From Catastrophe, Opportunity

So what good can come of a pandemic that threatens the lives of millions and grinds the global economy to a halt? For those suffering and their loved ones, or the care givers who put their lives at risk without needed protective equipment, things must look pretty grim right now. We have yet to have a confirmed case where I live in Central Wisconsin, but we are feeling the workplace and social effects along with everyone else.

We've seen in social media and tried to embed in our attitudes gratitude for time at home with kids and domestic projects we can finally get round to. But maybe this whole economic pause is an opportunity for much more than that. Since the virus hasn’t impacted our community yet, my imagination tunnels toward our economic and social disarray as I go down the doomsday rabbit hole. I think about what our economy is, what it's based on, who it serves, and how insanely delicate it is. Ultimately, I imagine how I can secure the needs of my family given that challenges like this will only become more common as more people interact and the Earth’s climates are changing. I've come up with a few personal things-installing a wood stove in my home, taking a closer look at portable solar power for my home and woodworking tools, and a garden.

Then I look to all the opportunities for resilience in our neighborhood. Granted, my family and I are fortunate to live in a small community where it's easy to socially distance ourselves and still get outside; my wife and I have resources to support our family through a few different means of employment; and we have access to public land that can be easily gardened (especially since I'm on the local Parks Commission). Another huge factor is our community. We live in a village of about 150 people, near localized population centers that serve as markets for our products and services. The village is open to sharing and bartering, and we help one another when it's called for. This isn't to say we'll breeze through the next few months, but it gets me thinking about how the larger economy might be restructured to accommodate events like this. Below are some things I’ve tossed around off and on that could make our household, micro, macro, and global economies more resilient, flexible, good for the Earth, and good for us as stewards of it all.

Part time work vs full time, with a federal system of health care and investment options for saving

Working, say, 32 hours a week versus 40-60 allows us flexibility and time to focus on things besides our primary income stream. Whether it’s a cottage industry whereby we market our own brand, practicing homesteading on our property or at a local park, dedicating time to truly raise our children ourselves, or taking chunks of time for in-depth travel, we can build more skills, diversify our income streams, live out our passions, and spend more quality time establishing tight families and communities with just a little extra time in our work week. And if there is not enough green space for all households to have a garden, replace a parking lot with a bike rack and/or take to the rooftops for more gardening space.

Clustered communities with localized resource sharing

The classic borrowing sugar from a neighbor is coming back in style, and it feels great! Here in Nelsonville we trade eggs for maple syrup; neighbors have access to the wood shop for their home projects; our kids learn awesome skills their friends’ parents are sharing. Cost sharing of equipment and group buying of capital items makes things more affordable and you don’t need a huge garage to store all your personal stuff. Vacant lots, balconies, parks, and window spaces are all suitable places to garden, and the more people work together to maintain communal spaces, the less work it is for everyone.

Diversified skill sets contribute to different income streams

Our economy is in shambles if we pause for a break to flatten the curve, but natural systems go dormant in all sorts of ways and still thrive. Seed and spore stages of a life cycle, transport of nutrients to the roots for overwintering, closing leaves to keep out the wind and heat, hibernation, and migration are all means that have worked for ages. Maybe we could take a lesson or two in resilience by saving, working with multiple corporations/markets at different scales and in different segments of the economy, and making sure we can sew, grow, or build.

Domestic Production of Consumable Goods and Resources

Canning, upcycling, pottery, and just plain creating your own fun are ways to become more self-sufficient and to make yourself more indispensable to your local community-not to mention support your family. If you can produce something in your home and ship it from there, all the better. There are also community kitchens and work spaces in larger metropolitan areas that offer resources for production. And if there aren’t you can be sure there’s demand for something like that, so get going on it yourself!

