Under construction Dec 9
Moving Towards A Paradigm Shift Economy
There are several aspects to a "paradigm shift" economic system.
1] That society and economic system must have a much smaller eco footprint
2] That economic system cannot externalize its costs
3] That economic system must be far more equitable
4] That economic system must serve the society, not the other way around
5] That economic system must have brakes
6] Money will be a vital part of a paradigm shift economic system but it will not be the only means of exchange.
How to downsize a 30 trillion dollar economy? An economy that DEPENDS on high levels of over-consumption. DEPENDS on externalizing the cost. Tens of millions of jobs DEPEND on over-consumption. "Many" millions of jobs exist TO REPAIR THE DAMAGE caused by over-consumption.
"Serious" talk of making the existing American economy sustainable is beyond delusional. But given the trends - social, economic, political, environmental - downsizing will happen one way or another. Nature bats last. Capitalism has no brakes but it cannot defy gravity.
Two Tracks
I suggest two tracks to this short look at Paradigm Shift Economics. One, a Happy Track [HT], the other, the Not So Happy Track [NSHT]. The HT starts at home, neighborhood and local, expands the realm of paradigm shift "organically" nation wide over enough years in a democratic and peaceful way so it ultimately replaces capitalism and the consumer culture without a great deal of trauma. The Happy Track is not to be expected.
The Not So Happy Track will claim an increasing number of people engaged in paradigm shift but it is derailed before it can complete its heroic mission. The "poly crisis" steam rolls capitalism and the consumer culture and leads to an enormous amount of disruption and suffering to an enormous number of people. A final going away gift from capitalism, social engineering and the consumer culture.
Perhaps history will witness an outcome for our society somewhere in between HT and NSHT.
Both tracks start out in the same place - our own homes and neighborhoods. Even at home scale, we can create a great deal of economic transformation for own benefit and the environment. The Primer goes into more detail elsewhere about reducing eco footprints. so no need to duplicate too much here.
.
The happy track describes a transition towards sustainability with enough people downsize and build civic culture at home and the community that track largely avoids a deep and disruptive default. To double underline, personal and social uplift - people becoming responsible and accountable as to reduce eco footprints, is essential to paradigm shift. Ideals and principles that can bring people together in uplift would include permaculture, the wisdom of the world's great spiritual traditions and related ideals and principles. This is the preferred track, of course. It is a long shot but absolutely worth the effort.
The not so happy track happens when not enough people take downsize lifestyles so capitalism and the consumer culture defaults when the proverbial poly crisis - social, economic, environmental, foreign relations or some less well anticipated problem erupts. Default is the visible and widespread unraveling of society. Far more disruptive than the sub prime crisis or Covid.
The actions people take in both tracks are similar. We downsize, we produce more basics closer to home. We prioritize time and money in favor of paradigm shift. We reach out to others, we continue to engage in paradigm shift as long as we can. We do not have an exact timeline. The very act of paradigm shift slows the speed moving towards default. We can do a lot in our own lives and even personal changes can have a positive effect on the wider world. The Primer is all about making those changes.
A Short Overview
The Primer's focus is home, neighborhood, nearby community. The ideal, for enough people to participate in paradigm shift to change the nation's politics, policies and budgets to favor real sustainability and uplift. Full blown paradigm shift nationwide is a long shot but people can make meaningful changes in their own lifestyles, in their own economic system with no permission needed. People can enjoy many of the benefits of paradigm shift at home and in their neighborhoods.
Starting at home and local is the point of both tracks.
Still, our own local actions can add up. Individuals can become small groups, small groups can
All of these crisis are related and they will all aggravate each other. In college chemistry, we did a titration experiment. Not really an experiment, we knew what would happen. A colored liquid is added drop by drop into a beaker of clear liquid. Five, ten, twenty drops, the color is absorbed to the clear, no change. And then, one more drop and the entire beaker changes color dramatically. This could be the model for the poly crisis. We already have added a lot of drops to the global beaker.
So perhaps the historic record seen from the future will see something in between these two tracks. I would settle for that.
