thenation--2020-09-08--All 21 of Mississippi’s Beaches Are Closed Because of Toxic Algae (CNN headline)

It starts with the sweetest contaminant masks : hound ’ s-tooth , hummingbirds & hibiscus .
The tagline : Breathe @ @ @ @ @ It starts with Instagram , the masks modeled near skateboards and gold-light palmettos .
It @ @ @ @ @ s call from the car : all these trees down from last night !
In @ @ @ @ @ .
The weatherman looks surprised by the tornado in Baltimore .
In Stanhope .
In @ @ @ @ @ Strange days , folks .
It starts with a gone jetty .
Gone campsite .
@ @ @ @ @ with did you see .
With still ?
again ?
It starts with I could @ @ @ @ @ always .
It starts and keeps starting .
With a sidebar headline and a bummer @ @ @ @ @ this year , sorry , kids .
But let ’ s not make it worse @ @ @ @ @ ll play more mini-golf .
We ’ ll still have a good time .

This article appears in the September 21/28, 2020 issue.
It starts with the sweetest
contaminant masks: hound’s-tooth,
hummingbirds & hibiscus. The tagline:
Breathe us in on Instagram. It starts
with Instagram, the masks modeled
near skateboards and gold-light
palmettos. It starts with a sister’s
call from the car: all these trees
down from last night! In the backseat
the kids holler-sing. The weatherman
looks surprised by the tornado in Baltimore.
In Stanhope. In Bucks County, PA.
Strange days, folks. It starts with a gone
jetty. Gone campsite. Gone silo. It starts
with did you see. With still? again?
It starts with I could swear it wasn’t always.
It starts and keeps starting.
With a sidebar headline and a bummer
of a vacation week—no ocean this year,
sorry, kids. But let’s not make it
worse with worry. We’ll play more
mini-golf. We’ll still have a good time.


thenation--2020-09-08--George Washington and the Cherry Tree—Updated

Young George could not deny he felled that tree .
His moral code would certainly forbid it .
In such @ @ @ @ @ say , “ I can not tell a lie : Obama did it .
”

This article appears in the September 21/28, 2020 issue.
Young George could not deny he felled that tree.
His moral code would certainly forbid it.
In such a situation, Trump would say,
“I cannot tell a lie: Obama did it.”


Duck & Groundcover

Meadows petaled turquoise .
They shiver like glacial lakes Even when the sun shines .
A duck could be forgiven @ @ @ @ @ of grace In a dry landing .
The ooofff !
We each to Heaven send @ @ @ @ @ plea : How about a little mercy , For ducks ’ sake ?
What the @ @ @ @ @ the lake Reveals itself a field of blue Flowers & a few sharp stones— .
@ @ @ @ @ I go wrong—

This article appears in the September 21/28, 2020 issue.
Meadows petaled turquoise.
They shiver like glacial lakes
Even when the sun shines.
A duck could be forgiven,
Then, the lack of grace
In a dry landing. The ooofff!
We each to Heaven send
At every bounce, a plea:
How about a little mercy,
For ducks’ sake? What the duck
Must think the moment the lake
Reveals itself a field of blue
Flowers & a few sharp stones—.
O God, where did I go wrong—


thenation--2020-09-09--States Are Doing What Big Government Won’t to Stop Climate Change

