| New money, new jobs, new city. by Paul Glover Dollars are drying up, thus stranding new grads, the middle class, the chronic poor, and even the rich. Government and Wall Street can't plug the job leak. Magnificent average Philadelphians will need to get together to create new money, new jobs, new safety nets. Philadelphia's job market will never be the same, yet it might get better than ever. Getting worse is easy, since public and private employers are firing more than hiring. With the loss of $850 million from the federal ARRA stimulus, Pennsylvania dropped 3% more of its 2010-2011 budget . These cuts were primarily Medicaid, health centers, parks, libraries and schools, but reached us all. That meant 3,885 more jobs died suddenly in Philadelphia, with more to follow. During the past decade Philadelphia shed 11,000 jobs. Lately, only 30% of college graduates are finding work. The reality check overdraft: we have been depending on banks too big to fail, cities too big to fuel, government too big to care, and dollars too few. Unless we trash this treadmill, by creating regional money and new regional markets, we'll watch many more jobs evaporate. We'll watch our spending power decline while debt rises. We'll watch roads, rails and sewers rot. We'll pay higher taxes, for crummier services. We'll shiver and sweat watching heating and air conditioning costs rise. We'd watch food prices and hunger rise. We'd watch more schools, hospitals, libraries and recreation centers shut. And as the ship sinks we'd watch more youngsters embrace crime and drugs. By contrast, creating more jobs and sufficient money requires that we switch from watching to decisive action. "Boldly rebuilding our city will fully employ several generations." Today, about 400,000 Philadelphians sit unemployed while plenty of urgent work waits. Oceans of poverty surround playgrounds of wealth. Half a million poor roam with nothing to do and nothing to lose. Yet they're capable of fixing our worst problems. Boldly rebuilding our city will fully employ several generations. What is this work to be done? Look around you. To prosper, Philadelphia must use fuel ten times more efficiently for heating and cooling, generate its own electricity, grow much of its own food, consume half as much water, and transport smoothly. Massive housing retrofit, insulation, cool roofs, urban farming, edible landscaping, composting, depaving, planting and harvesting, are among dozens of categories of such work. Let's push further, far beyond City Hall's Greenworks plan: thousands of vacant lots will overflow with fresh food rather than trash or grass, amid new energy-efficient homes and rowhomes. Abandoned parking lots will raise greenhouses and orchards rather than heat. Many of the 700 abandoned factories will employ us again to make clothes, shoes, and tools. Trollies and bikes will make cars obsolete. Artists will be honored leaders, when beauty defines progress. Every square foot of this city can be repaired and tended with love. These seem wild goals only because we've been trained to believe that large cities must be somewhat dangerous and filthy-- that winners win and losers die. Certainly, making every Philadelphia neighborhood productive, equitable and delightful is a revolutionary idea. Utopian. Ridiculous, impossible and hotheaded, like ending slavery, cutting the 12-hour workday to 8 hours, letting women vote, enacting Social Security, gaining Civil Rights, and starting this nation. Those happened when the public quit watching, and made history. "Money is no excuse because we can print our own." What are we waiting for? Money. More dollars, specifically. But dollar drought is no excuse for failure because we can print our own millions, legally. What is money? Anything we agree to accept in trade. What are dollars? Tokens of a bankrupt empire, backed only by $12 trillions national debt. So we'll pay real money instead-- community currencies backed by regional commodities, skills and land. Properly issued Philadelphia labor credits will connect workers to good work. This is not a new idea. For example, millions of dollars value of Ithaca (NY) HOURS have been traded by thousands of residents and over 500 businesses since 1991. Billions of dollars of WIR exchange yearly in Switzerland among 60,000 businesses. The Canadian Tire Company issues CanadaOs second currency, and millions of dollars of Berkshares circulate in tiny Great Barrington, Massachusetts. There are thousands more alternatives to national monies. Philadelphia is rich with networks-- professional, social, religious, sport-- and their trust backs our money. Philadelphians already spend Equal Dollars and hOURS. New cybercash called Quidds will soon go online here. We can also issue neighborhood currencies: Southies, Westies, Liberties, Strawberries. WeOll strengthen social and environmental goals with sector currencies that fund clinics (MediCash) murals (ArtCash), libraries (BookBucks), parks (Trees), SEPTA (Swifties), farms and orchards (Greens). Ultimately, as these prove reliable, citywide currency can be accepted by City Hall for part of taxes. This then is a rare nonviolent revolution, which employs everyone and is profitable. Philadelphia's next great economy can assure everybody eats, using dynamic financial tools. Everyone will get quick access to fine health care. Transit and childcare will be cheap. Young people and ex-offenders will be rewarded for learning skills of neighborhood management. Elders will be respected. And when everyone has the dignity of income, the city will be safer for all, since jobs fight crime. |