Whether one thinks society can make enough changes to achieve sustainability with minimal trauma or there is no way to avoid serious disruption, the actions taken by either opinion are supportive of each other. Those with a greater concern might be more hastened. Still, both tracks one and two, downsize consumption, prioritize time and money, create mutual assistance groups, produce more basics at home and nearby, support businesses and services that fit paradigm shift and hopefully, sustainability.
So we downsize our eco footprints and volunteer for community projects, we adopt a purposeful paradigm shift lifestyle. Whats next?
Can enough people downsize enough, to prioritize their time and money enough, even, against all odds, with enlightened political help, to transform this economic system into a sustainable condition? Not quite as unlikely as the previous paragraph but hopeful at best. But what else do we have? There are a number of organizations such as Post Carbon and Transition Towns that call for paradigm shift, perhaps not using the same words, and they are doing important work. And no question there are other ad hoc and small organizations that are kindred spirits.
All these efforts are helpful. The more people and organizations calling for common sense and downsizing the better. Still, from this perspective, we are in lifeboat scenario. That said, one cannot overstate, the more people with paradigm shift ideals and actions the better. The many initiatives and actions described as real life examples of paradigm shift here in the Primer, hopefully, will begin to increasingly frame their outreach and initiatives as paradigm shift to their members and the wider world.
Some of those entities described in the Primer, and there are far far more out and about the Primer does not know about, are great role models for creating affinity groups
The Primer's scale is personal, at home, in the neighborhood, the nearby community. The entire Primer is about social and economic transformation. The examples of paradigm shift all have economic implications. The ideal is, more and more people make changes, either by choice or default, to downsize. Not all downsizing is created equal. Millions of people are already downsizing and not by choice. Perhaps they have something to teach us.
Economic downturns such as the Sub prime experience in 2007, Covid, the government budget stalemate affected many millions but mostly people towards the margins. I was shocked to learn almost 10% of Americans receive food assistance. And these are the "best" of times. What would sustainability look like?
A confession elsewhere in the Primer. Early downsizing people by choice such as myself still benefit by the majority with their enormous eco footprints. My boat is lifted whether I want it to or not. My comfortable downsized life depends on the same cheap products with their external cost subsidies. If I had to pay $50 for my slab of tempeh, one of my own core foods, I would be eating a lot less of it. If I had to pay $10 for a half gallon of soy milk, I would be drinking a lot less of it. On and on. If the average American was spending $20 for a gallon of gasoline, a year from now, all bets are off. The results would be cataclysmic.
The best case scenario is for more and more people to downsize their lifestyles, produce more basics where they live or at least support local production. And those people would be forming affinity groups of friends and families for mutual support and shared resources. As those affinity groups connect and coordinate with others, the variety of needs they can accommodate together can become more complex. Think of community supported agriculture but for a lot more products.
Its hard to imagine what moving towards sustainability might look like even in the early going. Imagine a local gas tax to fund transit. But could that transit system buy its buses and fuel from local sources? Maybe electricity but, admittedly, I have no idea how many solar panels would be needed to run a standard city bus all day. And where will those panels come from? Will there be local organic bus tires sold at a price to cover the external costs?
But here is something to consider. What if some of that preferred future ALREADY exists? That thought takes up a large part of the Primer. As described elsewhere in the Primer, one area we do have some control is in our own lives, homes, neighborhoods and perhaps small communities.
Also mentioned elsewhere in the Primer. The System has provided us with many tools that can be used for paradigm shift. There is no shortage of time, money and expertise to bring about paradigm shift. The need is one modest leap forward in consciousness. How can we build on what we already have?
Alternatives start with simply not buying stuff that doesn't fit sustainability. Also, actions to address other issues can help create economic alternatives. Preparedness for any kind of disruption, human or natural, can advance the cause of paradigm shift. Transforming a suburban property like I have, producing more food, energy, water on site can reduce the need to buy some of those needs in the mainstream economy.
When we do buy the products and services to make our homes and lifestyles more prepared for disruption, we are supporting a part of the existing economy that does have healthy value. Prioritizing time and money is a critical way to help change the economic system.
The Double Benefit
The double benefit is a corollary to how we prioritize time & money. Its simple. When we don't buy damaging products, we don't pay to repair the damage caused by those products. Even better, after time, those products that don't assist paradigm shift don't make the cut and they go away.