This story is part of a collaboration between The Nation and InsideClimate News as part of Covering Climate Now , a global journalistic collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story .
The piece below focuses on cities ; to read how green recovery spending can impact rural areas , click here .
In Maine , state officials are working to help residents install 100,000 high-efficiency heat pumps in their homes , part of a strategy for electrifying the state .
In California , an in-demand grant program helps the state ’ s largest industry—agriculture , not technology—to pursue a greener @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , solar panels are appearing on rooftops of community centers in what used to be coal towns .
The Trump administration may have pulled the United States out of the Paris climate accord , but most states and many rural areas in America have developed their own plans for reducing carbon emissions and moving away from fossil fuels as they maneuver—often aggressively—to address the threat of climate change .
“ Even if the US government has decided to leave the Paris Agreement , we see in the US an enormous movement in favor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in an interview with Covering Climate Now on Monday .
“ We see companies , we see cities , we see states , we see the civil society fully mobilized.
” Many state and local officials , including those in rural areas , hope stimulus funds aimed at helping rebuild economies ravaged by the Covid-19 pandemic will support renewable energy and other “ climate smart ” initiatives that cut carbon emissions , while often creating more jobs in emerging industries than traditional infrastructure spending .
The plans for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like seeds in a parched field , waiting for a drenching rain .
Here are five examples .
The fingerprints of climate change are all over the state of Maine , from the invasion of temperate species into the rapidly warming Gulf of Maine to summers that are now two weeks longer than they were a century ago .
But despite all this change , one thing will stay the same : Winter in Maine will still be cold .
These Big City Mayors Want Green Stimulus Spending to Counter Covid-19 In a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ per capita than anywhere in the nation , Maine ’ s climate hawks are looking to make a major change in the way people heat their homes , and help mitigate climate change at the same time .
In 2019 , Governor Janet Mills signed a bill with the goal of installing 100,000 heat pumps into homes in Maine by 2025 .
This would represent nearly a fifth of the homes in the state .
“ It ’ s clearly the electrification strategy , ” said Hannah Pingree , the state ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Policy Innovation and the Future .
“ Electrify homes , electrify transportation .
That ’ s a strong theme of the Climate Council.
” Maine ’ s Climate Council—a group of scientists , industry leaders , local and state officials and residents—is charged with figuring out how Maine will meet a trio of ambitious goals : reducing emissions by 45 percent by 2030 and at least 80 percent by 2050 ; increasing the state ’ s renewable energy portfolio standard to 80 percent by 2030 and 100 percent by 2050 ; and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Heat pumps—which also cool homes—draw in air from outside and use the difference in temperature between inside and outside air to keep a home comfortable .
They are run on electricity , and can be paired with clean energy sources like solar or wind power to eliminate the carbon footprint of home heating .
Mills ’ plan offers incentives for installing the pumps , thanks to state funding that ’ s being supplemented by some federal low-income housing funds .
The program is up and running , but it ’ s something @ @ @ @ @ @ @ infusion of federal funds .
“ The governor ’ s heat pump program is already ambitious and innovative , but to really get to the full scale and take it even further , federal investment would make a big difference , ” said Pingree , who cochairs the Climate Council .
“ Especially when it comes to people ’ s homes , investments in transportation and housing stock , the federal government ’ s participation is extremely helpful and it helps put people to work.
” Heat pumps are just one part of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will likely include a massive expansion of offshore wind and community solar projects and a push to electrify the transportation sector .
At a meeting earlier this summer , more than 230 people from six working groups presented ideas to the council—more than 300 actions in all—which are being weighed now .
“ If you look at the recommendations from the working groups , one of the cross-cutting ones is finance .
We do need to raise revenue , and we also need the federal government to step up , ” said David @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the National Resource Council of Maine .
“ It ’ s going to be hard for Maine to implement many of the actions that we ’ d like to implement without increased funding.
” To say California farm country is central to its ambitious plans to combat climate change seems redundant .
The $ 50 billion agricultural sector is a pillar of the state ’ s economy , the world ’ s fifth largest , encompassing 70,000 farms and ranches .
These Big City Mayors Want Green Stimulus Spending to Counter Covid-19 The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Why Isn ’ t That Headline News ?
During the Conventions , the Media Needs to Be Treating Climate Like the Emergency It Is More in this series With such a vast and vital industry ( which includes parts of every county in the state ) , California has created a suite of “ climate smart agriculture ” programs .
The first-of-their-kind programs , launched in 2014 and expanded in 2017 , are helping farms become more resilient to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , conserve land and protect ecosystems and communities .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to farms in four key areas : conserving agricultural land against non-farm development ; increasing on-farm water efficiency ; improving soil health and managing manure to mitigate its climate impacts .
The programs , popular with farmers , are receiving at least twice as many applications as there are grants .
They are also popular with nonprofit environmental and agricultural advocacy organizations .
The California Climate and Agriculture Network ( CalCAN ) , evaluated the programs ’ climate benefits and found impressive results .
To date , the programs collectively have funded more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reduced greenhouse gas emissions by more than 1.1 million metric tons of CO e ( carbon dioxide equivalent ) over the life of the projects , the equivalent of removing 67,000 passenger vehicles from the road for a year .
The water efficiency programs have saved more than 110,000 acre feet of water ( the equivalent of more than 50,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools ) .
They are also affordable , costing between $ 43 and $ 100 per metric ton of CO2 reductions .
In a pre-pandemic California , one with a budget @ @ @ @ @ @ @ programs would be expanding .
Instead , climate smart agriculture funding is in jeopardy .
The state , still partially wracked by the coronavirus , is in a worsening recession .
Supporters of climate smart agriculture programs worry the state will spend its funding on other priorities .
This at a time when the coronavirus has exposed the need for greater investment in farm country , said Jeanne Merrill , CalCAN ’ s policy director .
“ We ’ re seeing the pandemic impacts on farmers is clearly a major disruption , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s a disruption that can point to weaknesses in our current system .
We ’ re taking the lessons learned from the pandemic and applying that to how we can prepare for greater climate extremes .
Investing in resilient farming is key.
” Coal mining jobs have been crashing for decades in eastern Kentucky , from roughly 30,000 in 1984 to about 3,000 now , undercutting what has long been among the most impoverished regions of the country .
For a long time , elected leaders held what turned out to be false @ @ @ @ @ @ @ back .
But a nonprofit based in Berea , Ky. , the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development , has been working toward a post-coal economy since 1976 .
Among its programs : training entrepreneurs and providing low-interest loans to small businesses .
In the past dozen years , MACED added energy efficiency and solar power to its mix of programs , saving clients money and cutting carbon emissions at the same time .
