TOM’S TAKE FROM TED TRAINER’S TRANSITION TO “A NEW ECONOMY”

Local shortages during the COVID years of my daily necessities of food, toilet paper, canning lids, and other items; along with current inflation of the cost for such things as food and fuel; and the primary goal of trying to avoid having to go back to work in a “bullshit job"  to earn more money to buy more stuff – remind me that it is time for me to find a new “economic system” to invest in.  Based on a lifetime of experiences spent in the global; growth based; profit driven; competitive elite controlled; planet (and people) plundering existing economy – I am ready for something a bit more pro -planet-and-people.  Of course, the challenge is where to find another option. 

I have spent much of my free time the past couple decades reading through other people’s suggestions for how to modify, or rebrand the current economy, but in the end I don’t have much faith that a system designed by the rich and powerful to keep them rich and powerful, can do anything but impoverish (in various ways) the rest of us, no matter how you rebrand or repower the existing economic system.  So, scraping the old (as unlikely as that may be) and finding something new, or perhaps renewing something old, is the path to a new to me economy or better yet, way of life.  

In my quest for a new way of life, I have struggled with trying to reinvent the wheel, or perhaps just learning from someone else on how best to get around and have settled on borrowing (or stealing) somebody else’s take on what a more humane economy might look like.  That vision comes from the Australian Ted Trainer’s book THE TRANSITION TO A SUSTAINABLE AND JUST WORLD.  In the interest of brevity and an attempt to avoid repeating somebody else’s hard work, what follows is a repetition of  excerpts from Chapter 4 highlighting some of Trainer’s vision of “The New Economy” of the fore mentioned book that I find appealing. 

For more on the topic, read the whole book or visit The Simplicity Institute website for more on Trainer’s and his colleagues’ ideas.  Trainer’s vision comes from what is available from the place where he resides in Australia.   Adaptions to his vision would off course need to be made to fit the local climate, ecosystem, and needs of the people developing their own new economy. 

- The new geography, structures and institutions.  The geography of towns and city suburbs would include a great diversity of little firms, farms, factories, pastures, ponds and forests.  Most food, goods, and services would come from very close by with negligible transport costs.  […].  There would be much more public property than at present, including community workshops, premises for craft and art groups and all those commons.   There would provide much ‘tree’ fruit and materials for craft and small firm production.  There will be maximum provision of local water and energy, and recycling of water along with all wastes. 

Food.  Most of the good food we need for great meals could be produced within the towns and suburbs where we live, and almost all within a few kilometers.  The sources will be intensive home gardens, tiny market gardens with the settlement, ‘edible landscapes and commons densely planted on public land throughout the locality, and the small farms just off the edge of the settlements.  The space around your home would be packed with gardens, pens for small animals, fish tanks and ponds, nut groves, greenhouses, orchards, herb patches, bamboo clumps, woodlots and bee hives.  [….].  All food, animal and human wastes would then be easily recycled to the soils via compost heaps, garbage gas units and animals.  When green manure crops were included, this would eliminate the need for artificial fertilizer production.  […].  Little agricultural machinery would be needed, because home gardening and Permaculture principles largely eliminate the need for ploughing.  […].  Relatively little storage, packaging or freezing would be needed because fresh food could come from the gardens and fields just before use.  […].  Cellars and cool rooms can store fruit and vegetables, and there would be extensive bottling and drying.   

Furniture.  Furniture would be simple, cheap, robust and durable, made from local materials, mostly wood.  It would be repairable, and would be home-made by ordinary people.  Some would come from local craft businesses in which people could enjoy making good solid furniture.  Various other items, notably toys, baskets, garden sheds, wheelbarrows, animal houses, carts, boats, and storage sheds would also be mostly made from wood, either backyard or small firm production. 

Clothing and footwear.  Almost all the clothes we wear could be simple, tough, cheap, and durable, and much repaired.  […].  Old and worn-out clothing items would be recycled, sold via second hand shops or given away.  Clothes making and repairing would be much-enjoyed hobbies.  A few small local firms might mass produce some basic clothing items, mostly from locally grown fibers, and some basic footwear. 

Houses.  All new housing, offices, premises and community buildings would be made from locally-produced stone and timber, but mostly from earth.  Houses would be very small by present standards, […]. People would have much more time for home-making.  […] most of the present construction industry would not exist and most of the building that was needed could be carried out by hand tools.  […].  For many people, slowly designing and building their own home, helped by friends and with the advice of local experts, would be one of life’s most satisfying adventures.  No one would want a house and not be able to have one.  

Craft Industries.  Most items would be produced in households, neighborhoods workshops and small local firms, and they would be produced in craft ways, not via industrial factories.  […]  Hand tools are sufficient for most purposes […].  Neighborhood workshops would have larger machinery including drill presses, blacksmithing forges, lathes and saw benches, for anyone to use. 

Factories.  Small regional factories would produce bicycles, cutlery, pots and pans, roof tiles, containers, […], nails, bolts, buckles, hacksaw blades, plate glass, preserving jars, ladders, barrows, needles, tools, brushes, paint,[…], beverages […], string and rope […], and basic appliances such as stoves, radios, and fridges.  There would be intensive recycling, and items would be made to last and to be repaired. Only small quantities of items such as electronics devices would need to be imported. 

Water.  Water would be scrupulously harvested locally, from rooftops, catchments and creeks.  There would be maximum recycling and reuse.  There would therefore be little need for large dams, mains, large pumping stations, and the bureaucracies to run them.  Windmills and 12 volt electric pumps would do all the pumping of fresh and waste water.  All ‘sewage’ would be dealt with at the neighborhood level, thoroughly recycling nutrients back to local soils, eliminating the need for large systems of mains and pumping station.  Waste water would not contain industrial chemicals.  This would be recycled on site.  Composting toilets would cut water use and garbage gas units would produce methane for use while both returned nutrients to gardens.  […]  Where possible redesign of settlements would catch water on the higher ground, feed it by gravity to houses, then take nutrient-rich waste water further down to orchards, pasture, ponds and farms,. Reducing the need for pumping energy. 

