NEEDED
– A NEW SET OF ATTITUDES & BEHAVIOR
Human
beings basically appreciate order and are resistant to change.
However, if a need to change a living pattern can be amply
demonstrated, and the social leaders encourage that change, people
will try rather radical new ways and ideas with a minimum of protest.
We have only to look at the sudden [recent] change in the China
situation, or our new fuel conservation practices to appreciate the
persuasive power of leaders and the media. [Some things persuade by
their very nature. Consider the massive acceptance worldwide of the
digital revolution and cell phones.]
Therefore,
this plan proposes that the American people be encouraged to
institute the following changes in their thinking and behavior.
1.
Wasteful consumerism should be deglamorized as a way of life—we are
fast running out of the resources to support it. [Food scarcity is
increasing, water supplies are failing, fish resources are
decreasing, timber and other resources are being mined, and world
populating is still growing at an unsustainable rate.]
Aside
from the psychological pressure to buy, buy, buy, caused by current
advertising practices, the high cost of repair services and lack of
“free” time prevent many people from recycling and repairing
their still useful possessions.
Considering
current knowledge regarding agribusiness practices and food
processing, not to mention prices, more and more people desire to
grow and prepare their own food but are short of time and energy. A
change in this area could result in significant energy savings for
transportation and over-processing.
Keeping
up with the Joneses is a significant motivator, and Robert Townsend
who wrote Up
the Organization (1970)
has some good points to make on the subject of executive salaries and
off-the-job status competition. He feels that $35,000 [CPI adjusted
for 2012, $207,000. All subsequent wages are CPI adjusted to 2012.] is a desirable ceiling for executive wages, and
that only outstanding performance or creativity should entitle them
to more in the form of a bonus. If off-job status competition is
eliminated, and the expenses in terms of conspicuous consumption
removed, $35,000 to $40,000 [2012, $207,000 to $237,000] is enough to
provide a very comfortable and efficient living standard for our
busiest executives.
If it
were fashionable and practical in terms of maintenance, people would
be perfectly happy with a new car every five years instead of a new
one every other year. The public [and the government] is finally
convincing Detroit that it would rather [be better to] have smaller
cars as well.
2. We
should be encouraged to increase our consumption of services and
reduce our consumption of goods, thereby maintaining acceptable
employment levels but reducing the use of non-renewable natural
resources. A pubic policy expanding the availability of leisure time
and encouraging creative and constructive uses of that time could
have this effect.
The
availability of larger blocks of free time could greatly expand the
recreation sector of our economy. Moderately affluent families
(especially the many who have achieved that status through the
full-time work of both husband and wife) could spend much more time
and money on vacations, recreation, projects [and social service
volunteer activities]. This in turn would create more employment in
resort and rural areas.
No
longer would our prime recreation sites be deluged on Labor Day and
deserted the following week. The summer vacation season could run
closer to five months than to the current 10 weeks, thus bringing
greater prosperity to the coastal resort cities and poverty stricken
areas of great natural beauty
like
Appalachia. Many other leisure activities such as music, drama, and
art could grow in importance at little cost to our natural resources.
[Much more time could be available for worthwhile activities like
mentoring, community service, parkland cleanup, and school repairs and painting.]
3.
The [cultural norm] that education should occupy one block of a
person's life, work occupy the next, and leisure the last should be
eliminated. [In adulthood, the ability to take periods of time off to
study, retrain, conduct personal projects, or enjoy recreation should
have a valuable effect on improving the general health and reducing ["Obamacare,"] Medicare and related expenses.]
The
world and technology are changing so fast that education must become
a lifetime process. Adolescents should have a chance to work
part-time, youths should not be forced to choose a life-time career
before they know anything about life, middle-aged people should not
be forced to keep their noses to the grindstone or cooped up in the
house with the kids [or dependent parents], and the elderly should
not have to sit idly on hands that are experienced and still capable.
Some
social and technology experts have suggested that in the future most
people will work at three distinct careers in their lifetime. Under
this proposed system people could easily train for a moderately
demanding and reasonably well-paid job which would allow them to
begin their families and establish a decent home. At a later time,
perhaps in their thirties, they could upgrade their skills or embark
on a new, more demanding career—i.e., medicine, law, etc. Finally
as conventional retirement age approached (the fifties) they could
reduce their level of work in their regular occupation and take up
and develop expertise in a new, less demanding form of work that
would keep them busy, happy, [and contributing to the economy] well
past our current retirement time. [This is not meant to suggest that
the current Social Security age requirements should be raised, but
rather to suggest that older people working part time would still be
contributing to the national economy. Many do not realize that above
a certain income people have to pay taxes on any Social Security
paid.]
4.
The idea that a person (particularly a man) doesn't “have it” if
he hasn't started up the career ladder by age 30, and is “over the
hill” by age 35 must be eliminated. [This will have to be
reexamined in today's context.]
The
proper rearing of young children should be a major concern of parents
of both sexes in their 20s and 30s. After the children have left the
nest is the time to bury oneself in one's career. If young men didn't
have to worry about getting their foot in the door and more older
women were in the higher positions
of responsibility, young men could be better fathers and their wives
would be able to improve their own potential as human beings through
work, education, [and creativity].
5.
The boredom and frustration of assembly line work should be
alleviated by encouraging factory workers to learn other skills and
by enabling them to work part-time without loosing seniority and job
security.
The
same could also be said for routine forms of skilled labor and
technical or clerical work. It would give the workers the money,
security and time to pursue important personal projects and [achieve]
life goals.
The next installment will outline the plan itself and suggest who might find it most desirable and where it might first be tested experimentally.