It ’ s an ironic twist that rural Appalachian counties that helped power the nation with cheap—though dirty and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ skyrocket as coal has given way to cheaper natural gas and increasingly competitive wind and solar .
Utility customers have been shouldering the costs of shuttering old coal-burning power plants and cleaning up the toxic messes they leave behind , while the power companies doubled down on more expensive coal .
Since May 2015 , MACED has helped with 30 solar installations , saving almost $ 400,000 in energy costs , said Ivy Brashear , MACED ’ s Appalachian transition director .
And since 2008 , MACED has helped hundreds of homes and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them for errors and helping to pay for energy-efficient retrofits , she said .
She added that it included , for example , helping a grocery store stay in business to prevent a rural area from becoming a food desert .
“ We listen and collaborate with people who are living and working in these communities , and help advance that new economy in ways that are really just and really equitable , ” Brashear said .
In the solar work , MACED has focused on Letcher County , with a population of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ communities , and nonprofits are tapping their cultural strengths to create a new economy .
Whitesburg-based Appalshop , the 50-year-old arts and education nonprofit , for example , partnered with MACED to put solar panels on its new outdoor performance pavilion , which opened a year ago , to power its headquarters building and reduce electricity bills .
“ In the last decade , our energy costs have gone up by 50 percent and were expected to keep rising , ” said Alexandra Werner-Winslow , Appalshop communications director .
“ That was not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ was tremendously helpful with our construction , ” and with the low-interest loan .
At the same time , Appalshop sees solar development and energy efficiency as an important economic engine for eastern Kentucky .
MACED ’ s funding includes grants from government and philanthropic foundations .
With Congress weighing further ways to help the nation recover from an economic recession caused by the novel coronavirus , it could further a transition to cleaner energy and energy savings in rural areas through targeted investments and tax rebates , said Peter Hille , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can [ bring ] down the front-end cost makes a big difference since that also reduces interest cost on financing over the life of the loan , ” he said .
Mountain Towns in the West Hope for a “ Green Pathway ” Stimulus Jessie Burley is the sustainability director for the town of Breckenridge , Colo. , a posh , outdoorsy community in the Tenmile Range .
Not only is Breckenridge a member of the statewide Colorado Communities for Climate Action but the town is also part of a national organization , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ swapping ideas about how to meet a goal of net-zero carbon emissions within a decade , and one of many tourist towns that was focused on clean energy long before the coronavirus pandemic .
And the resulting economic downturn hasn ’ t changed the goal , said Burley .
Sustainability-minded communities recognize that jobs and businesses ought to be a focus of the Covid-19 recovery , since the pandemic has revealed how exposed existing economic systems are , she said .
“ Whether it ’ s a virus or whether it ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some other kind of disaster , we are more susceptible , ” she said .
“ We also can ’ t lose sight of the fact that going back to business as usual is not going to be enough.
” Members of a Mountain Towns 2030 task force on Covid-19 are pressing for any new stimulus package to include provisions supporting “ green pathway ” programs , such as green infrastructure , electric vehicle charging , or renewable energy jobs .
In that spirit , although Breckenridge has suffered steep , pandemic-related revenue @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pressing forward this year , its grants scaled back from 25 to 20 .
Similarly , in Montana , where revenue from natural resource industries makes up 12 percent of the state ’ s general fund and paychecks for 1.2 percent of the workforce , a task force is finalizing a statewide climate change plan this month , said Mark Haggerty , an economist with Bozeman-based Headwaters Economics and a member of the governor ’ s climate task force .
Planning is still underway to decarbonize Montana ’ s electricity sector by 2035 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by 2050 , he said .
“ A lot of this needs to be done in recognition of the fact that [ the energy transition ] is already happening , ” said Haggerty , noting that the task force is diverse , including everyone from conservationists to energy officials .
“ It is a broad-based challenge , and everyone is affected , regardless of where you live or what your political affiliation is , ” he said of the new climate goals in a world also dealing with Covid-19 ’ s economic fallout @ @ @ @ @ @ @ need everyone to buy into and ultimately benefit from the changes that we can enact and that will benefit the entire state.
” Virginia is the South ’ s First State to Commit to Carbon-Free Energy In the wake of a political upheaval that put Democrats firmly in control of state government , Virginia in 2020 became the first state in the South to commit to 100 percent carbon-free energy and to join the Northeast ’ s Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative .
Most of the state ’ s coal power would have to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Clean Economy Act , which also lays the groundwork for a burst of new renewable energy construction .
Lawmakers declared large amounts of solar and wind energy and energy storage to be “ in the public interest , ” sweeping aside the regulatory barriers to new renewable energy projects .
This transition to renewable energy already has a footprint in the Hamptons Roads area , where the state plans to develop a wind industry hub to be overseen by a newly created state agency aimed at fostering offshore wind farms .
The bill @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s opposition to offshore drilling .
About 25 miles east , Virginia Beach is considering an array of plans to protect homes and businesses from increased climate-related flooding , storm surges and sea level rise , hoping for either state or federal funds to do everything from buying out flood-prone homes to possibly building large floodgates to protect its shoreline .
In Norfolk , the state is supporting construction of new reefs using crushed concrete and granite that can serve as a habitat for the eastern oyster and also help shield the city @ @ @ @ @ @ @ effort enabled state officials last year to declare the Lafayette River fully restored under the Chesapeake Bay Watershed agreement .
The Legislature , meanwhile , considered , but rejected , the idea of a Virginia Green New Deal public works–style program .
Instead , lawmakers opted for a business-friendly approach that had the support of the state ’ s big utilities , Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power , by the time the legislation was signed into law by Governor Ralph Northam on April 11 .
The new Clean Economy Act makes it easier @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , by expanding “ net metering ” for households—giving electricity customers credit for the excess solar energy they produce and sell back to the grid .
It enables Virginians for the first time to save money on their monthly electric bills by going solar .
If utilities fall short on their obligations to cut carbon energy and expand renewables , they will be subject to penalties that will go into an account to fund job training , with priority given to historically disadvantaged communities , veterans , and individuals in Virginia ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this setup means there is no assured funding for worker transition programs , which could be provided by stimulus programs from the federal government .
Virginia already has more solar jobs ( 4,489 ) than coal jobs ( 2,730 ) , and the latter are concentrated in the rural southwestern part of the state , a Republican stronghold that has lost political power to the state ’ s burgeoning northern suburbs .
Diverse , highly educated , and tech-heavy communities in the northern part of the state helped Democrats take full control of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ paving the way for passage of Northam ’ s clean energy agenda .
A chief challenge in implementing the law will be ensuring that the Republican-dominated , fossil fuel–dependent rural regions that have been resistant to change don ’ t get left behind .

