vox--2020-12-18--Environmental defenders in Colombia are being killed in alarming numbers

In Colombia , working to protect the environment can put a target on your back — and even cost you your life .
On December 3 , Javier Francisco Parra Cubillos , a 47-year-old environmental official representing the Meta region in central Colombia , was fatally shot several times by two assailants on a motorcycle as he was traveling through a local municipality .
Parra Cubillos , or “ Pacho ” as he was called , had spent more than 20 years working for Cormacarena , an agency focused on the sustainable development of La Macarena , a small town @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Bogotá .
For decades , the Colombian government ’ s war with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia ( FARC ) — a Marxist guerrilla group that waged an armed insurgency in the country for over 50 years , fueled in large part by revenue from the drug trade — made La Macarena a perilous location to visit .
But the government ’ s 2016 peace agreement with the FARC opened up the region to a flood of visitors .
Pacho had dedicated his life to protecting the area ’ s natural @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in direct conflict with those who want to use the land for other purposes , such as drug cultivation and resource extraction .
And he ’ s not alone : In a July 2020 report , the international human rights watchdog group Global Witness confirmed that 64 land and environmental defenders were killed in Colombia in 2019 , making it the deadliest country to be an environmental leader that year .
Colombia Attorney General Fernando Carrillo Flórez called for the prosecution of Pacho ’ s murderers , blaming the violence toward environmental leaders @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the environment and the wealth of forests and jungles has made our environmental leaders a target of criminal mafias , ” he tweeted on December 3 .
“ We condemn the murder of Javier Parra , coordinator of Cormacarena , Meta .
His murderers must be prosecuted.
” But the problem isn ’ t confined to Colombia .
Around the world , from Brazil to India to Burkina Faso , environmental officials and activists regularly face the threat of being murdered , falsely accused of committing crimes , or harassed for standing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Global Witness , 212 environmental leaders were killed around the world in 2019 — the deadliest year on record .
But over half of those deaths occurred in just two countries : Colombia and the Philippines , with Colombia far outpacing all others .
The problem is even more pronounced for indigenous environment and land defenders .
Despite only making up 5 percent of the world ’ s population , Global Witness found that 40 percent of defenders murdered in 2019 came from indigenous communities .
A similar trend exists in Colombia , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have suffered centuries of discrimination and lack of attention from the central government .
“ In terms of victimization , indigenous and Afro-Colombian populations suffer disproportionately to their percentages of the population , ” Cynthia Arnson , director of the Latin American program at the Wilson Center , told me .
How did it get so bad in Colombia ?
As Amanda Taub explained for Vox in 2014 , “ In the early 1960s , the FARC and other leftist guerrilla groups formed as a rural insurgency that claimed to represent the interests @ @ @ @ @ @ @ landed elite.
” Land reform to address social and economic inequality was one of the FARC ’ s key demands .
But , as Taub noted , “ The elite responded by organizing private ‘ self-defense ’ organizations to oppose the rebels ” — and to defend the wealthy landowners — “ which soon transformed into right-wing paramilitary groups .
That became the civil war that has lasted ever since , albeit in sometimes very different forms.
” In the past 20 or so years , new disputes over land have also emerged @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on raw materials like mining .
Environmental leaders and land defenders are often on the front lines protecting resource-rich areas from exploitation , which exposes them to danger .
In 2016 , the Colombian government and the FARC signed a peace agreement to end the 52-year conflict , winning then-President Juan Manuel Santos a Nobel Peace Prize .
But the deal hasn ’ t exactly been the resounding success many hoped it would be , and there has been an increase in violence in many parts of the country .
Daniel Cano Insuasty @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Colombia Barometer Initiative of the Kroc Institute at Notre Dame , which monitors the 2016 peace agreement .
He told me the peace agreement “ wasn ’ t comprehensive enough to include all the different illegal armed groups in Colombia.
” So , he explained , the increase in violence across the country “ is something expected.