The US economy in 2022 weighed in at about 20 trillion dollars. Imagine, not just the kitchen remodel but cars, oversized homes, vanity purchases, junk food, excess consumption of all kinds.
If the entire nation prioritized its money [and time], there would be literally trillions of dollars [and trillions of hours] available, each year, for investing in sustainability and uplift. Its premature to cash our national double benefit check but people can prioritize their own time and money and enjoy their own self produced double benefit as soon as they care to. No permission needed. The more people prioritizing time and money, even at small scale, the better.
Those are the fortunate stories. Those are people who can afford to downsize.
And then, there are hundreds of thousands of people at the present time who are homeless, have substance problems, can't keep up with paying the bills who are dealing with disruption as a lifestyle. The steep downslope is already a reality.
A core part of Be The Change is gaining a sense, even better, an experience of what sustainable and paradigm shift economics can look like at the personal level and being able to advocate, to show and tell our own experience. Then to expand the discussion for increasing the scale of social, political and economic transformation.
It's not likely any great movement towards sustainability and paradigm shift will happen within the middle class until some form of the proverbial poly crisis disrupts the day to day living for millions of people who are not used to the kind of disruption already in the pipeline. Current social, economic, political and environmental trends, the so called poly crisis have the potential to create far more havoc than the urban riots in the 60's, the "Arab Oil Embargo," the Sub Prime Recession of 2008 and Covid or the more recent brief scare in the Fall of 2025 when the government shut down over budget disputes meant food support programs were short circuited for millions of people for weeks and diminished air traffic control caused a fair amount of travel inconvenience. Imagine that food assistance or flying cancellations and delays lasted far longer or even permanently. Its safe to say, the System is far more fragile than we want to know.
paradigm shift out to a wider audience, organizations can help tell stories about how people are coping and adjusting - voluntary and not voluntary
paying the that most people see every day but don't experience themselves. How people have dealt with disruption in the past and present can give us a clue how to both prepare for disruption but also how to deal with it. Disruption does not have to mean living on the streets. As mentioned elsewhere in the Primer, we can make use of the "good" times to downsize and have, at least, some contingencies.
All these efforts are good but for the most part, they do not address social and economic disruption. To acknowledge the social and economic possibilities for disruption could help broach the topic, why are we concerned with human caused disruption. If we had those kinds of conversations, there would be an opening to take on the sacred cow - capitalism and the consumer culture.
Towards A Sensible Economic System
There is no easy exit from capitalism and the consumer culture. But there are many actions we can take as individuals, families, friends, neighbors and communities that can diminish our dependence and participation. These actions to create alternatives to the consumer culture are not to abandon the entire System. They can be very selective. There are many products and services from the Mainstream that are healthy and can help us create alternatives.
The ideal is, these factors come together
1] As more people realize the System is not capable of sustainability and uplift, rather it is contrary to those ideals
2] As more alternatives become visible, we can point to their value as pointing in a positive direction
3] As existing social, political, environmental and economic trends deepen, the poly crisis, more people will respond
4] As more people and organizations become outspoken and advocate social and environmental sustainability and recognize their common cause AND start to push back. To downsize and encourage others to do likewise.
The Movement that already exists, near countless organizations and interest movements will reach a critical threshold that will lead to a reckoning for capitalism and the consumer culture.
A big hope? It certainly is. I don't expect to see the leap but I do expect to help move that ideal forward.
There are many people who share the basic ideal of paradigm shift found in the Primer. This transformation has to be voluntary and humanistic. A flow chart for paradigm shift can look something like this.
Downsizing eco footprints serves many purposes. The entire Primer leads to these actions
Moving Towards A Paradigm Shift Economy
There are several aspects to a "paradigm shift" economic system.
1] That society and economic system must have a much smaller eco footprint
2] That economic system cannot externalize its costs
3] That economic system must be far more equitable
4] That economic system must serve the society, not the other way around
5] That economic system must have brakes
6] Money will be a vital part of a paradigm shift economic system but it will not be the only means of exchange.
How to downsize a 30 trillion dollar economy? An economy that DEPENDS on high levels of over-consumption. DEPENDS on externalizing the cost. Tens of millions of jobs DEPEND on over-consumption. "Many" millions of jobs exist TO REPAIR THE DAMAGE caused by over-consumption.