James Bruggers, Judy Fahys, Marianne Lavelle, Evelyn Nieves, Sabrina Shankman

This story is part of a collaboration between The Nation and InsideClimate News as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalistic collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The piece below focuses on cities; to read how green recovery spending can impact rural areas, click here.
In Maine, state officials are working to help residents install 100,000 high-efficiency heat pumps in their homes, part of a strategy for electrifying the state. In California, an in-demand grant program helps the state’s largest industry—agriculture, not technology—to pursue a greener, more sustainable future. Across Appalachia, solar panels are appearing on rooftops of community centers in what used to be coal towns.
The Trump administration may have pulled the United States out of the Paris climate accord, but most states and many rural areas in America have developed their own plans for reducing carbon emissions and moving away from fossil fuels as they maneuver—often aggressively—to address the threat of climate change.
“Even if the US government has decided to leave the Paris Agreement, we see in the US an enormous movement in favor to climate action,” United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in an interview with Covering Climate Now on Monday. “We see companies, we see cities, we see states, we see the civil society fully mobilized.”
Many state and local officials, including those in rural areas, hope stimulus funds aimed at helping rebuild economies ravaged by the Covid-19 pandemic will support renewable energy and other “climate smart” initiatives that cut carbon emissions, while often creating more jobs in emerging industries than traditional infrastructure spending.
The plans for decarbonizing America have been sown and exist like seeds in a parched field, waiting for a drenching rain.
Here are five examples.
In Maine, Federal Funding “Would Make a Big Difference”
The fingerprints of climate change are all over the state of Maine, from the invasion of temperate species into the rapidly warming Gulf of Maine to summers that are now two weeks longer than they were a century ago. But despite all this change, one thing will stay the same: Winter in Maine will still be cold. Climate Change and Cities These Big City Mayors Want Green Stimulus Spending to Counter Covid-19 Andrew McCormick
In a state that uses more home heating oil per capita than anywhere in the nation, Maine’s climate hawks are looking to make a major change in the way people heat their homes, and help mitigate climate change at the same time.
In 2019, Governor Janet Mills signed a bill with the goal of installing 100,000 heat pumps into homes in Maine by 2025. This would represent nearly a fifth of the homes in the state.
“It’s clearly the electrification strategy,” said Hannah Pingree, the state’s director of the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future. “Electrify homes, electrify transportation. That’s a strong theme of the Climate Council.” Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
Maine’s Climate Council—a group of scientists, industry leaders, local and state officials and residents—is charged with figuring out how Maine will meet a trio of ambitious goals: reducing emissions by 45 percent by 2030 and at least 80 percent by 2050; increasing the state’s renewable energy portfolio standard to 80 percent by 2030 and 100 percent by 2050; and making the state carbon neutral by 2045.
Heat pumps—which also cool homes—draw in air from outside and use the difference in temperature between inside and outside air to keep a home comfortable. They are run on electricity, and can be paired with clean energy sources like solar or wind power to eliminate the carbon footprint of home heating.
Mills’ plan offers incentives for installing the pumps, thanks to state funding that’s being supplemented by some federal low-income housing funds. The program is up and running, but it’s something that Pingree said could benefit from an infusion of federal funds.
“The governor’s heat pump program is already ambitious and innovative, but to really get to the full scale and take it even further, federal investment would make a big difference,” said Pingree, who cochairs the Climate Council. “Especially when it comes to people’s homes, investments in transportation and housing stock, the federal government’s participation is extremely helpful and it helps put people to work.”
Heat pumps are just one part of the state’s strategy, which will likely include a massive expansion of offshore wind and community solar projects and a push to electrify the transportation sector. At a meeting earlier this summer, more than 230 people from six working groups presented ideas to the council—more than 300 actions in all—which are being weighed now.
“If you look at the recommendations from the working groups, one of the cross-cutting ones is finance. We do need to raise revenue, and we also need the federal government to step up,” said David Costello, the clean energy director of the Natural Resource Council of Maine. “It’s going to be hard for Maine to implement many of the actions that we’d like to implement without increased funding.”
California’s Grants for “Climate Smart Agriculture” Are Successful—and Threatened
To say California farm country is central to its ambitious plans to combat climate change seems redundant. The $50 billion agricultural sector is a pillar of the state’s economy, the world’s fifth largest, encompassing 70,000 farms and ranches. Covering Climate Now How to Stop the Spread of Climate Disinformation Erika Seiber and Michael Khoo A Soundtrack for the Climate Emergency Mark Hertsgaard Can Gen Z Save the Midterms for Democrats? Mark Hertsgaard
With such a vast and vital industry (which includes parts of every county in the state), California has created a suite of “climate smart agriculture” programs. The first-of-their-kind programs, launched in 2014 and expanded in 2017, are helping farms become more resilient to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, conserve land and protect ecosystems and communities.
The programs provide grant funds and technical assistance to farms in four key areas: conserving agricultural land against non-farm development; increasing on-farm water efficiency; improving soil health and managing manure to mitigate its climate impacts. The programs, popular with farmers, are receiving at least twice as many applications as there are grants.
They are also popular with nonprofit environmental and agricultural advocacy organizations. The California Climate and Agriculture Network (CalCAN), evaluated the programs’ climate benefits and found impressive results. To date, the programs collectively have funded more than 1,250 climate smart agriculture projects and reduced greenhouse gas emissions by more than 1.1 million metric tons of CO 2 e (carbon dioxide equivalent) over the life of the projects, the equivalent of removing 67,000 passenger vehicles from the road for a year. The water efficiency programs have saved more than 110,000 acre feet of water (the equivalent of more than 50,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools).
They are also affordable, costing between $43 and $100 per metric ton of CO2 reductions. In a pre-pandemic California, one with a budget surplus and climate policy priorities, the programs would be expanding. Instead, climate smart agriculture funding is in jeopardy. The state, still partially wracked by the coronavirus, is in a worsening recession. Supporters of climate smart agriculture programs worry the state will spend its funding on other priorities.
This at a time when the coronavirus has exposed the need for greater investment in farm country, said Jeanne Merrill, CalCAN’s policy director. “We’re seeing the pandemic impacts on farmers is clearly a major disruption,” she said, “and it’s a disruption that can point to weaknesses in our current system. We’re taking the lessons learned from the pandemic and applying that to how we can prepare for greater climate extremes. Investing in resilient farming is key.”
Across Appalachia, a New Post-Coal Economy Beckons
Coal mining jobs have been crashing for decades in eastern Kentucky, from roughly 30,000 in 1984 to about 3,000 now, undercutting what has long been among the most impoverished regions of the country.
For a long time, elected leaders held what turned out to be false hope that the coal industry would come back.
But a nonprofit based in Berea, Ky., the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development, has been working toward a post-coal economy since 1976.
