Preamble to the Green Economy

The recession of '08 - '10, '11, '12? is going to be more than a cyclical downturn. The industrial revolution of the 19th century was the last great shift. We're about to experience the next one.

Where we're going is a result of where we came from.

The causes have been around for a long, long time. Unchecked consumption. Manufacturing gone. Consumerism and the "service economy" turning out to be a sham^[1]. We're waking up at long last to the interconnected world that has always existed. This President understands that the country has no choice but to find a new way forward.

The economic refugees of our era are blue collar workers and service economy workers who aren't going to find the same kinds of jobs to replace the ones they just lost.

We can see a hint of what might be around the corner by keeping an eye out for Van Jones, who's been appointed Special Advisor for Green Jobs. He's been a lone voice for a while at Green for All. Now his ideas are championed by this administration.

I don't know what a "green job" actually looks like, but it sure sounds like the future. Green job appears to speak to the fundamental needs of our society, unlike the trendy "service jobs" and "tech jobs" which are disappearing quickly. We won't know for a while what the real deal will be. Green for All takes a stab at a definition of a green job. Still it's little more than a first clause of a first draft of a vision statement:

     What's the best way to give Americans of all socioeconomic backgrounds a tangible stake in fighting for issues like global warming?
     Easy: Make it their livelihood. Every day, about 135 million people go to work in the U.S. Imagine what would happen if millions of those jobs — plus new ones created for people who are currently unemployed — were in fields like renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and green building.
     Our two crucial concerns about survival — the environment and making a living — would be combined. A person's commitment to their job would also be their commitment to the planet.
read on

^[1] Update (4/3/09)
Index of Services Sector Shrinks for 6th Month (AP, 4/3/09)

I've long been a skeptic:

There are structural realities of our era which make upward mobility more difficult than in the industrial era. Globalization is often cited and, with it, the loss of stable employment with better than subsistence income. The nascent service economy has yet to mature into something that can replace the security provided by manufacturing jobs for working people.
footnote [2] of "Looking For An Explanation" (10/9/2007)

"Service" neither makes anything, nor gives you a sense of place in the social ecology. It amounts to a kind of indentured servitude to corporate behemoths like Starbuck's and McDonalds. Giving up your effort for $8 an hour, the least you need in return is the chance for satisfaction of accomplishment.