” The interests of these armed groups , Insuasty said , is focused on illegal drugs — which is directly in conflict with the interests of land defenders like Pacho , who advocate for sustainability @ @ @ @ @ @ @ peace agreement also saw an increase in social leadership on environmental issues , which led to increased visibility .
“ Pacho was a very public figure , ” Insuasty said , which made him a target for armed groups .
The Colombian government blames paramilitary forces including the National Liberation Army ( ELN ) , ex-FARC members who do not support the peace agreement , and criminal gangs for the violence .
These groups are fighting for control over areas with heavy drug trafficking and illegal mining .
These areas often overlap with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ land and environmental defenders have been killed trying to protect .
But experts say the government ’ s absence from areas it secured from the FARC is also to blame .
“ That vacuum of power became the focus of a struggle for control of territory between a variety of criminal groups , including the ELN , ” Arnson at the Wilson Center told me .
“ The killings are a reflection of the lack of a state presence.
” So why doesn ’ t the Colombian government just send more police or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It ’ s complicated .
One problem , Arnson noted , is that Colombia ’ s armed forces are divided over what to do to further secure areas facing violence .
Another is that Colombia ’ s rugged terrain is very challenging to protect , which Arnson said is “ one of the reasons why historically the state has had such weak control.
” The coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating the problem , placing environmental defenders at even greater risk , Chris Madden , a senior campaigner at Global Witness , told me .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ told the organization that during the pandemic , the government has pulled back on its responsibilities to secure the region while simultaneously allowing further extraction of natural resources .
What ’ s more , “ the coronavirus lockdown appears to have worsened the situation .
We did get reports where people were attacked because they were known to be in a location because of lockdown , ” Madden said .
There is a way forward Experts say the government needs to do more to punish perpetrators and to tackle the root causes driving @ @ @ @ @ @ @ killed in Colombia , the courts rarely deliver justice .
According to a special report by the UN Human Rights Council , almost 90 percent of murders of human rights activists in the country do not lead to a conviction .
“ There ’ s also the impunity issue , so these murders need to be investigated .
And when people are found guilty in the legal system , they should be prosecuted based on that , ” Global Witness ’ s Madden said .
But it isn ’ t as simple as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to prosecute crimes against defenders .
Arnson said that protecting rural areas requires “ basic services , health care , education , and a judicial presence as well , not just a security presence — which take a long time to build up.
” “ Many specialists and international analysts agree the Colombian peace agreement is the most comprehensive in the world , ” Insuasty said .
“ 90 percent of the agreement is focused on social development programs , which is different than others in the world which focus on disarmament or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said , is to have a government with the political commitment and the resources necessary to actually achieve Colombia ’ s ambitious program of rural transformation .
But , as Arnson noted , “ Even if that was going to be challenging before Covid , it ’ s even more challenging [ now ] in the face of the sharp economic decline [ and ] the rise in unemployment .
”

In Colombia, working to protect the environment can put a target on your back — and even cost you your life.
On December 3, Javier Francisco Parra Cubillos, a 47-year-old environmental official representing the Meta region in central Colombia, was fatally shot several times by two assailants on a motorcycle as he was traveling through a local municipality.
Parra Cubillos, or “Pacho” as he was called, had spent more than 20 years working for Cormacarena, an agency focused on the sustainable development of La Macarena, a small town 275 kilometers south of the Colombian capital, Bogotá.
For decades, the Colombian government’s war with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) — a Marxist guerrilla group that waged an armed insurgency in the country for over 50 years, fueled in large part by revenue from the drug trade — made La Macarena a perilous location to visit. But the government’s 2016 peace agreement with the FARC opened up the region to a flood of visitors. Pacho had dedicated his life to protecting the area’s natural resources.
But that work put him in direct conflict with those who want to use the land for other purposes, such as drug cultivation and resource extraction. And he’s not alone: In a July 2020 report, the international human rights watchdog group Global Witness confirmed that 64 land and environmental defenders were killed in Colombia in 2019, making it the deadliest country to be an environmental leader that year.
Colombia Attorney General Fernando Carrillo Flórez called for the prosecution of Pacho’s murderers, blaming the violence toward environmental leaders on organized gangs.