Among its programs: training entrepreneurs and providing low-interest loans to small businesses. In the past dozen years, MACED added energy efficiency and solar power to its mix of programs, saving clients money and cutting carbon emissions at the same time. Current Issue View our current issue
It’s an ironic twist that rural Appalachian counties that helped power the nation with cheap—though dirty and climate-warming—coal have seen residents’ electricity bills skyrocket as coal has given way to cheaper natural gas and increasingly competitive wind and solar. Utility customers have been shouldering the costs of shuttering old coal-burning power plants and cleaning up the toxic messes they leave behind, while the power companies doubled down on more expensive coal.
Since May 2015, MACED has helped with 30 solar installations, saving almost $400,000 in energy costs, said Ivy Brashear, MACED’s Appalachian transition director. And since 2008, MACED has helped hundreds of homes and businesses reduce their energy bills by scrutinizing them for errors and helping to pay for energy-efficient retrofits, she said. She added that it included, for example, helping a grocery store stay in business to prevent a rural area from becoming a food desert.
“We listen and collaborate with people who are living and working in these communities, and help advance that new economy in ways that are really just and really equitable,” Brashear said.
In the solar work, MACED has focused on Letcher County, with a population of about 22,000, where businesses, faith communities, and nonprofits are tapping their cultural strengths to create a new economy.
Whitesburg-based Appalshop, the 50-year-old arts and education nonprofit, for example, partnered with MACED to put solar panels on its new outdoor performance pavilion, which opened a year ago, to power its headquarters building and reduce electricity bills.
“In the last decade, our energy costs have gone up by 50 percent and were expected to keep rising,” said Alexandra Werner-Winslow, Appalshop communications director. “That was not sustainable.”
MACED, she said, “was tremendously helpful with our construction,” and with the low-interest loan. At the same time, Appalshop sees solar development and energy efficiency as an important economic engine for eastern Kentucky.
MACED’s funding includes grants from government and philanthropic foundations. With Congress weighing further ways to help the nation recover from an economic recession caused by the novel coronavirus, it could further a transition to cleaner energy and energy savings in rural areas through targeted investments and tax rebates, said Peter Hille, president of MACED.
“Anything that can [bring] down the front-end cost makes a big difference since that also reduces interest cost on financing over the life of the loan,” he said.
Mountain Towns in the West Hope for a “Green Pathway” Stimulus
Jessie Burley is the sustainability director for the town of Breckenridge, Colo., a posh, outdoorsy community in the Tenmile Range. Not only is Breckenridge a member of the statewide Colorado Communities for Climate Action but the town is also part of a national organization, Mountain Towns 2030, that’s swapping ideas about how to meet a goal of net-zero carbon emissions within a decade, and one of many tourist towns that was focused on clean energy long before the coronavirus pandemic.
And the resulting economic downturn hasn’t changed the goal, said Burley. Sustainability-minded communities recognize that jobs and businesses ought to be a focus of the Covid-19 recovery, since the pandemic has revealed how exposed existing economic systems are, she said.
“Whether it’s a virus or whether it’s global warming or whether it’s some other kind of disaster, we are more susceptible,” she said. “We also can’t lose sight of the fact that going back to business as usual is not going to be enough.”
Members of a Mountain Towns 2030 task force on Covid-19 are pressing for any new stimulus package to include provisions supporting “green pathway” programs, such as green infrastructure, electric vehicle charging, or renewable energy jobs. In that spirit, although Breckenridge has suffered steep, pandemic-related revenue losses, a community solar program is pressing forward this year, its grants scaled back from 25 to 20.
Similarly, in Montana, where revenue from natural resource industries makes up 12 percent of the state’s general fund and paychecks for 1.2 percent of the workforce, a task force is finalizing a statewide climate change plan this month, said Mark Haggerty, an economist with Bozeman-based Headwaters Economics and a member of the governor’s climate task force. Planning is still underway to decarbonize Montana’s electricity sector by 2035 and to decarbonize Montana’s economy by 2050, he said.
“A lot of this needs to be done in recognition of the fact that [the energy transition] is already happening,” said Haggerty, noting that the task force is diverse, including everyone from conservationists to energy officials.
“It is a broad-based challenge, and everyone is affected, regardless of where you live or what your political affiliation is,” he said of the new climate goals in a world also dealing with Covid-19’s economic fallout. “But, also, we need everyone to buy into and ultimately benefit from the changes that we can enact and that will benefit the entire state.”
Virginia is the South’s First State to Commit to Carbon-Free Energy
In the wake of a political upheaval that put Democrats firmly in control of state government, Virginia in 2020 became the first state in the South to commit to 100 percent carbon-free energy and to join the Northeast’s Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
Most of the state’s coal power would have to shut down by 2024 under the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which also lays the groundwork for a burst of new renewable energy construction. Lawmakers declared large amounts of solar and wind energy and energy storage to be “in the public interest,” sweeping aside the regulatory barriers to new renewable energy projects.
This transition to renewable energy already has a footprint in the Hamptons Roads area, where the state plans to develop a wind industry hub to be overseen by a newly created state agency aimed at fostering offshore wind farms. The bill that created the agency stated Virginia’s opposition to offshore drilling.
About 25 miles east, Virginia Beach is considering an array of plans to protect homes and businesses from increased climate-related flooding, storm surges and sea level rise, hoping for either state or federal funds to do everything from buying out flood-prone homes to possibly building large floodgates to protect its shoreline.
In Norfolk, the state is supporting construction of new reefs using crushed concrete and granite that can serve as a habitat for the eastern oyster and also help shield the city against storm surges and erosion. The effort enabled state officials last year to declare the Lafayette River fully restored under the Chesapeake Bay Watershed agreement.
The Legislature, meanwhile, considered, but rejected, the idea of a Virginia Green New Deal public works–style program. Instead, lawmakers opted for a business-friendly approach that had the support of the state’s big utilities, Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power, by the time the legislation was signed into law by Governor Ralph Northam on April 11.
The new Clean Economy Act makes it easier for rooftop solar to spread across Virginia, by expanding “net metering” for households—giving electricity customers credit for the excess solar energy they produce and sell back to the grid. It enables Virginians for the first time to save money on their monthly electric bills by going solar.
If utilities fall short on their obligations to cut carbon energy and expand renewables, they will be subject to penalties that will go into an account to fund job training, with priority given to historically disadvantaged communities, veterans, and individuals in Virginia’s coalfield regions. Some critics note that this setup means there is no assured funding for worker transition programs, which could be provided by stimulus programs from the federal government.
Virginia already has more solar jobs (4,489) than coal jobs (2,730), and the latter are concentrated in the rural southwestern part of the state, a Republican stronghold that has lost political power to the state’s burgeoning northern suburbs. Diverse, highly educated, and tech-heavy communities in the northern part of the state helped Democrats take full control of Virginia’s Legislature in 2019, paving the way for passage of Northam’s clean energy agenda. A chief challenge in implementing the law will be ensuring that the Republican-dominated, fossil fuel–dependent rural regions that have been resistant to change don’t get left behind.