Self monitor our population

While our birth rate is declining in developed nations, we are still putting an ecologically unsustainable strain on our natural resources. This is specially the case in the U.S. since we as Americans consume more resources than per capita than almost any other nation. With increased population density comes a greater need for regulation of consumption, stress on the planet, and ease of disease transmission. With fluctuations in climate and weather events, we become more susceptible to shortages of food and other vital resources. We don’t need to stop having kids, but can we please consider replacement breeding (2 kids or fewer) as a means to enhance the quality of life for our descendants? This might especially be something to consider as we spend extended periods of time with partners in close quarters…

We are in for a global recession at the least. Companies, nations, and families are restructuring in ways hardly any of us could have imagined. This is the perfect time to incorporate new structures into our lives that make us more resilient and our existence more in sync with natural processes at every level. While we can’t rely on business leaders or politicians en masse to be this far sighted, we can demand measures so they will listen. And if they don’t, our flexible new existence can ostracize and put them out of business.

On the larger scale, it is time to demand restructuring to be more sustainable and flexible. Efficient distribution networks based on rail systems, subsidized health care (not at the pleasure of insurance companies), flexible investment programs for saving (private and public), and education that’s integrated with the work force are things whose neglect should not be tolerated.

One of the biggest reforms that will impact our lives at every level and all but eliminate a monstrous burden on resources (let alone the human condition) is to finally let go of our notion of punishment and isolation of undesirable behaviors. Much of the world, both developed and primitive, has successfully used methods of Restorative Justice to reduce the need for militaristic police, clinical intervention, prisons, wars, prescribed and illicit drugs, and fear in favor of finding solutions that fix problems rather than destroying lives. Who knows, maybe our quality of life could improve in the course of these changes to the degree that crime, shootings, and mental trauma are all significantly reduced anyway.

Other things we can demand at the national level and work toward within our own communities include:

Greener political policies that don’t pander to the highest bidder We can demand that our political system consider what is best for our country and its future rather than what will get its members re-elected. This disgusting distraction from the constituents who politicians are supposed to represent is the most bipartisan practice to be shard across the isle in ages. It is time to consider families, communities, and the environment over campaign contributions and an idea-stifling two-party regime.

Communal education Get the kids outside with you tapping maple trees in the park or figuring how many tomato plants will fit in a 4x8’ garden bed. Apprenticeships that augment a structure for life-long learning and earning are supplemented by specialized courses (for interest and

training) through colleges and universities. Kids still go to school, but families and communities can be expected to play a larger role in helping youth become active contributors to the community.

Saving at all levels

If we are not dumping massive amounts of money into war, a penal system, or top-heavy administrative services, we could actually have money and resources to save. Community driven programs supported at a local level by federal tax dollars can support those in need. We can use alternative models to that of the war machine to settle international disputes, and we can all figure out ways to save-money, energy, food, resources, and the quality of our lives so that when economic pauses happen, we actually have reserves to draw from, not debt to pile upon.

Localized resource cycling and interconnectivity Locally sourcing goods, food, raw materials, and services will go a long way toward making communities more independently resilient. It may sound harsh, but this is good for the whole of the global society in that outbreaks, droughts, or other disasters that are catastrophic to one segment can be isolated or more easily buffered for other communities. It also makes the places we visit actually develop character that reflects the local geography, climate and culture. We’d get to say goodbye to the orbiting belt of strip malls, homogeneously packaged crap, and lousy jobs that strangles the heart of every medium sized city. What if the place you’re living cannot sustain a population without massive imports of resources (like water)? The wane of the corona virus is the time to begin strategically vacating uninhabitable areas so as to not further stress the resources of other regions.

Well, that is all I’ve got for now. The sap is still running and I’ve got dinner to make with the kids. None of these ideas are original, but let’s keep tossing them around to figure out how to not only get through this, adapt so we thrive and grow, making the new world a better place after this pandemic. Maybe a bright spot in all this is the opportunity it provides us to rebuild an elastic, sustainable, diversified, educationally integrated, community-driven, locally intensified, humane, environment-enhancing economy. If you have an idea, it’s your responsibility to share it and live it. Comment below or get it out there in some other way—It’s time to make your voice heard and forge a better future.