“The defense of the environment and the wealth of forests and jungles has made our environmental leaders a target of criminal mafias,” he tweeted on December 3. “We condemn the murder of Javier Parra, coordinator of Cormacarena, Meta. His murderers must be prosecuted.”
But the problem isn’t confined to Colombia. Around the world, from Brazil to India to Burkina Faso, environmental officials and activists regularly face the threat of being murdered, falsely accused of committing crimes, or harassed for standing up for the environment. According to Global Witness, 212 environmental leaders were killed around the world in 2019 — the deadliest year on record.
But over half of those deaths occurred in just two countries: Colombia and the Philippines, with Colombia far outpacing all others.
The problem is even more pronounced for indigenous environment and land defenders. Despite only making up 5 percent of the world’s population, Global Witness found that 40 percent of defenders murdered in 2019 came from indigenous communities.
A similar trend exists in Colombia, where indigenous people and other racial minorities have suffered centuries of discrimination and lack of attention from the central government. “In terms of victimization, indigenous and Afro-Colombian populations suffer disproportionately to their percentages of the population,” Cynthia Arnson, director of the Latin American program at the Wilson Center, told me.
How did it get so bad in Colombia?
Land disputes were a major factor in Colombia’s five-decade-long civil war.
As Amanda Taub explained for Vox in 2014, “In the early 1960s, the FARC and other leftist guerrilla groups formed as a rural insurgency that claimed to represent the interests of Colombia’s poor against the landed elite.” Land reform to address social and economic inequality was one of the FARC’s key demands.
But, as Taub noted, “The elite responded by organizing private ‘self-defense’ organizations to oppose the rebels” — and to defend the wealthy landowners — “which soon transformed into right-wing paramilitary groups. That became the civil war that has lasted ever since, albeit in sometimes very different forms.”
In the past 20 or so years, new disputes over land have also emerged due to drug trafficking and industries dependent on raw materials like mining. Environmental leaders and land defenders are often on the front lines protecting resource-rich areas from exploitation, which exposes them to danger.
In 2016, the Colombian government and the FARC signed a peace agreement to end the 52-year conflict, winning then-President Juan Manuel Santos a Nobel Peace Prize. But the deal hasn’t exactly been the resounding success many hoped it would be, and there has been an increase in violence in many parts of the country.
Daniel Cano Insuasty is a Colombia-based political relations coordinator for the Colombia Barometer Initiative of the Kroc Institute at Notre Dame, which monitors the 2016 peace agreement. He told me the peace agreement “wasn’t comprehensive enough to include all the different illegal armed groups in Colombia.” So, he explained, the increase in violence across the country “is something expected.”
The interests of these armed groups, Cano Insuasty said, is focused on illegal drugs — which is directly in conflict with the interests of land defenders like Pacho, who advocate for sustainability and the protection of forests.
The peace agreement also saw an increase in social leadership on environmental issues, which led to increased visibility. “Pacho was a very public figure,” Cano Insuasty said, which made him a target for armed groups.
The Colombian government blames paramilitary forces including the National Liberation Army (ELN), ex-FARC members who do not support the peace agreement, and criminal gangs for the violence. These groups are fighting for control over areas with heavy drug trafficking and illegal mining. These areas often overlap with areas rich in natural resources, which land and environmental defenders have been killed trying to protect.
But experts say the government’s absence from areas it secured from the FARC is also to blame. “That vacuum of power became the focus of a struggle for control of territory between a variety of criminal groups, including the ELN,” Arnson at the Wilson Center told me. “The killings are a reflection of the lack of a state presence.”
So why doesn’t the Colombian government just send more police or troops to protect the land defenders? It’s complicated.
One problem, Arnson noted, is that Colombia’s armed forces are divided over what to do to further secure areas facing violence. Another is that Colombia’s rugged terrain is very challenging to protect, which Arnson said is “one of the reasons why historically the state has had such weak control.”
The coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating the problem, placing environmental defenders at even greater risk, Chris Madden, a senior campaigner at Global Witness, told me. He said many defenders and organizers have told the organization that during the pandemic, the government has pulled back on its responsibilities to secure the region while simultaneously allowing further extraction of natural resources.
What’s more, “the coronavirus lockdown appears to have worsened the situation. We did get reports where people were attacked because they were known to be in a location because of lockdown,” Madden said.
There is a way forward
Experts say the government needs to do more to punish perpetrators and to tackle the root causes driving this violence.
When environmental defenders are killed in Colombia, the courts rarely deliver justice. According to a special report by the UN Human Rights Council, almost 90 percent of murders of human rights activists in the country do not lead to a conviction.
“There’s also the impunity issue, so these murders need to be investigated. And when people are found guilty in the legal system, they should be prosecuted based on that,” Global Witness’s Madden said.
But it isn’t as simple as beefing up security and setting up courts to prosecute crimes against defenders. Arnson said that protecting rural areas requires “basic services, health care, education, and a judicial presence as well, not just a security presence — which take a long time to build up.”
“Many specialists and international analysts agree the Colombian peace agreement is the most comprehensive in the world,” Cano Insuasty said. “90 percent of the agreement is focused on social development programs, which is different than others in the world which focus on disarmament or demobilization.”
The way forward, he said, is to have a government with the political commitment and the resources necessary to actually achieve Colombia’s ambitious program of rural transformation.
But, as Arnson noted, “Even if that was going to be challenging before Covid, it’s even more challenging [now] in the face of the sharp economic decline [and] the rise in unemployment.”


vox--2020-12-18--How Christmas trees are made, explained by a tree farmer

Karabin Farms is located right in the middle of Connecticut , which means that for the last four decades , Diana Karabin has been selling Christmas trees to the good families of Bristol , Waterbury , New Britain , and every other township in between .
She and her husband moved to the state in 1972 and started the farm so it could serve as an idyllic environment for their children .
But by the ’ 80s , the Karabins had accumulated more than 100 acres of land , and Diana decided to give the yuletide business a shot .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ 11 years to grow to 6 feet and requires repeated shearing to keep its picturesque look .
Once a crop is prepped for market , they ’ ll sell out in a matter of weeks .
Diana says her busiest weekend is the one after Thanksgiving , as the country gets its first taste of the Christmas season .
No company is exclusively built around Christmas trees , and Karabin Farms has diversified well outside of its seasonal decor .
Diana sells apples freshly picked from their orchard , meat products sourced from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the greenhouses around the farm .
In fact , Diana tells me that pine farming is one of the more stressful parts of her business .
Mother Nature is fickle , and there ’ s always something on the horizon to worry about .
The Karabins don ’ t rely on irrigation to keep their trees alive .
Instead , they simply hope for rain .
This season , Connecticut was mired in a severe drought , which means that hundreds of Diana ’ s new saplings died in the parched soil .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ — remember , these trees take a long time to mature — but 10 years down the line , the Karabins ’ customers might be suffering through a light crop .
Still , it ’ s easy to socially distance when picking out a tree , and the Karabins are blessed to work outdoors .
The family farm is exempt from some of the more pernicious questions facing other businesses in the pandemic , but Diana does make sure to enforce all the rules .
Hand sanitizer is everywhere , as are foot-activated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ She ’ s become accustomed to telling her customers to keep their mask over their nose , even as they ’ re taking an ax to a Douglas fir .
We talked about that , as well as her favorite Christmas tree varieties and why she thinks business will be better than ever during the pandemic .
“ Christmas trees don ’ t have that perfect look naturally ; that ’ s all man-made ” What ’ s your background in the Christmas tree business ?
We purchased this property back in 1984 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get some money out of the land in order to pay for it , and one of our ideas was to grow Christmas trees .
So in the mid-80s , we started planting trees .
We thought the sales each year would allow us to pay for the college tuition for our kids .
What are some of the mistakes people make when they first start growing these trees ?
