Survival, Self-Sustainability, and Meaningful Jobs in the Modern National State
Suppose you live in a democracy where the President calls every working class citizen and asks: “I am giving you the chance to choose between having a job that provides you with a secure and meaningful life of purpose while helping insure the survival and self-sustainability of our Nation, or you can decline the job and work on any other societal issue you wish at your own risk. You have 30 seconds to decide.”
Which would you choose?
If you yearn to do something purposeful with your life, but are frustrated by the lack of opportunity to do so, you can unite with your fellow citizens to support changes that can fulfill your desires. Work and jobs are an integral part of life where we can find meaning and purpose. We can support changes for creating secure and meaningful jobs that can lead to a life of purpose, but first we need to see where the existing problems are:
Problem #1: Too many jobs in modern economy Nations are being lost to cheap labor in emerging economy Nations. It is well established that emerging economy labor has already dramatically affected the workforce in the USA and other modern economies. The looming problem is that emerging economies are expected to add a huge surge in educated, middle-class populations. By 2030, the global middle-class population is projected to more than double in size, from 2 billion today to 4.9 billion. Most of that growth is expected to occur in China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia. Even more ominous, today every 1 in 2 middle-class people on the planet are American and European. By 2030, that is projected to shrink to only 1 in every 5 people.¹
Problem #2: There is an excessive economic dependence on comfort/ convenience technology in modern Nations. The private sector largely ignores practical, true-needs products/ service investment in favor of get-rich-quick comfort/ convenience product/ service tech investment, leading to a dangerous over-dependence on a frivolous economic base. It is an essential part of the human spirit to have a sense of purpose and meaning. Comfort/ convenience technology is like a placebo to happiness that ultimately leads to a sense of emptiness if the human spirit of purpose and meaning are disproportionally neglected.
Changes we can support to solve Problems #1 and #2: Modern economy nations need to maintain a healthier balance of true long-term needs economic activity and the meaningful and sustainable jobs they create in their own nation. This includes jobs related to housing, infrastructure, energy, food security, water security, national security, healthcare, and efficient use of natural resources. The jobs created by serving these true long-term needs are home-grown, and home-implemented, to alleviate the crisis of excessive loss of jobs to overseas markets. Each country can be united around a spirit of National self-sustainability and survival, feeding the human spirit for a sense of meaning and purpose.
Innovation and resource efficiency for true long-term needs can be encouraged through a private/public partnership method pioneered with great success in Israel. An impartial National Incubator Panel is set up to quickly assess practical ideas that can solve true long-term needs and create meaningful jobs. The most promising ideas are assigned small teams with all needed bases covered (technical, business, legal) to realize commercial success. Small teams that are nimble, yet fiercely dedicated to creating meaningful jobs for their fellow citizens while enabling responsible and sustainable growth, can operate within a 2 year maximum time limit to commercial reality. Publicly owned sites serve as pilot facilities to assist with resources and insure the innovation will have practical use. Projects are funded with smaller amounts, but there are a larger number of projects in order to create a more diverse economic base with a wide variety of meaningful and secure jobs.
Even jobs that are for comfort/ convenience of life will be more meaningful if the products/services they create are to help the quality of life of citizens of a Nation united around the fundamental human spirit of survival and self-sustainability. The National Incubator Panel concept is in fact designed to help insure we do continue to have economies based on a mixture of true needs and comfort / convenience/ joy, by insuring we devote sufficient attention and resources to a diverse workforce that fulfills critical needs before they become critical problems.
Problem #3: Weakling bureaucracies result in policies that reward inefficiencies and actions that are far too often self-serving, as opposed to fulfilling Nation or World-serving needs with high efficiency. Far from the perceived “just there to do good for the World”, they are all too frequently “mostly there to just do good for themselves and their cohorts.” Agencies and organizations related to International Aid are a prime example; they tend to be so blinded by their own self-interest as lifetime aid providers that they choose to support projects with an apparent goal of maintaining the necessity of “lifetime aid” as opposed to solutions that meet the needs of the people in a manner that helps them learn how to take care of their own needs without international aid. If you wonder why mass refugee and immigration crisis still occurs, it is this problem, combined with corrupt leaders in emerging economies.
US Federal government funding opportunities for domestic innovations suffer from these same inefficient bureaucratic problems. Most of the opportunities state “The decision for funding will be highly dependent on who is applying”- translating to “prestigious University professor with cushy lifetime tenure?”- Here you go! “Common person who struggles all their life to make a positive impact with the survival and self-sufficiency mentality?” — Sorry, not qualified!
Changes we can support to solve Problem #3: Elimination of bureaucracies/agencies that demonstrate the mentality of doing more good for themselves and their cohorts than their Nation, rhetoric without action, and that engage in long-term research projects that support their own interest at the expense of their fellow citizens, the country, and the World. Utilize the money saved to fund the National Incubator Panel (NIP) that will support real action of people who are dedicated to innovating solutions to true needs and that create meaningful jobs for our citizens to live a meaningful life of purpose while creating a sustainable and responsible future. Re-assign certain personnel that demonstrated their ability to put the needs of their Nation and their fellow citizens ahead of their own agenda (at the defunct agencies) to the NIP.
It would not be difficult at all to take any practical idea and have a qualified National Incubator Panel assign a small but potent team of necessary experts to get the job done. The “Dream Team” does not need to be in place beforehand for needs-serving practical ideas to be accepted as worthy of pursuit. When it comes to practical ideas to fulfill true needs, the idea is far more important than “who is applying.”
