quickly stimulate the economy and at the same time provide the best long-term investment for our nation.
Let's urge President Obama and Congress to use the American Recovery and Reinvestment Job-Creation Plan to massively invest in our human infrastructure: that is, in human capacity development. Investment in our material infrastructure (bridges, roads, etc.) and our natural infrastructure (green jobs, etc.) is certainly important. But study after study shows that when our nation invests in its people, starting in childhood, the economic benefits are enormous.
By creating, subsidizing, and providing training for jobs in childcare, early education, healthcare, eldercare, and other "caring industries," as well as supporting caring work in homes, we quickly stimulate the economy, help families, radically reduce poverty and violence, reward women's economic contributions, save billions in crime and prisons -- and develop the "high quality human capital" needed for our post-industrial economy.
Our economic crisis is an opportunity to lay foundations for a sustainable and equitable economic system instead of just trying to patch up an economy based on unsustainable consumerism, unsustainable consumer debt, and unsustainable environmental practices. The current economic meltdown is not due simply to the globalization of unregulated capitalism. The problem goes much deeper -- and so must the solutions.
The financial return on investment in caring jobs and home activities is huge -- and not accounted for in popular economic models circulating in Washington which, as shown by our economic crisis, encourage disastrous short-term market speculation. We need a new economics that really works -- both in the short and long term.
* America and the world are in the midst of a sea change as we shift from the industrial to the knowledge/information era. Many of the jobs being lost in manufacturing and other fields will be gone for good as we move toward more automation and robotics. Our most effective investment is in human capital development, starting in childhood and continuing all through life.
* A job-creation program component that focuses on the work of caring and caregiving will stimulate economic recovery and develop high capacity human capital capable of pioneering new frontiers of innovation across the board in every sector of society: culturally, socially, technologically, and environmentally.
*Neuroscience shows that the quality of childcare directly affects the development of human capacities and potentials; caregiving produces what economists call "public goods" and should be economically valued as civic work.
* The hi-tech green jobs and infrastructure construction jobs proposed by the job-creation program as currently formulated are still largely "men's work." Yet the time has passed when male "heads of family" were the sole breadwinners. The majority of families are two wage-earner families or woman-headed families. An effective economic stimulus program also provides jobs, training, and subsidies where the female labor force is concentrated: childcare, education, healthcare, eldercare. Studies show that women buy 80% of household goods: the food, clothing, and other essentials that keep the core economy going.
* Support of "caring work" will radically reduce poverty and violence, and their enormous economic, social, and personal costs. In the U.S., as in most nations, the poor are disproportionately women and children.
* As the Baby Boomers age, demand for eldercare is rapidly exceeding services available. The job-creation program must address this urgent need by supporting good eldercare in both the market and household economies.
* Millions of Americans are going uncared and undercared for. We have a huge caring gap from cradle to grave. A more broadly defined job-creation program will help close this gap at the same time that it stimulates the economy and trains both women and men for the work that is most urgently needed for a healthy economy and society.
* Creating a new cabinet post or advisory council for high capacity human development will facilitate the reordering of social priorities and the implementation of a new economic agenda appropriate for the post-industrial era -- and a more equitable and sustainable future.
The economic stimulus plan should be a bridge to the kind of economy and society we want and need: one where caring for humans and the planet is the primary economic driver. Good care and education for children is an essential investment in our nation's future work force, and hence our future quality of life. Investing in human infrastructure will not only rapidly stimulate our economy; it will lay foundations for a new economic era where our most precious resources -- people and the natural environment -- are nurtured, sustained, and thrive for generations to come.
A proposal for a Full Spectrum Job-Creation plan is posted at www.rianeeisler.com.
A Peaceful Revolution is a blog about innovative ideas to strengthen America's families through public policies, business practices, and cultural change. Done in collaboration with MomsRising.org, read a new post here each week.
Risky? Yes, certainly. But are the other options really providing us the solution we would like to witness?
Your call for a more "caring economy" is much appreciated. We often forget, though, that the foundation for such a caring economy is not in place in our society. As long as our society is based on a model of Dominance & Subservience - a fear-based model - a caring economy will not be sustainable, nor will it be authentic.
In your previous books you have written about the Dominator model - I belive that there's a second component (the subservient position of the majority of our population), which equally contributes to this non-sustainable model. I will very much look forward to seeing these elements included in your proposed stimulus package. (For more information about the model of Dominance & Subservience, please visit the Conscious Business Institute blog about "Are we really an evolved society?" at http://consciousbusiness.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/are-we-really-an-evolved-society/)
What if these metrics could be as specific, well-known, and authorative as the carbon footprint?
What if all of these different metrics could be summarized in a single metric that was as well respected and understood as the GNP is today?
What if a partnership- and caring-oriented organization were to be empowered to organize a collaborative process to define these powerful metrics and to assemble them from data that already exists?
What if this collaborative process drew upon contributions from an international council of both scientists and visionaries?
What if this council developed methods that enabled these metrics to be applied on a national, international, and personal level, since all three must be addressed to complete the job?
What if this council developed multiple ways of off-setting low scores in this metric, just as today, some companies and individuals offset their high carbon footprints through purchases and changes in consumption?
In short, what if every person, company, and country on earth were empowered to effectively promote these values, receive positive feedback by using these to metrics, and use these precise results to put pressure on companies with regressive practices?
I belive that it is better to Identify the job that we need performed, envision who would be doing the job and then (only then) fill the job. And you are right that it is with those coining into life and leaving life; 10 years in either end of the time line of life. And it is the people who need help; homeless, mentally disabled, abandoned and the people whose lives pave a road to poverty, which is what creates hopelessness and/or crime.
Frankly, it is really shocking that in this tsunami of "change" there is so little conversation about blind assignment of gendered work to be attributed to males - as if households are solely headed by males. What planet is everyone on?
Taking a slight detour - the expansion of marriage to include those who love the same sex is economically sound in helping thousands cope with old age.
Please push on - push hard - have your say. You are a Visionary.
I truly hope the Obama administration understands this and acts on it.