thenation--2020-09-09--Why Your Boss Wants You to Love Your Job

Today , working people in the United States are faced with a cruel paradox : Productivity is off the charts , and yet they work more hours than their parents ’ generation did at the same age , and their real wages haven ’ t budged in decades .
Many can ’ t make enough money at their jobs to dig themselves out of debt .
Jamie K. McCallum argues in his new book , Worked Over , that these coinciding trends all began in the early 1970s and were partly initiated by a concern that well-paid union factory workers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Worked Over : How Round the Clock Work Is Killing the American Dream In July 1972 , Senator Edward Kennedy highlighted the discontent in a two-day hearing for the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare .
In July 1972 , Senator Edward Kennedy highlighted the discontent in a two-day Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare hearing on worker alienation .
He began by mentioning that some people in the federal government thought that workers were interested only in “ their paychecks and their families.
” Decades of organized labor militancy had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pay , but he observed that compensation could satisfy workers only so much .
There was rising discontent among factory workers , evidenced by a spate of wildcat strikes , drug and alcohol abuse on the job , and rampant absenteeism .
Kennedy noted that autoworkers in Lordstown , Ohio , repeatedly protested the “ robotlike monotony ” of their work .
One disgruntled autoworker in Detroit shot three foremen , blaming the chaotic , polluted conditions of the factory for driving him insane .
The Lordstown factories ’ production lines were among @ @ @ @ @ @ @ country .
At the same time , testimony from union leaders and workers there confirmed , drug abuse in the factories was a rising problem .
Working on an assembly line , doing one task repeatedly , was not a satisfying activity .
The union ’ s president said , “ The jobs are so fragmented that [ the worker ] is offered very little as far as input to the product.
” Blue collar workers wanted their factory jobs to be meaningful and humane , even if they were being paid well @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the workplace today , in which we are told to love our jobs but are paid the bare minimum .
The hearings were textbook evidence of the type of alienation that Karl Marx predicted a century before , and even years of virulent anti-communism in America couldn ’ t prevent the committee from coming to the same conclusion as Marx .
Its solution was to , as the committee ’ s report put it , “ encourage the humanization of working conditions and the work itself.
” The factories needed to be made @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and the workweek reduced , possibly to four days .
But no significant legislation came of these hearings .
The country ’ s business leaders got the message , though it was colored by capitalism ’ s historical tendency toward repression .
The head of the New York Stock Exchange , William Batten , declared , “ With dollar compensation no longer the overwhelmingly most important factor in job motivation , management must develop a better understanding of the more elusive , less tangible factors that add up to ‘ job satisfaction.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ necessary philosophy ” to ease tension on the job or companies would lose productivity .
That is , management didn ’ t need to make the workplace better ; it needed a new coercive ideology that would pay lip service to these new demands .
Management took up this task with aplomb .
After the 1970s , firms almost unilaterally began to stress the importance of loving your job .
In 1962 a poll found that 6 percent of people thought success at work required a meaningful job .
Twenty years later @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a professor at Middlebury College in Vermont , finds that this shift toward meaningful work coincided with wage stagnation .
Worse , it also accompanied a dramatic increase in the number of hours that Americans worked , reversing gains that labor unions had made in more than a century-long fight to raise workers ’ wages while reducing their required hours .
Labor has since lost its battle over the clock .
“ Concern over time has largely been forgotten , ” he writes , “ pushed aside by demands for higher wages @ @ @ @ @ @ @ security .
But we ’ ve forgotten this concern at our peril : a major worsening condition for workers has been the intensity , duration , and unpredictability of their working life.
” He argues that if labor wants to see a better world , it needs to deprioritize the idea about meaningful work that persuaded us to work more and more and it must once again take up the fight for the clock .
These days , we only occasionally hear about fights for reduced work hours , but as McCallum writes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ twentieth centuries , work time was a hotly debated public issue.
” In 1791 , a group of carpenters in Philadelphia struck in order to demand a two-hour reduction in their workday , to 10 hours .
Almost a century later , a massive strike in Chicago demanded , as their slogan went , “ Eight hours for work , eight hours for rest , eight hours for what we will.
” Labor unions later fought for and won a standard 40-hour , five-day workweek .
The strategy was clear .
“ You @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the union leader William Winpisinger once said .
“ Enrich the paycheck… .
Decrease the number of hours.
” What Are the Roots of Global Inequality ?
Activists knew that reduced work time had benefits beyond individual leisure .
The early 20th century socialist writer Mary Marcy stressed that “ it is obvious that men or women working from ten to sixteen hours a day have little strength or [ free time ] for study , or activity in revolutionary work… .
The eight-hour day…would insure us [ time ] for study and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Revolution.
” If there was to be a vigorous working-class political movement , workers couldn ’ t be stuck at work all day .
But as union membership declined by almost half from 1983 to 2018 , the number of hours that workers put in went up .
While it is difficult to get exact figures , the sociologist Juliet Schor suggested in an update of her 1991 book The Overworked American that between 1973 and 2000 , workers on average added 199 hours ( almost five standard workweeks ) a year to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ middle of the income distribution , the increase was 660 hours per year .
While some workers are now tremendously overworked , others have to fight for enough hours to survive .