I don ’ t know if we ’ ve ever learned to be completely successful , because mother nature has a way of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ instance , we planted 500 seedlings of one variety , and out of that 500 , 480 died because of the drought .
We ’ re not capable of irrigation .
We depend on rain .
So , at the end of the day , we lost a huge swath of our planting .
The thing is , though , Christmas trees take a really long time to grow .
So this loss will be felt eight years down the road .
That ’ s when those trees won ’ t be available @ @ @ @ @ @ @ grow a field of trees ?
It takes about 11 years for a tree to reach 6 feet tall .
When they go in the ground , they ’ re already 4 feet tall , and it takes another seven years , at minimum , before they hit the requisite height .
So you ’ re talking about a very long-term investment .
Along the way , you ’ re shaping and trimming the trees .
Christmas trees don ’ t have that perfect look naturally ; that ’ s all man-made .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ pruning to get it right .
And of course feeding and fertilizing them , making sure they ’ re insect- and disease-free .
There ’ s a lot going on .
Is that difficult for you guys ?
Is there a chance that one thing could go wrong in those 11 years that wipes out a crop of trees ?
Obviously , we ’ re at the mercy of the weather .
We ’ re at the mercy of whatever insect happens to be flying by .
But for the most part , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we ’ ve got the trees going , we ’ re in good shape .
Though , one time , we planted a particular variety of tree , and about three years later , they died .
We were really perplexed as to why that happened because they seemed to be doing well .
It turns out , the land that we ’ re on had corn planted in it once upon a time .
The chemical used on that corn got into the ground , and it ’ s toxic to that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ ve planted other trees successfully there , but not that one .
This chemical was used before we were here , which tells you how long ago it was .
And that chemical has since been pulled from the market .
Do you have a favorite type of Christmas tree that you grow ?
We ’ ve always grown Douglas firs .
That ’ s a soft tree .
If you have children or pets , they aren ’ t going to poke their eyes out .
The past few years we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ house .
They ’ re incredibly hardy .
We tend to keep our tree up all year to see how far we can push the envelope .
This year , we took it down around July 1 , and it was pretty crunchy .
But the Concolor needles don ’ t fall off of it .
This year , we ’ re bringing in a Meyer Spruce to our home , which is supposed to be even more resilient .
If I talk to you next year , I ’ ll let you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ November .
Is that important to you ?
To get the user experience of how all these different trees work in a household ?
Absolutely .
We have greenhouses here where we grow a huge variety of flowers and foliage .
We plant those for ourselves and treat them the way our customers might .
Most likely , consumers aren ’ t going to fertilize their plants after they buy from us .
They ’ re just going to water it and forget about it .
I want to see how those plants @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on what works and what doesn ’ t .
That ’ s how it is for the Christmas trees , too .
“ The whole production of Christmas has changed over the years .
... People feel pressure to get their trees up.
” What ’ s your busiest time of the year ?
This upcoming weekend [ after Thanksgiving ] .
That ’ s changed over the years .
The busiest weekend , prior to Christmas , used to be the second week of December .
But the whole production of Christmas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ days , you see Christmas stuff in stores next to the Halloween stuff .
People feel pressure to get their trees up .
I ’ m talking to you on the Monday of Thanksgiving week , and I ’ m selling a lot of trees today .
Christmas trees are basically only sold for a month at the end of the year .
What ’ s it like to be in a business where you are expected to turn a profit in a very short amount of time ?
I don ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
We ’ re really nervous .
They ’ re promising rain this weekend , and that might mean sales are depressed .
We can only hope that we can recover in the next few weekends .
We just have to roll with the punches .
We prognosticate our sales as best we can with our experience .
And then we hope it all goes well .
How has your business reacted to the Covid-19 regulations ?
I ’ ve got the whole nine yards .
I ’ ve got the signs all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the cut-your-own Christmas trees , asking people to respect social distancing .
I have foot-activated hand sanitizer .
I have a portable sink with soap and water outside .
In the store , I ’ ve got arrows that go one direction .
I ’ ve got the plexiglass screens over the registers .