"Serious" talk of making the existing American economy sustainable is beyond delusional. But given the trends - social, economic, political, environmental - downsizing will happen one way or another. Nature bats last. Capitalism has no brakes but it cannot defy gravity.
Two Tracks
I suggest two tracks to this short look at Paradigm Shift Economics. One, a Happy Track [HT], the other, the Not So Happy Track [NSHT]. The HT starts at home, neighborhood and local, expands the realm of paradigm shift "organically" nation wide over enough years in a democratic and peaceful way so it ultimately replaces capitalism and the consumer culture without a great deal of trauma. The Happy Track is not to be expected.
The Not So Happy Track will claim an increasing number of people engaged in paradigm shift but it is derailed before it can complete its heroic mission. The "poly crisis" steam rolls capitalism and the consumer culture and leads to an enormous amount of disruption and suffering to an enormous number of people. A final going away gift from capitalism, social engineering and the consumer culture.
Perhaps history will witness an outcome for our society somewhere in between HT and NSHT.
Both tracks start out in the same place - our own homes and neighborhoods. Even at home scale, we can create a great deal of economic transformation for own benefit and the environment. The Primer goes into more detail elsewhere about reducing eco footprints. so no need to duplicate too much here.
.
The happy track describes a transition towards sustainability with enough people downsize and build civic culture at home and the community that track largely avoids a deep and disruptive default. To double underline, personal and social uplift - people becoming responsible and accountable as to reduce eco footprints, is essential to paradigm shift. Ideals and principles that can bring people together in uplift would include permaculture, the wisdom of the world's great spiritual traditions and related ideals and principles. This is the preferred track, of course. It is a long shot but absolutely worth the effort.
The not so happy track happens when not enough people take downsize lifestyles so capitalism and the consumer culture defaults when the proverbial poly crisis - social, economic, environmental, foreign relations or some less well anticipated problem erupts. Default is the visible and widespread unraveling of society. Far more disruptive than the sub prime crisis or Covid.
The actions people take in both tracks are similar. We downsize, we produce more basics closer to home. We prioritize time and money in favor of paradigm shift. We reach out to others, we continue to engage in paradigm shift as long as we can. We do not have an exact timeline. The very act of paradigm shift slows the speed moving towards default. We can do a lot in our own lives and even personal changes can have a positive effect on the wider world. The Primer is all about making those changes.
A Short Overview
The Primer's focus is home, neighborhood, nearby community. The ideal, for enough people to participate in paradigm shift to change the nation's politics, policies and budgets to favor real sustainability and uplift. Full blown paradigm shift nationwide is a long shot but people can make meaningful changes in their own lifestyles, in their own economic system with no permission needed. People can enjoy many of the benefits of paradigm shift at home and in their neighborhoods.
Starting at home and local is the point of both tracks.
Still, our own local actions can add up. Individuals can become small groups, small groups can
All of these crisis are related and they will all aggravate each other. In college chemistry, we did a titration experiment. Not really an experiment, we knew what would happen. A colored liquid is added drop by drop into a beaker of clear liquid. Five, ten, twenty drops, the color is absorbed to the clear, no change. And then, one more drop and the entire beaker changes color dramatically. This could be the model for the poly crisis. We already have added a lot of drops to the global beaker.
So perhaps the historic record seen from the future will see something in between these two tracks. I would settle for that.
Whether one thinks society can make enough changes to achieve sustainability with minimal trauma or there is no way to avoid serious disruption, the actions taken by either opinion are supportive of each other. Those with a greater concern might be more hastened. Still, both tracks one and two, downsize consumption, prioritize time and money, create mutual assistance groups, produce more basics at home and nearby, support businesses and services that fit paradigm shift and hopefully, sustainability.
So we downsize our eco footprints and volunteer for community projects, we adopt a purposeful paradigm shift lifestyle. Whats next?
Can enough people downsize enough, to prioritize their time and money enough, even, against all odds, with enlightened political help, to transform this economic system into a sustainable condition? Not quite as unlikely as the previous paragraph but hopeful at best. But what else do we have? There are a number of organizations such as Post Carbon and Transition Towns that call for paradigm shift, perhaps not using the same words, and they are doing important work. And no question there are other ad hoc and small organizations that are kindred spirits.
