Does being self-reliant mean a person can’t also have needs? Is the success of the wealthy also built upon the working and middle classes? Are those stricken by poverty affected by the more resourced classes? Some thoughts about this at the InAmerica blog at CNN.com.
As unemployment decreases ever so slightly, those people lucky enough to return to work after a period of professional stagnation are raising new questions. How can it be different this time? As bad as the recession was, and it really, really was very bad, it also enabled workers, especially professionals, to reflect upon how they were working and the impact of their work on their families, community and even the environment. As a 29 year-old lawyer said to me, “I’m so glad to have a job again. Yet the recession has been good for me in a way. It was humbling. I’d like not to go back to what it was like before. I’d like it to be different somehow.” For those lucky enough to return to work, find tips for how to make it different after the jump. (more…)
graphic from jobjabber.wordpress.com/.../
The United States economic outlook is bleak, and predictions for the cultural fabric rather ominous. Don Peck writes in this month’s Atlantic that joblessness “is likely to warp our politics, our culture and the character of society for years to come.” While I tend to agree, I’m also working hard with folks on what to do to stave off this impending doom. What seems to help is going local, or investing in community, according to Dr. Robert Leahy, or recommitting “ourselves to cleaning up democracy” (2/2/10), according to Economist Robert Reich. Going local means re-investing in the place you live and re-establishing possibilities that your local environment can support. David Brooks comments “Somehow there must be a way to use the country’s idle talent to address freshly exposed needs.” That’s right. People must focus on the places they live, see what needs doing, and get started with the task of creating, developing and providing new services, ideas, products and systems that can help usher in the new economy of the better decades awaiting us. Some people are trying. (more…)
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