And masks are required , and I make a lot of people upset because I say , “ Would you please pull your mask up above your nose ?
Because it ’ s doing nothing for me or you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ want to see your nose .
Do you think the pandemic will change the demand for Christmas decorations this year ?
I honestly think that sales are going to increase .
People are staying home more .
They ’ re in their own cocoon .
They want something that will make them happy and cheerful , and Christmas decorations in the house do that .
I hope I ’ m right .
I felt that way when we were selling pumpkins in autumn .
We didn ’ t expect to be busy , @ @ @ @ @ @

Karabin Farms is located right in the middle of Connecticut, which means that for the last four decades, Diana Karabin has been selling Christmas trees to the good families of Bristol, Waterbury, New Britain, and every other township in between. She and her husband moved to the state in 1972 and started the farm so it could serve as an idyllic environment for their children. But by the ’80s, the Karabins had accumulated more than 100 acres of land, and Diana decided to give the yuletide business a shot.
The average evergreen pine takes over about 11 years to grow to 6 feet and requires repeated shearing to keep its picturesque look. Once a crop is prepped for market, they’ll sell out in a matter of weeks. Diana says her busiest weekend is the one after Thanksgiving, as the country gets its first taste of the Christmas season.
No company is exclusively built around Christmas trees, and Karabin Farms has diversified well outside of its seasonal decor. Diana sells apples freshly picked from their orchard, meat products sourced from their livestock, and bouquets pulled from the greenhouses around the farm. In fact, Diana tells me that pine farming is one of the more stressful parts of her business. Mother Nature is fickle, and there’s always something on the horizon to worry about. The Karabins don’t rely on irrigation to keep their trees alive. Instead, they simply hope for rain. This season, Connecticut was mired in a severe drought, which means that hundreds of Diana’s new saplings died in the parched soil. That won’t matter this Christmas — remember, these trees take a long time to mature — but 10 years down the line, the Karabins’ customers might be suffering through a light crop.
Still, it’s easy to socially distance when picking out a tree, and the Karabins are blessed to work outdoors. The family farm is exempt from some of the more pernicious questions facing other businesses in the pandemic, but Diana does make sure to enforce all the rules. Hand sanitizer is everywhere, as are foot-activated portable sinks and one-way directional signs. She’s become accustomed to telling her customers to keep their mask over their nose, even as they’re taking an ax to a Douglas fir. We talked about that, as well as her favorite Christmas tree varieties and why she thinks business will be better than ever during the pandemic.
“Christmas trees don’t have that perfect look naturally; that’s all man-made”
What’s your background in the Christmas tree business?
We purchased this property back in 1984. We decided that we needed to get some money out of the land in order to pay for it, and one of our ideas was to grow Christmas trees. So in the mid-80s, we started planting trees. We thought the sales each year would allow us to pay for the college tuition for our kids.
What are some of the mistakes people make when they first start growing these trees?
I don’t know if we’ve ever learned to be completely successful, because mother nature has a way of humbling you. This year, for instance, we planted 500 seedlings of one variety, and out of that 500, 480 died because of the drought. We’re not capable of irrigation. We depend on rain. So, at the end of the day, we lost a huge swath of our planting. The thing is, though, Christmas trees take a really long time to grow. So this loss will be felt eight years down the road. That’s when those trees won’t be available.
How long does it take to grow a field of trees?
It takes about 11 years for a tree to reach 6 feet tall. When they go in the ground, they’re already 4 feet tall, and it takes another seven years, at minimum, before they hit the requisite height. So you’re talking about a very long-term investment. Along the way, you’re shaping and trimming the trees. Christmas trees don’t have that perfect look naturally; that’s all man-made. So it takes all those years of pruning to get it right. And of course feeding and fertilizing them, making sure they’re insect- and disease-free. There’s a lot going on.
Is that difficult for you guys? Is there a chance that one thing could go wrong in those 11 years that wipes out a crop of trees?