All these efforts are helpful. The more people and organizations calling for common sense and downsizing the better. Still, from this perspective, we are in lifeboat scenario. That said, one cannot overstate, the more people with paradigm shift ideals and actions the better. The many initiatives and actions described as real life examples of paradigm shift here in the Primer, hopefully, will begin to increasingly frame their outreach and initiatives as paradigm shift to their members and the wider world.
Some of those entities described in the Primer, and there are far far more out and about the Primer does not know about, are great role models for creating affinity groups
The Primer's scale is personal, at home, in the neighborhood, the nearby community. The entire Primer is about social and economic transformation. The examples of paradigm shift all have economic implications. The ideal is, more and more people make changes, either by choice or default, to downsize. Not all downsizing is created equal. Millions of people are already downsizing and not by choice. Perhaps they have something to teach us.
Economic downturns such as the Sub prime experience in 2007, Covid, the government budget stalemate affected many millions but mostly people towards the margins. I was shocked to learn almost 10% of Americans receive food assistance. And these are the "best" of times. What would sustainability look like?
A confession elsewhere in the Primer. Early downsizing people by choice such as myself still benefit by the majority with their enormous eco footprints. My boat is lifted whether I want it to or not. My comfortable downsized life depends on the same cheap products with their external cost subsidies. If I had to pay $50 for my slab of tempeh, one of my own core foods, I would be eating a lot less of it. If I had to pay $10 for a half gallon of soy milk, I would be drinking a lot less of it. On and on. If the average American was spending $20 for a gallon of gasoline, a year from now, all bets are off. The results would be cataclysmic.
The best case scenario is for more and more people to downsize their lifestyles, produce more basics where they live or at least support local production. And those people would be forming affinity groups of friends and families for mutual support and shared resources. As those affinity groups connect and coordinate with others, the variety of needs they can accommodate together can become more complex. Think of community supported agriculture but for a lot more products.
Its hard to imagine what moving towards sustainability might look like even in the early going. Imagine a local gas tax to fund transit. But could that transit system buy its buses and fuel from local sources? Maybe electricity but, admittedly, I have no idea how many solar panels would be needed to run a standard city bus all day. And where will those panels come from? Will there be local organic bus tires sold at a price to cover the external costs?
But here is something to consider. What if some of that preferred future ALREADY exists? That thought takes up a large part of the Primer. As described elsewhere in the Primer, one area we do have some control is in our own lives, homes, neighborhoods and perhaps small communities.
Also mentioned elsewhere in the Primer. The System has provided us with many tools that can be used for paradigm shift. There is no shortage of time, money and expertise to bring about paradigm shift. The need is one modest leap forward in consciousness. How can we build on what we already have?
Alternatives start with simply not buying stuff that doesn't fit sustainability. Also, actions to address other issues can help create economic alternatives. Preparedness for any kind of disruption, human or natural, can advance the cause of paradigm shift. Transforming a suburban property like I have, producing more food, energy, water on site can reduce the need to buy some of those needs in the mainstream economy.
When we do buy the products and services to make our homes and lifestyles more prepared for disruption, we are supporting a part of the existing economy that does have healthy value. Prioritizing time and money is a critical way to help change the economic system.
The Double Benefit
The double benefit is a corollary to how we prioritize time & money. Its simple. When we don't buy damaging products, we don't pay to repair the damage caused by those products. Even better, after time, those products that don't assist paradigm shift don't make the cut and they go away.
The US economy in 2022 weighed in at about 20 trillion dollars. Imagine, not just the kitchen remodel but cars, oversized homes, vanity purchases, junk food, excess consumption of all kinds.
If the entire nation prioritized its money [and time], there would be literally trillions of dollars [and trillions of hours] available, each year, for investing in sustainability and uplift. Its premature to cash our national double benefit check but people can prioritize their own time and money and enjoy their own self produced double benefit as soon as they care to. No permission needed. The more people prioritizing time and money, even at small scale, the better.
Those are the fortunate stories. Those are people who can afford to downsize.
And then, there are hundreds of thousands of people at the present time who are homeless, have substance problems, can't keep up with paying the bills who are dealing with disruption as a lifestyle. The steep downslope is already a reality.
