Dealing with permanent employment drops

[eridani]

http://www.truthout.org/1101099

IPS spoke with several U.S.-based experts on sustainable economy regarding this dilemma and found a variety of answers, including localism, new kinds of jobs, and even working less. The common thread of these solutions is a fundamental restructuring of the economy.

[vi5]

1. Much employment was based on..

...unsustainable demand. Over the past 5-10 years, ridiculous amounts of retail stores popped up. I mean within a 20 mile radius of my there were 6 Wal Marts, 3 Targets, Multiple Borders, Barnes and Nobles, Bed Baths and Beyonds, Linens and Things Best Buys, Circuit City, etc. etc. that opened about 5-10 years ago.

And many of them have now gone out of business because that level of coverage was both absurd and unsustainable. And nothing is really filling that same demand because it's just not needed and wasn't in the first place. So those jobs just will not come back. Gone. Kaput.

[Coyote_Bandit]

2. Rural America is looking more inviting

Tiny house on a small acreage with a huge garden, a root cellar, a small flock of chickens. Just add some cash from selling services or handcrafted stuff on the internet. Doesn't get you healthcare or a retirement fund or all the cushy toys or even a steady income. But it does bring a source of income. And that beats the hell out of what corporate Amerikkka has to offer these days.

[eridani]

4. Problem is that there is nowhere enough land for many to be able to do that n/t

[PJPhreak]

6. Did just this six months ago....

80 year old cabin on just over 1/2 an acre...The cabin is a bit crooked,my fence is truly ugly,and the little town I live in has no stores besides the Farmers CO-OP,yes I gotta drive at least 15 miles to find a gallon of gas.

I love it!!

Screw banks,
Screw a mortgage and the interest that comes with it,
Screw Wall St,Freakin Bungholes!

Love listenin to the Owls And Coyotes just after dark.

[NickB79]

7. Yep, just did it last month

Small house on 1.5 acres of land, ~35 miles south of St. Paul, MN. We have a few neighbors close by, but for the most part we're surrounded by farms and fields. My job is 5 miles away, my wife's job 12 miles away. Huge vegetable garden waiting to be planted next spring, a chicken coop with 8 chickens the previous owners gave to us, and a woodburning stove in the living room to supplement the propane. My brother will be bringing me down a load of firewood from the family farm in the next month, and I've been weatherproofing the house to stop drafts.

The yard has been planted in with silver maples (bleck), so my brother is also bringing down a few chainsaws. Those will be burned next winter in the woodstove, and in their place next spring I will be planting apples, pears, apricots, cherries, plums, hazelnuts, buartnuts (like a walnut but better), hybrid chestnuts, grapes, Siberian kiwis, low-tannin oaks (the acorns are edible), maybe even an ultra-hardy variety of peach. Anything we don't eat goes to the chickens, along with kitchen scraps and unsaleable cottage cheese from my job at the dairy plant. My wife and I are looking into making homemade wine and beer in the cellar, as well as growing our own mushrooms from mail-order kits down there.

All in all, it should work out pretty well for us. It helps that I grew up on a farm in an area very similar to the one we now live in, so everything feels just like home again.

[Tansy_Gold]

3. Much has been said about the "decline" of the family in terms of

a working "father," a stay at home "mom," and the affordability of that model. Minus the gender stereotypes, that model still works, but it only works if consumption is at a reasonable level and doesn't rely on over-extended credit. Eventually the bills have to be paid.

Most of those who have remained solvent through these various crises have done so by practicing that kind of commonsense frugality. Now the rest of the populace will face the choice of frugality or. . . . . .something. But that something won't be a lifestyle as we used to know it.



TG

[eridani]

5. Cut work hours so mom and dad are both part time, and it might still work

Lavorare meno! Lavorare tutti!

[AdHocSolver]

8. Bring the offshored jobs back to the U.S. and the economy will recover.

Unemployment will be "permanent" only if we allow the corporate cartels to run our economy. Get rid of NAFTA, the WTO, the IMF, MFN trading status for slave-wage countries like China, and put tariffs and import quotas on goods from slave-wage countries.

There is no "free trade", there is no "global economy". The only "competition" is that forced on the American worker competing for jobs with foreigners who earn the equivalent of 50 cents per hour.

Wake up folks!