International aid to emerging economies needs to be focused almost exclusively on training programs and product/service assistance that teach people in emerging economies how to take care of their own needs. For example, in rural Africa the training should be on things like how to grow crops with higher yields and with less water. If the Leadership in any emerging economy is such that international aid does not end up for the intended use, that Leadership should be removed in a manner that will insure their successors will. For the most part, people want to stay in their homelands; with proper training and product solutions, they should be able to do so. 21st Century know-how and practical products/processes exist to enable everyone to meet at least the most basic needs of life; there are no longer the valid reasons of past centuries for mass migration.
Problem #4: The US consumer mentality that “everything must be the lowest possible price.” As consumers, we become addicted to how many things we can buy because the price-per-item is low enough to do so. The companies’ manufacturing the products you are consuming know very well about this American mentality, so what have they been doing? Utilizing production in overseas markets where labor is cheap and they don’t have to pay benefits, to bring you what you want. This consumer mentality adds fuel to the fire for the looming middle-class labor crisis; a continuously spiraling down economic base, excessive loss of jobs to emerging economies, and decreased sustainability and self-sufficiency of our Nation. You benefit at the expense of your fellow citizen’s jobs; our economy becomes weaker, and more vulnerable, when we lose a diverse job base.
Changes we can support to solve Problem #4: When the American consumer is willing to pay more for domestic goods to help support and strengthen our Nation’s economy, the Corporations that produce these goods can establish production operations in the USA. The Corporations can pay fair wages so their American workers can realize a secure livelihood, while remaining a sustainable corporate operation by making acceptable profit on the goods sold to USA consumers. A positive loop of USA consumers supporting sustainable USA production, and Corporations supporting the USA workers’ sustainability, will be created.
Domestic production also encourages domestic innovation. For products/services/resources that fulfill the true needs of society, innovations create meaningful jobs that offer great job security and decreased vulnerability. When US consumers pay a fair market price for these true needs of society, we help support the research for new innovations that lead to secure and meaningful jobs, and responsible and sustainable growth. All of these principles apply equally to all modern Nations.
Problem #5: Polarization in people due to lack of understanding perspectives, and ineffective methods of communication that magnifies this polarization, leading to frivolous arguments that delay or prevent effective actions. People are getting so caught up in the idea of strong, decisive actions that they fail to consider the reasons behind the strong, decisive actions. Instead, they act on an emotional response merely because they are strong, decisive actions. How tragic would it be to not realize a secure, meaningful life of purpose merely because of an emotional reaction to the idea of “strong, decisive actions” without really trying to understand the perspectives behind them.
Changes we can support to solve Problem #5: If the problems are large, and the status quo is not sufficiently creating the desired change, then we have to appreciate the perspective that strong, decisive actions are necessary. If President Trump can implement strong, decisive actions to help American citizens live the ideal of a secure and meaningful life of purpose while insuring the survival and self-sustainability of the USA, he will be an excellent President. The media will have far less reason to attack if communication was such that the majority of the citizens of the United States were united around this ideal, and that obtaining this ideal was clearly the goal behind the decisive actions.
Communication of strong, decisive actions must be done in a manner that the intention is both clear and righteous. The theme of this article is creating jobs that lead to secure and meaningful lives for our citizens, and serve the survival and self-sustainability of our Nation; communications around decisive actions for such purposes should easily fall into the “righteous” category as long as the reasons and goals are made clear, and the communication is done in a manner that unites people around this ideal.
The US and Global Economies
President Trump has the correct idea that strong, decisive actions are needed to solve many of our current societal problems. The looming middle-class job crisis, and the enormous risk of global resource shortages and conflict in the not-too-distant future, requires strong and decisive actions to be taken now. The critical needs of society such as food, water, energy, and national security are likely to take center stage ahead of all other issues. By focusing on these and other true societal needs, we can increase resource efficiency and self-sustainability through innovation and the implementation of products/ processes for domestic benefit. These products/ processes create meaningful and lasting domestic jobs, and lead to living a life of purpose for our citizens.
By focusing on survival and self-sustainability, the United States and all other Nations can increase their resilience and decrease their vulnerability. By establishing sustainable and responsible self-reliance in all Nations, we greatly reduce the risk of global conflict over resources. By taking care of their own needs to the greatest extent possible, all Nations will be in a far better position to cooperate amicably together in the future.
Innovations can and should be shared throughout the World, as appropriate, so that every Nation can both fulfill their own needs with the highest efficiency and create secure, meaningful domestic jobs that fulfill the survival and self-sustainability of their Nation. By focusing on putting decisive actions into place that can achieve these ideals in each Nation, we can achieve prosperous and content societies with sustainable and responsible growth globally.
Work and jobs that fulfill true societal needs with the survival and self-sufficiency mentality can feed the essential part of the human spirit that yearns for a sense of meaning and purpose, a powerful ideal that can unite people in all Nations. It would be a terrible tragedy if we could achieve this ideal, but were unable to do so because of failure to understand perspectives, failure to communicate in a way that unites people, failure to learn from history, and failure to use existing guidance that has proven to be an outstanding role model to achieve it.
There is a short book written for the purpose of averting this tragedy, using a role model based on the soul of survival, self-sufficiency, wisdom, compassion, and faith 2,000 years in the making². The book shows that the answers to achieve this desirable ideal are within our grasp- if we know where to look to find them.
If the President asks for your support to implement strong and decisive actions that create domestic jobs for you to live a secure and meaningful life of purpose while helping the survival and self-sustainability of your Nation, or you can decline and work on any other societal issue you wish at your own risk, what will you decide?
References
¹ World Economic Forum, 2012 http://www.reuters.com/middle-class-infographic The New Global Middle Class: A Cross-Over from West to East, Homi Kharas and Geoffrey Gertz (Washington, DC: Wolfensohn Center for Development at Brookings, 2010)
² A Model to Make America Great Again: and Unite Our Nation
© Thomas Hill
ThomasMAGAHill@gmail.com
