Jobs – We’ll Make Sure Needs Are Met Even as We Work Less to Lighten Our Load on the Planet

Would you like to work less and spend more time with family and friends, reading, gardening, etc.? That can help us save the planet! Working less will mean consuming less. Consuming less will mean there is more to go around. Less scarcity. Less agony. More time to do some things we used to have to pay for. And more free time. Smaller families will also reduce our costs.

Job security and fair wages will be important to this administration. They will get a lot of attention in our National Ecological Overshoot Project.

The act of doing a job has an ecological footprint. And the size of our individual footprints is largely a product of the money we earn and spend or invest. So, scaling back our economy and consumption must include working less. The idea of working less and – for many – earning less can be scary, of course. But the only alternative is to continue down a dead-planet path. So we're going to ask everyone to cut the typical work week in half. So there will be plenty of jobs, but we’re all going to look out for each other to make this work.

Our job in the White House will be to support and enable the work necessary to ensure the wellbeing of everyone as we transition into a healthy 21st century economy that doesn’t kill the planet. I’ll convene a presidential council to develop strategy and programs to ensure every family can meet its needs for food, shelter and transportation. This will be a key part of our National Ecological Overshoot Project.

Our National Ecological Overshoot Project will:

  • implement and support job-sharing programs, so there will be plenty of jobs
  • make working half-time the new norm
  • find ways to dramatically diminish pay inequity
  • provide funding and other support for local mutual-support programs to help families meet needs without spending money

LEARN MORE

Short Reads:

Transition – 7 Essential Ingredients – Transition Network

Community Resilience from the Future – by Rob Hopkins

Choosing the Joys of a Simplified Life – by Carey Goldberg

The Moneyless Economy Is Thriving in America – by April M. Short

 

Longer Reads:

Essential Guide to Doing Transition

The Great Transition – New Economics Foundation

Debating the Sharing Economy – by Juliet Schor

How To Organize a SkillShare and Shift the Culture of Your Community - by Kendra Marie Hoffman

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