Rethinking Scarcity

"He who does not work, neither shall he eat"  - John Smith

Few things have defined America so consistently as the Puritan work ethic so easily summarized in the Bible by Paul and famously by John Smith in the quote above. For the better part of human existence, this simple aphorism sprung forth from necessity. The provision of food, shelter, and health all required intense amounts of labor spread across every community. Our individual worth rested in how much and how hard we worked to support ourselves and the community.

Until now....

Starting with the Industrial Revolution, passing through the Green Revolution (agriculture, not environment), and culminating in the Digital Revolution, the amount of work required to deliver a minimum quality of life has dropped so precipitously that on average, we barely need to work to secure our basic needs. Add to this the increasing urbanization of the population and few of us even have the opportunity to experience "self-sufficiency" where we grow our own food, build our own housing, and share a family physician who lives down the road. The numbers bear this out:

The US food supply system wastes 40% of what it produces.
US housing stock has a housing unit for every 2.3 people.
US water supplies currently meet the domestic need of 355 billion gallons a day at under 1 cent a gallon.

However, we cling to the generations of scarcity that influence everything from interpersonal relationships to government policy. The fear that we will return to real need and want on a grand scale continues to drive us individually and collectively. We have known only the mantras of "picking yourself up by the bootstraps" and "worthless welfare queens" and "work hard, play hard" for so long that we seem incapable of understanding anything else.

And yet, we will have to.

The truth is, we will have to come to terms with an economy whereby "work" as we know it no longer exists. (Derek Thompson in the Atlantic provided a more detailed examination of the concept in his piece A World Without Work). In order to begin coping with this, we must change our views as a society and a world on three main issues:

1.  The definition of what it means to provide value
In a world where we have the ability to provide sustenance at nearly no cost, can we ethically require citizens to "work long and hard" just to participate in the basic level of quality of life. Can a person providing social services for ten hours a week qualify as a "full participant"? Examining this will require looking at ideas like guaranteed minimum income, the consumer economy, universal healthcare, and the relationship between business and community.

2.  How we view "the other" in a world without scarcity
Whether we want to admit it or not, racism, sexism, agism...these all stem from our desire to protect the "meager" resources we have for our own survival. How do we view the right to migration, open borders, and racial equality in a world without want? Conversations around this topic will include openness to reparations for past inequity, investment in quality public education, voting rights, and codifying the basic definition of human dignity.

3.  Environmental threats to resources availability
One wildcard in all of this comes from the stresses we have placed on our environment to get to this point. Although we have a country (and even a world) capable of feeding, sheltering, and sustaining ourselves, some of our choices on this path have damaged our air, water, and soil. Some others have threatened species within our food, air, and water cycles necessary for our survival. In order to maintain and improve our ability to support the world population effectively, we must rethink and reframe our relationship with, as Pope Francis calls it, "our common home".

Addressing the three issues will require drastic social change and hard conversations. The vastness of the effort will invite incrementalism, however we have seen that play out over the past forty years and have seen little result on a scale large enough to succeed. Over the coming years - or until such a time as it is no longer necessary - I will devote my writing, working, and advocacy to the three challenges: defining work and value, improving interpersonal relationships, and mitigating environmental threats.  I know I will disagree with many on individual points within each area, but I sense no disagreement on the value of the outcome. We have the means to create a truly equal world where "work" as we know it gives way to "value". Some will welcome the chance to farm, others to build, and others to heal, but these choices will not flow from necessity but from personal choice. Others will pursue the arts, or the law, or human support. And on a scale more massive that we have seen before, people of all incomes and points of origin will focus most of their time on the pursuit of "leisure".

I look forward to thoughtful and sometimes heated discussions, and welcome any and all feedback along the way.