FROM EMPLOYMENT TO ENJOYMENT Grassroots progress requires neither socialism nor capitalism. Not socialism, because we don't need to enlarge City Hall or raise taxes. Not capitalism, because we don't need to wait for Wall Street or banks. Their help will be welcome wherever they serve an even better system. Rather, fixing the future calls for Mutual Enterprise, which gradually frees us from dollars by employing us through local networks, regional stock exchanges and community credits. This process respects enterprise which respects community and nature. It rewards programs which connect people rather than control them. At the same time, more than money needs to be reinvented. GOOD JOBS are typically defined as boosting workers into the middle class, paying for health care and retirement. But there are not enough dollars to pay 400,000 unemployed even $40,000 each per year. That's $16 billion/year, or half of Philadelphia's wholesale, retail and tourist income. So getting good things needs to be disconnected from dollars. Mutual enterprise provides wider routes to middle class ease. REBUILD THE SAFETY NET. Co-operative businesses are owned by members who pool small amounts of money to reduce expenses for housing, medicine, childcare, electricity and dinner. When we reduce prices, we gain de facto raises. And when fair market value is reduced, taxes are reduced. Health co-ops, for example, cover an increasing range of everyday emergencies, for small annual membership fees, enabling members to start their own free clinics. That's how Shriner's Hospital was built. Another buying club: the Philadelphia Insulation Factory (PIF) would manufacture insulation locally from local recycled materials, while hiring citizens with least formal education. REBUILD THE BUILDING CODE. Earth-sheltered housing can save 85% of fuel costs. Compost toilets and greywater reuse can cut water bills and refresh rivers, by emptying the sewers. REBUILD SCHOOLING. To overcome alienation, learning should connect to mastering this future. Neighborhood Enterprise SchoolTeachers (NESTS) credentials and rewards low-income adults for teaching what they know to neighbor kids, who are credentialed and rewarded for learning. WIN WIN WIN WIN WIN WEALTH needs to be redefined. The foundations of sustainable local wealth are energy efficiencies, local food and fuel, water conservation, alternatives to the automobile, nonprofit housing, local manufacture and trade. What is wealth for? Going far fast and throwing things away is old-fashioned. Meeting basic needs, serving the community, then relaxing with family, friends and neighbors is the new cool. Make music, not trash. REDEFINE POWER. Grassroots power benefits the rich and powerful too, whose children will live in a safer, healthier world. The powerful will find fewer hassles managing dysfunction. The powerless will become proud contributors to society. Taxpayers will pay fewer taxes to control the poor, and businesses will find more customers. Philadelphia will become more famous for solutions than for crime, attracting more visitors. Conservatives will see that Strong Americans mean a stronger America. Liberals will trust the genius of commoners. REDEFINE PHILANTHROPY: "Greed is good," said Ronald Reagan. Inhaling is good, too, but requires exhaling to continue. Our economy will flourish when the talents of the poor meet the generosity of the rich. Rather than giving money to maintain the poor, though, donors can give money to share power. For example, Philadelphia's Fund for Ecological Living (PhilaFEL) lowers basic living costs by pumping tax-deductible donations into lowest-income districts for simple green tools. This creates jobs owned and controlled by neighbors. It encourages equitable development-- strengthening rather than displacing long-time residents. REDEFINE GOOD INVESTMENT: The Philadelphia Regional & Independent Stock Exchange (PRAISE) brings together capital of all kinds for local eco-development. The rich profit by empowering rather than dominating the poor. GREEN LABOR ADMINISTRATION (GLAD) Programs such as the above can be coordinated by a local non-governmental non-profit WPA (the Great Depression's federal jobs program). Let's call it the Green Labor ADministration (GLAD). Its neighborhood Networkers generate an immense skill map for the informal sector. And its switchboard links businesses, government, financiers, churches, colleges, schools, nonprofit groups. GLAD is entrepreneurial insofar as it incubates green businesses and organizations. GLAD is non-governmental so that it can propose boldest notions and cross political boundaries. And GLAD is nonprofit so that it can attract social investors. Making this happen is lots of work. Good, hard work. And better than none. Glover is founder of such groups as the Philadelphia Orchard Project, Patch Adams Free Clinic, Ithaca HOURS local currency, the Ithaca Health Alliance, and Citizen Planners of Los Angeles. He's author of Green Jobs Philly, Hometown Money, and other books. He taught urban studies at Temple University. paulglover.org |
PHILADELPHIA ECO-GOALS (PEGS) 1,000,000 berry bushes 800,000 superwindows 700,000 fruit trees 600,000 solar electric panels 500,000 solar hot water heaters 400,000 biodigester toilets 300,000 green roofs w/rainwater barrels 10,000 ecolonies 5,000 neighborhood gardens 2,000 community land trusts 400 miles of bicycle paths 200 miles ultralight trolley 100 farmers markets 50% bicycle commuting 30% trolley commuting 20% pedestrian commuters 25 neighborhood currencies THE
QUICK FIX
PROBLEM: city too hot, air conditioning costs too much. SOLUTION: plant trees, depave, build underground, paint roofs white PROBLEM: city too cold, natural gas costs too much SOLUTION: rebuild facing sun, underground PROBLEM: not enough dollars, not enough small loans SOLUTION: print our own cash, backed by local networks; interest-free microloans PROBLEM: costs of fuel rise SOLUTION: use less with insulation, proximity and efficiency PROBLEM: traffic SOLUTION: trains and bikes PROBLEM: shit in rivers SOLUTION: compost toilets PROBLEM: taxes rise SOLUTION: shift to decentralized technologies, upsize neighborhood authority PROBLEM: food costs and hunger rise SOLUTION: garden the city PROBLEM: costs of health care rise SOLUTION: co-op health plans and clinics PROBLEM: crime SOLUTION: employ everyone to do the above cooperatives, producing everything from ceramics to fashion to specialty cheese. Their combined output is 30-40% of the district's GDP. MORE INFORMATION: GREEN JOBS PHILLY NEWS Green Jobs Philly BOOK |