We see this with Walmart employees who have protested for more hours and regular schedules , what some call the fair workweek movement .
Many hourly workers , possibly up to 80 percent , are subject to irregular , or dynamic , scheduling , which uses algorithms—or is based on managers ’ whims—to constantly adjust schedules and give workers the fewest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from overwork or underwork is a lack of control over their time , the ability to determine their own fate .
As union membership declined , working hours went up .
But why and how ?
For one explanation , look to the discourse around meaningful work : When your job is a source of meaning and not just an exchange for material benefits , working more hours naturally seems like a good thing .
This shift , McCallum writes , “ transformed work from a personal sacrifice into something we do for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ benefit of stressing this rhetoric : Workers would agree to work for less if work was thought of as more enriching .
McCallum cites one study that found workers would accept $ 20,000 less per year to take a job that wasn ’ t meaningless and another that suggested 90 percent of workers would surrender some benefits for a more meaningful job .
And workers who find their jobs fulfilling take less time off .
He quotes a trio of economists who declared , “ The provision of meaning can be a low-cost @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hints that employers have kept wages down in part by suggesting work is the path to our personal salvation .
It might help explain why we pay nurses and teachers so little .
Many go into those fields because of a sense of mission and community and are put in a position in which they work for far less than they are worth .
“ It ’ s almost as if the meaninglessness of a job contributes to its economic value , ” McCallum writes .
But meaningful work did not emerge for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ William Morris , the 19th century designer and socialist , wondered if wealthy societies would have “ meaningful work or useless toil.
” And McCallum suggests that the rising middle class of managers of that era defined its new position in society in opposition to the aristocracy by the bourgeoisie ’ s rigorous and performative work ethic .
Soon , the working class adopted this framing , too .
Those who worked hard were more valuable than the idle rich .
The calls for better working conditions for factory workers in the 1970s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mind-numbingly dangerous conditions in manufacturing .
Factory jobs were good ones because they paid well , and it isn ’ t unreasonable that workers would demand good pay and humane conditions .
One study from 1983 found that workers preferred more subjective input in their jobs .
What they didn ’ t know is that they would exchange subjectivity for labor protections When manufacturing fled the United States for Germany , Japan , and elsewhere , many of the jobs that replaced those factory jobs were sort of what workers were asking for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ flexible .
Most of them were service positions .
The problem was that labor law and worker protections were slowly crumbling and traditional unions failed to organize that sector .
What resulted was the economy we have now , which is almost three-quarters service , highly nonunion , and overworked .
While meaningfulness has supplemented wages , there ’ s little evidence we ’ ve created more meaningful work .
“ The difference , ” McCallum writes , “ is that today we generally assume the added burden of having to look for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our jobs fail us.
” It ’ s our neoliberal era ’ s obscene preference for individual responsibility , tasking workers with the creation of a humane workplace .
“ Do what you love ” as Miya Tokumitsu wrote , is an oppressive myth that heavily focuses on the word “ you.
” A satisfying job is not a bad goal , but it ’ s not everything .
And we can ’ t keep romanticizing the factory work of the midcentury for its high wages .
It ’ s often assumed that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the upper middle class , but history shows us it is otherwise .
As the congressional hearing of 1972 demonstrates , even blue collar workers weren ’ t happy to be cranking out cars for their entire lives .
Surely they wanted more creative , subjective work , but they also wanted good wages .
This means the solution can not be either/or .
McCallum wants us to reignite the fight to raise wages , reduce work hours , and make work satisfying simultaneously .
But , as he stresses , we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time .
The less time we spend at work , the more time we can spend looking for meaning where we will more likely find it—among our families , friends , and communities .
One potential effect of reducing hours while not totally reducing income is immediately evident in a moment when the coronavirus pandemic has left millions of people out of work .
In the light of a recent wave of police brutality , millions were free to take to the streets and protest , provide mutual aid , and organize politically @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , whose wages had been held down for so long that they had little savings and economic security in general .
A few months of unemployment ignited a blaze of anxiety about the future .
The protesters are people who might have worried that their arrest would get them fired or who hadn ’ t had the free time to engage in politics .
In this case , it wasn ’ t McCallum ’ s goal of higher wages coupled with lower hours , but the temporarily expanded unemployment benefits had similar characteristics @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have been so eager to diminish unemployment benefits for the past 50 years , because having time away from work with income gives people a chance to think about other things .
In a system in which most people are indebted and dependent on a job to keep them out of poverty , there is much less space , not just for leisure but for political action .
Still , it ’ s important to remember that reducing work time doesn ’ t guarantee there will be an upsurge in radical politics , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ happen .
( It ’ s even easy to imagine that fewer young people protested in 2014 because they were working long hours digging themselves out of the student debt incurred in the last financial collapse . )
“ Voting is hardly democratic if people can ’ t get to the polls.
” McCallum writes , “ Who needs national parks if there ’ s no time to pitch a tent and do a little stargazing ?
” Overwork , that is , not only inhibits pleasure , but it strangles democracy .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” McCallum concludes , “ It ’ s power , control , and justice .
”