A core part of Be The Change is gaining a sense, even better, an experience of what sustainable and paradigm shift economics can look like at the personal level and being able to advocate, to show and tell our own experience. Then to expand the discussion for increasing the scale of social, political and economic transformation.
It's not likely any great movement towards sustainability and paradigm shift will happen within the middle class until some form of the proverbial poly crisis disrupts the day to day living for millions of people who are not used to the kind of disruption already in the pipeline. Current social, economic, political and environmental trends, the so called poly crisis have the potential to create far more havoc than the urban riots in the 60's, the "Arab Oil Embargo," the Sub Prime Recession of 2008 and Covid or the more recent brief scare in the Fall of 2025 when the government shut down over budget disputes meant food support programs were short circuited for millions of people for weeks and diminished air traffic control caused a fair amount of travel inconvenience. Imagine that food assistance or flying cancellations and delays lasted far longer or even permanently. Its safe to say, the System is far more fragile than we want to know.
paradigm shift out to a wider audience, organizations can help tell stories about how people are coping and adjusting - voluntary and not voluntary
paying the that most people see every day but don't experience themselves. How people have dealt with disruption in the past and present can give us a clue how to both prepare for disruption but also how to deal with it. Disruption does not have to mean living on the streets. As mentioned elsewhere in the Primer, we can make use of the "good" times to downsize and have, at least, some contingencies.
All these efforts are good but for the most part, they do not address social and economic disruption. To acknowledge the social and economic possibilities for disruption could help broach the topic, why are we concerned with human caused disruption. If we had those kinds of conversations, there would be an opening to take on the sacred cow - capitalism and the consumer culture.
Towards A Sensible Economic System
There is no easy exit from capitalism and the consumer culture. But there are many actions we can take as individuals, families, friends, neighbors and communities that can diminish our dependence and participation. These actions to create alternatives to the consumer culture are not to abandon the entire System. They can be very selective. There are many products and services from the Mainstream that are healthy and can help us create alternatives.
The ideal is, these factors come together
1] As more people realize the System is not capable of sustainability and uplift, rather it is contrary to those ideals
2] As more alternatives become visible, we can point to their value as pointing in a positive direction
3] As existing social, political, environmental and economic trends deepen, the poly crisis, more people will respond
4] As more people and organizations become outspoken and advocate social and environmental sustainability and recognize their common cause AND start to push back. To downsize and encourage others to do likewise.
The Movement that already exists, near countless organizations and interest movements will reach a critical threshold that will lead to a reckoning for capitalism and the consumer culture.
A big hope? It certainly is. I don't expect to see the leap but I do expect to help move that ideal forward.
There are many people who share the basic ideal of paradigm shift found in the Primer. This transformation has to be voluntary and humanistic. A flow chart for paradigm shift can look something like this.
Downsizing eco footprints serves many purposes. The entire Primer leads to these actions
There are many ways to bring people together to advance these ideas.
Not Likely To Make The Cut
Let's take a tangent. Aspects of paradigm shift describe a wide range of conditions, potentials, principles and actions for paradigm shift. In Be The Change, I share anecdotes from my own comparatively low footprint lifestyle. In a sense, many of the products and services I avoid don't "make the cut" to be part of my reality. I don't buy junk food, I don't have a car, I buy minimal stuff. As described, that allows me time to write, throw the frisbee, maintain my place, engage in community affairs. My medical needs are modest. I have to credit a healthy lifestyle for that. The money I have saved by way of a healthy lifestyle is hard to figure but could very well amount to many tens of thousands of dollars.
That said, I still benefit by the enormous wealth created by this nation's remarkable excess consumption. Would my downsized lifestyle be different if everyone was as frugal as myself? Absolutely. My very comfortable downsized lifestyle would be very different if our entire society lived in a sustainable way. Some of my favorite products and past times might not make the cut. Certainly, everything would cost more if we lived in a sustainable society.
Still, in many ways, I am certain, my life could be even better with society wide downsizing but many valued aspects of my life might not make the cut if paradigm shift actually came to be a reality.
Note - I describe anecdotes about my own lifestyle not to boast but to share a real life experience based on principles and ideals described here in the Primer, available to anyone so they can create their own version of paradigm shift and inspire others. A sustainable and uplifted society needs lots of people to show what it looks like and to explain how it works in the early going.