Materials.  Most building would be made from earth, straw bales, stone, bamboo and wood.  There would be little use of energy-intensive metals and plastics.  The reduced quantities glass, steel, cement and especially of aluminum might be produced regionally by solar and wind generated electricity in those periods when there is surplus supply.   There would be intensive research into plant sources for chemicals, adhesives, medicines, paints, lubricants and fabrics.  Most of the dangerous synthetic chemicals in use today would not be necessary.  Design would focus on minimizing problematic materials. 

Transport and travel.  There would be little need for transport to get people to work, because most work places would be localized and accessible by bicycle or on foot.  The few large factories would be close to towns and railway stations.  Neighborhoods would be very leisure-rich, containing many little farms, forests, ponds, factories, windmills, craft producers, drama clubs, libraries, neighborhood workshops and centers, and leisure facilities.   Therefore, we would want to travel for leisure, holidays, and vacations much less than we do now.  […]. If and when petroleum becomes very scarce we will be jolted into understanding the unsustainability of the present levels of travel, transport, trade and tourism. 

Energy.  Far less energy would be required compared with the present.  This would firstly be because we would be consuming far less, living in solar passive mud brick houses, recycling, getting to work on a bike, with close access to local sport, cultural and leisure facilities and therefore not travelling much for leisure, and we would be buying little that was imported.  The total volume of production and consumption would be a small fraction of the present amount.  Most of our economy would be localized.  […].  Almost all energy would be produced locally, from windmills, watermills, garbage gas digesters, solar panels, and biomass sources of fuel and ethanol for vehicles.  Horses, mainly used for the small amount of ploughing and hauling, would also provide some recreational and routine transport functions, in a society where the pace was much more relaxed.  (Not mentioned is the increased use of human power that would be used.)

Work.  Most ‘work’ would be local, varied, interesting, worthwhile, and clearly directly beneficial to one’s community.  Because of the present vast amount of production of useless, wasteful, trivial, non-durable, luxurious etc. items would not be taking place, far less work and production would be needed.  Much of the remaining production could be transferred to households and craft industries, making work much more interesting and worthwhile.  The household and the commons would provide many necessities without the need to work for money to buy them. 

Health and medicine.  The entire focus in health care would change from the cure of illness to the promotion of health.  […], most people would be much healthier than they are now due to the more labor-intensive lifestyles and the high-quality food.  Even more important would be the psychological factors, the elimination of insecurity, unemployment, loneliness, and stress, the experience of a supportive and cooperative community, of being busy, having a sense of purpose and being valued for making a worthwhile contribution.  […] services would be mostly localized, but with a few centralized and specialized teaching hospitals.  Drugs and medical equipment might be among the items still mostly produced far away and transported into regions.  Satisfactory health provision must be organized primarily as a public service. 

Capital, investment, interest, banking.  Nowhere are the implications of a zero growth and de-developed economy more profound than for the finance industry – because there would hardly be one.  […].  In a stable or zero-growth economy the only reason for investment would be to maintain a stable productive capacity as old premises and equipment needed replacing.  […]  The role of banks would therefore be limited to providing a safe deposit site for savings, and making available small amounts of capital for development limited to renewing or revising infrastructures.  The bank should be a core public institution within the town, owned by the town and run by elected boards with open public meetings […].  Note that the new community’s ‘wealth’ in the sense of stuff that can be invested does not exist in the form of dollars.  It exists in the form of local resources […], the skills […], the labor and the organization and the enthusiasm that will get the job done quickly and well.

Law.  There would be very little need for legal work compared with present society which is riddled with struggles and disputes generated by competition of markets, property, rights, wealth.  The climate would be cooperative, not adversarial.  Wealth and property would not be so important to people.  The stability of the economy would mean that many legal problems that presently derive from competition for development opportunities would not arise.  Most important is the fact that because all would be provided for, i.e., all would have a livelihood and a productive role, and because there would be no unemployment, exclusion, poverty, or disadvantage, then most of the forces generating crime in the present callous winner-take-all society would have been eliminated.  […].  Each town would establish systems of mediation and ‘village elders. So that if conflicts began to emerge experienced people could informally help to sort them out. 

Minor role of cash economy.  […] Most of the economic activity would take place without the exchange of money.  […], many people would be able to live almost without earning any money, because they would get most of the few things they wanted from their own gardens and craft production, from swapping surpluses, and especially from the abundant commons.  They could pay their taxes by extra contributions to committees and working bees. 

Culture, learning, knowledge, and ‘spiritual’ development.  Because ‘The Simpler Way’ would liberate us from spending most of our time in unnecessary production and consumption there would be a leap in the attention given to personal development, learning for its own sake, cultural pursuits, writing, reading, conversing, performing, researching and community development.  This is firstly because we would have the time.  Consumer-capitalist society forces most of us to work, grind, struggle and cope most of the time, in conditions of insecurity, generating anxiety and depression.  If this burden was lifted, we could experience spiritual miracles, being able to devote most of our time to activities which broadened our horizons and contributed to personal growth.  Minds condition to by narrowness of achieving, producing and coping would have the freedom to relax, reflect, appreciate, create, grow and just be.  […]  We could work together to slowly construct beautiful, inspiring community works. 

In conclusion, in the words of the Nike marketing slogan – “just do it”.  Of course, all of this depends on finding a way to get it done, before the existing economic system destroys the planet and the people needed to bring it all to fruition.