Today, working people in the United States are faced with a cruel paradox: Productivity is off the charts, and yet they work more hours than their parents’ generation did at the same age, and their real wages haven’t budged in decades. Many can’t make enough money at their jobs to dig themselves out of debt. Jamie K. McCallum argues in his new book, Worked Over, that these coinciding trends all began in the early 1970s and were partly initiated by a concern that well-paid union factory workers couldn’t stand their jobs. Books in Review Worked Over: How Round the Clock Work Is Killing the American Dream By Jamie K. McCallum Buy this book
In July 1972, Senator Edward Kennedy highlighted the discontent in a two-day Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare hearing on worker alienation. He began by mentioning that some people in the federal government thought that workers were interested only in “their paychecks and their families.” Decades of organized labor militancy had led to reduced work hours and higher pay, but he observed that compensation could satisfy workers only so much. There was rising discontent among factory workers, evidenced by a spate of wildcat strikes, drug and alcohol abuse on the job, and rampant absenteeism.
Kennedy noted that autoworkers in Lordstown, Ohio, repeatedly protested the “robotlike monotony” of their work. One disgruntled autoworker in Detroit shot three foremen, blaming the chaotic, polluted conditions of the factory for driving him insane. The Lordstown factories’ production lines were among the fastest, most efficient in the country. At the same time, testimony from union leaders and workers there confirmed, drug abuse in the factories was a rising problem. Working on an assembly line, doing one task repeatedly, was not a satisfying activity. The union’s president said, “The jobs are so fragmented that [the worker] is offered very little as far as input to the product.” Blue collar workers wanted their factory jobs to be meaningful and humane, even if they were being paid well. It is almost the opposite of the workplace today, in which we are told to love our jobs but are paid the bare minimum.
The hearings were textbook evidence of the type of alienation that Karl Marx predicted a century before, and even years of virulent anti-communism in America couldn’t prevent the committee from coming to the same conclusion as Marx. Its solution was to, as the committee’s report put it, “encourage the humanization of working conditions and the work itself.” The factories needed to be made safer, the schedules made more flexible, and the workweek reduced, possibly to four days. But no significant legislation came of these hearings.
The country’s business leaders got the message, though it was colored by capitalism’s historical tendency toward repression. The head of the New York Stock Exchange, William Batten, declared, “With dollar compensation no longer the overwhelmingly most important factor in job motivation, management must develop a better understanding of the more elusive, less tangible factors that add up to ‘job satisfaction.’” Management had to create the “necessary philosophy” to ease tension on the job or companies would lose productivity. That is, management didn’t need to make the workplace better; it needed a new coercive ideology that would pay lip service to these new demands. Management took up this task with aplomb. After the 1970s, firms almost unilaterally began to stress the importance of loving your job. In 1962 a poll found that 6 percent of people thought success at work required a meaningful job. Twenty years later, it was 49 percent. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
McCallum, a professor at Middlebury College in Vermont, finds that this shift toward meaningful work coincided with wage stagnation. Worse, it also accompanied a dramatic increase in the number of hours that Americans worked, reversing gains that labor unions had made in more than a century-long fight to raise workers’ wages while reducing their required hours. Labor has since lost its battle over the clock. “Concern over time has largely been forgotten,” he writes, “pushed aside by demands for higher wages, healthcare, safety, and job security. But we’ve forgotten this concern at our peril: a major worsening condition for workers has been the intensity, duration, and unpredictability of their working life.” He argues that if labor wants to see a better world, it needs to deprioritize the idea about meaningful work that persuaded us to work more and more and it must once again take up the fight for the clock.
These days, we only occasionally hear about fights for reduced work hours, but as McCallum writes, “in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, work time was a hotly debated public issue.” In 1791, a group of carpenters in Philadelphia struck in order to demand a two-hour reduction in their workday, to 10 hours. Almost a century later, a massive strike in Chicago demanded, as their slogan went, “Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what we will.” Labor unions later fought for and won a standard 40-hour, five-day workweek. The strategy was clear. “You want to enrich the job?” the union leader William Winpisinger once said. “Enrich the paycheck…. Decrease the number of hours.” Related Article What Are the Roots of Global Inequality? Cole Stangler
Activists knew that reduced work time had benefits beyond individual leisure. The early 20th century socialist writer Mary Marcy stressed that “it is obvious that men or women working from ten to sixteen hours a day have little strength or [free time] for study, or activity in revolutionary work…. The eight-hour day…would insure us [time] for study and recreation—for work in the Army of the Revolution.” If there was to be a vigorous working-class political movement, workers couldn’t be stuck at work all day.
But as union membership declined by almost half from 1983 to 2018, the number of hours that workers put in went up. While it is difficult to get exact figures, the sociologist Juliet Schor suggested in an update of her 1991 book The Overworked American that between 1973 and 2000, workers on average added 199 hours (almost five standard workweeks) a year to their schedules. For some in the middle of the income distribution, the increase was 660 hours per year.
While some workers are now tremendously overworked, others have to fight for enough hours to survive. We see this with Walmart employees who have protested for more hours and regular schedules, what some call the fair workweek movement. Many hourly workers, possibly up to 80 percent, are subject to irregular, or dynamic, scheduling, which uses algorithms—or is based on managers’ whims—to constantly adjust schedules and give workers the fewest possible hours. What binds workers suffering from overwork or underwork is a lack of control over their time, the ability to determine their own fate.
As union membership declined, working hours went up. But why and how? For one explanation, look to the discourse around meaningful work: When your job is a source of meaning and not just an exchange for material benefits, working more hours naturally seems like a good thing. This shift, McCallum writes, “transformed work from a personal sacrifice into something we do for our own good.”
Employers found another benefit of stressing this rhetoric: Workers would agree to work for less if work was thought of as more enriching. McCallum cites one study that found workers would accept $20,000 less per year to take a job that wasn’t meaningless and another that suggested 90 percent of workers would surrender some benefits for a more meaningful job. And workers who find their jobs fulfilling take less time off. He quotes a trio of economists who declared, “The provision of meaning can be a low-cost instrument to stimulate work effort.” This hints that employers have kept wages down in part by suggesting work is the path to our personal salvation. It might help explain why we pay nurses and teachers so little. Many go into those fields because of a sense of mission and community and are put in a position in which they work for far less than they are worth. “It’s almost as if the meaninglessness of a job contributes to its economic value,” McCallum writes.
But meaningful work did not emerge for the first time in the 1970s. William Morris, the 19th century designer and socialist, wondered if wealthy societies would have “meaningful work or useless toil.” And McCallum suggests that the rising middle class of managers of that era defined its new position in society in opposition to the aristocracy by the bourgeoisie’s rigorous and performative work ethic. Soon, the working class adopted this framing, too. Those who worked hard were more valuable than the idle rich.
The calls for better working conditions for factory workers in the 1970s arose from the routine, dirty, mind-numbingly dangerous conditions in manufacturing. Factory jobs were good ones because they paid well, and it isn’t unreasonable that workers would demand good pay and humane conditions. One study from 1983 found that workers preferred more subjective input in their jobs. What they didn’t know is that they would exchange subjectivity for labor protections
When manufacturing fled the United States for Germany, Japan, and elsewhere, many of the jobs that replaced those factory jobs were sort of what workers were asking for: nonroutine, somewhat creative, and flexible. Most of them were service positions. The problem was that labor law and worker protections were slowly crumbling and traditional unions failed to organize that sector. What resulted was the economy we have now, which is almost three-quarters service, highly nonunion, and overworked.
While meaningfulness has supplemented wages, there’s little evidence we’ve created more meaningful work. “The difference,” McCallum writes, “is that today we generally assume the added burden of having to look for meaning through work anyway, even if our jobs fail us.” It’s our neoliberal era’s obscene preference for individual responsibility, tasking workers with the creation of a humane workplace. “Do what you love” as Miya Tokumitsu wrote, is an oppressive myth that heavily focuses on the word “you.”
A satisfying job is not a bad goal, but it’s not everything. And we can’t keep romanticizing the factory work of the midcentury for its high wages. It’s often assumed that the drive toward meaningful work is limited to the upper middle class, but history shows us it is otherwise. As the congressional hearing of 1972 demonstrates, even blue collar workers weren’t happy to be cranking out cars for their entire lives. Surely they wanted more creative, subjective work, but they also wanted good wages. This means the solution cannot be either/or.
McCallum wants us to reignite the fight to raise wages, reduce work hours, and make work satisfying simultaneously. But, as he stresses, we must focus on the neglected aspect of time. The less time we spend at work, the more time we can spend looking for meaning where we will more likely find it—among our families, friends, and communities.
One potential effect of reducing hours while not totally reducing income is immediately evident in a moment when the coronavirus pandemic has left millions of people out of work. In the light of a recent wave of police brutality, millions were free to take to the streets and protest, provide mutual aid, and organize politically. They were people, of course, whose wages had been held down for so long that they had little savings and economic security in general. A few months of unemployment ignited a blaze of anxiety about the future. The protesters are people who might have worried that their arrest would get them fired or who hadn’t had the free time to engage in politics. In this case, it wasn’t McCallum’s goal of higher wages coupled with lower hours, but the temporarily expanded unemployment benefits had similar characteristics. It may be one reason lawmakers have been so eager to diminish unemployment benefits for the past 50 years, because having time away from work with income gives people a chance to think about other things.
In a system in which most people are indebted and dependent on a job to keep them out of poverty, there is much less space, not just for leisure but for political action. Still, it’s important to remember that reducing work time doesn’t guarantee there will be an upsurge in radical politics, it only clears space for them to happen. (It’s even easy to imagine that fewer young people protested in 2014 because they were working long hours digging themselves out of the student debt incurred in the last financial collapse.) “Voting is hardly democratic if people can’t get to the polls.” McCallum writes, “Who needs national parks if there’s no time to pitch a tent and do a little stargazing?” Overwork, that is, not only inhibits pleasure, but it strangles democracy. ”Time isn’t money,” McCallum concludes, “It’s power, control, and justice.”