Our best hope for moving beyond capitalism and its consumer culture is enough people downsizing and quit buying products and services that don't fit sustainability and uplift. We do not have an exact script for this transformation but we absolutely know the basics what is called for. And as noted, there are many many pioneers of paradigm shift already who are pointing the way.
Critical for economic transformation is to have enough vision, faith and real life action to make bits and pieces of that preferred future tangible to others. Paradigm shift is not about making the current System green. That simply cannot happen. The current System depends on damage to people and planet and mass produced distractions so few people find the care or time to do much about it.
Paradigm shift is creating something very different from the human resume but it is a product of that resume.
Lots of stuff does not make the cut.
Reducing our eco footprints, paying honest and accountable prices for what we buy and prioritizing our time and money will mean many familiar products of the consumer culture will not make the cut to a sustainable society.
Here are some to consider. What would you add? Car delivered pizza to your home. Jet skis. Three people living in a 3000 square foot home with 3 cars. [much less even larger homes and more cars] Celebrity culture as we know it. Stadium sized pop concerts. Stadium sized pro and college sports. Tractor pulls, auto racing, rodeo and demolition derby events. Those are the easy ones.
We could add international vacations as we know them. All you can eat restaurants. Junk food and tobacco. Fifty kinds of breakfast cereal and many of them in colors not found in nature. Cosmetic surgery. Building new highways and even not repairing many of the existing ones. Much of the economy of Las Vegas and many other cities.
An article in the New York Times explained that as climate change deepens its effects, more and more geographic areas will become un insurable. This trend is already with us. Insurance companies are leaving entire states. As property insurance becomes unavailable, mortgages and related financial services that depend on property insurance also become unavailable. Credit becomes scarce and without borrowing, capitalism does not happen.
Other recent articles in the New York Times describe an increasing number of auto loans made to "sub prime" borrowers at risk of default. The article made clear, this is a fringe part of the auto credit market but its the vulnerable who experience consequences first that may well become more widespread.
Another article described how at this time, the fall season 2025, the economy is doing "well" in spite of a lot of uncertainty but the wellness is because the well off are buying more that offsets the decreased spending of consumers less well off. The well off are doing fine, their spending, according to the article, is more than offsetting the less well off who are falling further "behind." The proverbial shrinking middle class. Those "falling behind" are, perhaps, the best candidates for paradigm shift. The mainstream media is reporting its own decline and if we read the news correctly, the mainstream media, and I love the New York Times, can act as our own recruiting service for sustainability and uplift.
Yet another article from the Mainstream shifts to China. There is a growing rate of divorce in China and many of those divorces lead to single moms. The article describes how many new single moms are challenged by their new lives and demands for child care, making a living and the need for emotional support. These are not only Chinese issues.
The article describe a new trend of single moms looking for "partners." Not new husbands or lesbian relationships, but simply other single moms who might be a good fit to team up. To combine households. To share responsibilities, to share expenses, to share kid care, to share lives in ways to benefit the moms and the kids. There are on line services, like dating, to connect moms to others who might be a good fit. Of course, some outcomes are great, some are not, but the idea of people making common cause with each other for mutual benefit fits the ideal of paradigm shift and would fit even better if those new partnerships included the ideas of downsizing footprints and building civic culture.
Capitalism Is Unable to Retire
The entire economy and our middle class way of life depends on stuff cheap enough so lots of people can buy lots of it. Lots of cheap stuff fuels the consumer culture while our middle class affluence causes many kinds of social, economic and public health damage to people and environmental damage to the planet while degrading positive human potential. A trifecta of misfortune we cannot afford.
A core aspect of paradigm shift is to downsize eco footprints and consume much less stuff to reduce social and environmental damage and move towards sustainability.
To appreciably reduce the social and environmental damage caused by the consumer culture will mean de growth which means an end to capitalism and the consumer culture as we know it.
We are still near historical high tide in terms of GNP, consumption and putting out CO2 into the atmosphere, but even still, a growing number of people are already “falling behind” with declining security and comfort.
Consider - The un sustainable, growth based economic system cannot exist with a significant societal move towards sustainability. Sustainability and a healthy society cannot exist with the growth based economic system. Something has to give.
The existing economic and political system is not capable of overseeing a transition to sustainability. Society would never vote for candidates who advocate real sustainability. Business would not support such candidates with millions in campaign contributions. Sustainability would mean many millions of lost jobs and livelihoods. The current System cannot self regulate on behalf of paradigm shift. Its not interested anyway.
Rather, the best case scenario is a significant number of people will downsize by choice or default and a semi purposeful [mix in some default] decline in the economy takes place that will be more survivable than a more abrupt over the cliff scenario where few people made the effort to downsize by choice. The Primer and other sources encourage downsizing and creating healthy alternatives by choice while we can. Even making the choices called for by the Primer at the personal and small scale, is in no way a guarantee of a happy outcome given current social, environmental, economic and political trends.
Social Pollution
The planet is increasingly degraded by many kinds of pollution to water, air and habitat. Less recognized by the mainstream, but core to the Primer’s critique of the consumer culture is social pollution such as extreme political and economic dis equity, the disgraceful celebration of vanity and excess and what that does to the human spirit and lost positive human potential.
Edward Bernays called for the consumer culture to distract and entertain the masses while those with the intellectual capacity, managed society. I doubt if Bernays and his colleagues could have imagined a global population of eight billion and the damage caused by his call for social engineered mass consumption. See the critique of capitalism that includes an account about Edward Bernays and social engineering.
With great good fortune, purposeful downsizing can accomplish at least two very important tasks at the same time. As we reduce eco footprints we reduce the time devoted to consuming unhealthy products and also the time working for pay to buy them. Instead, we can reassign that current unproductive time to learning the social and cooperative skills needed for a downsized more socially collaborative future that reduces its damage to the natural world.
Very nice! In the next section of the Primer, we will “visit” places such as East Blair Housing Coop, Kailash Eco Village and many other initiatives where people both downsize and learn skills needed for cooperative living that will also serve them well on a purposeful downsizing.
Our best hope is people just quit buying the damaging stuff on their own and enough people understand why we need to downsize so that it can be done in a way that is not catastrophic. Of course, that's probably wishful thinking but untold numbers of people are already making this choice, there simply needs to be far more people joining them and to somehow make this transformation as compassionate as possible even while many millions of people lose their jobs.
The most likely outcome for downsizing is that current trends deepen, there is ever widening social and political dis equity, more pollution, more social, economic, environmental and political breakdown and current downward trends only become worse. A lot of products and services will not survive this likely scenario and neither will a lot of people. There is no easy exit.
The Primer is by and large optimistic. But this most likely sober scenario for mainstream America in the not too distant future and already happening for millions, should provide us with motivation to create systems in our own lives, with friends and neighbors to pre adapt to a turbulent down slope that will in all likelihood present challenges, problems, disruption and surprises, even to those who expect it to happen.
It's totally possible all the wonderful ideas presented in the Primer and other thoughtful and well considered assessments will turn out to be wildly over-optimistic.
But still, our best choice is to downsize, localize, be positive, learn to produce as much of what we can at home and nearby and be strong. Can we create a post consumer, post capitalism reality to our liking? That remains to be seen but the more cogent our ideals and actions the better the chances.
Images below. Hover over the image for a caption and klik to enlarge the image.
Creating eco villages in suburbia is a wonderful ideal. Downsized lifestyles but upsized social cohesion. Many needs can be taken care of without money. Suburbia can produce a great deal of food. Not to suggest a place like below will be off the grid but combining thoughtful downsizing, home production, learning skills and neighborly cohesion can be an enormous help for moving towards sustainability. There are several places described in the Real Life chapter that can claim a significant fraction of the image below in real life. Some might say Americans will never live like this. Americans have never been confronted with a set of conditions that will require them to think and behave differently like the conditions that are already a reality to the less well of segments of our society. They
We have to make do with what we have and be smart about how we can increase the scale of paradigm shift. Grassroots is already in the very early going but the scale needs to increase greatly. Best case scenario is for government and grass roots to assist each other. Mutual assistance could start locally and grow to regional and perhaps national. How much time would that take and do we have enough time? Who knows.
We do know we have allies and assets, we have examples of transformation that can be encouraged, at first at the grassroots level
and then perhaps at community scale.