Obviously, we’re at the mercy of the weather. We’re at the mercy of whatever insect happens to be flying by. But for the most part, because of our intense maintenance, once we’ve got the trees going, we’re in good shape. Though, one time, we planted a particular variety of tree, and about three years later, they died. We were really perplexed as to why that happened because they seemed to be doing well. It turns out, the land that we’re on had corn planted in it once upon a time. The chemical used on that corn got into the ground, and it’s toxic to that particular variety of Christmas tree. We’ve planted other trees successfully there, but not that one. This chemical was used before we were here, which tells you how long ago it was. And that chemical has since been pulled from the market.
Do you have a favorite type of Christmas tree that you grow?
We’ve always grown Douglas firs. That’s a soft tree. If you have children or pets, they aren’t going to poke their eyes out. The past few years we’ve been bringing Concolors into the house. They’re incredibly hardy. We tend to keep our tree up all year to see how far we can push the envelope. This year, we took it down around July 1, and it was pretty crunchy. But the Concolor needles don’t fall off of it. This year, we’re bringing in a Meyer Spruce to our home, which is supposed to be even more resilient. If I talk to you next year, I’ll let you know if we take it down around November.
Is that important to you? To get the user experience of how all these different trees work in a household?
Absolutely. We have greenhouses here where we grow a huge variety of flowers and foliage. We plant those for ourselves and treat them the way our customers might. Most likely, consumers aren’t going to fertilize their plants after they buy from us. They’re just going to water it and forget about it. I want to see how those plants perform so I can educate my consumers on what works and what doesn’t. That’s how it is for the Christmas trees, too.
“The whole production of Christmas has changed over the years. ... People feel pressure to get their trees up.”
What’s your busiest time of the year?
This upcoming weekend [after Thanksgiving]. That’s changed over the years. The busiest weekend, prior to Christmas, used to be the second week of December. But the whole production of Christmas has changed over the years. These days, you see Christmas stuff in stores next to the Halloween stuff. People feel pressure to get their trees up. I’m talking to you on the Monday of Thanksgiving week, and I’m selling a lot of trees today.
Christmas trees are basically only sold for a month at the end of the year. What’s it like to be in a business where you are expected to turn a profit in a very short amount of time?
I don’t think you ever get used to it. We’re really nervous. They’re promising rain this weekend, and that might mean sales are depressed. We can only hope that we can recover in the next few weekends. We just have to roll with the punches. We prognosticate our sales as best we can with our experience. And then we hope it all goes well.
How has your business reacted to the Covid-19 regulations?
I’ve got the whole nine yards. I’ve got the signs all through the pre-cut Christmas trees and in the cut-your-own Christmas trees, asking people to respect social distancing. I have foot-activated hand sanitizer. I have a portable sink with soap and water outside. In the store, I’ve got arrows that go one direction. I’ve got the plexiglass screens over the registers. And masks are required, and I make a lot of people upset because I say, “Would you please pull your mask up above your nose? Because it’s doing nothing for me or you right now.” I don’t want to see your nose.
Do you think the pandemic will change the demand for Christmas decorations this year?
I honestly think that sales are going to increase. People are staying home more. They’re in their own cocoon. They want something that will make them happy and cheerful, and Christmas decorations in the house do that. I hope I’m right. I felt that way when we were selling pumpkins in autumn. We didn’t expect to be busy, but we very much were.


vox--2020-12-18--Americans don’t think like citizens. They think like shoppers.

A lot of Americans think the country should be run like a business .
This is a problem on a few levels .
Most obviously , a country isn ’ t a company .
Businesses exist to turn a profit ; countries do not , and competence in business rarely translates to competence in politics .
Treating the country like a business also encourages Americans to think of themselves as customers rather than citizens .
Trump ’ s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner spoke directly to this idea in a 2017 interview : “ We should have excellence in government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a great company .
Our hope is that we can achieve successes and efficiencies for our customers.
” American citizens are not Trump ’ s customers — we ’ re his boss .
But more broadly , calling citizens “ customers ” implies the only thing that matters is self-interest : What am I paying , and what am I getting for it ?
Ideally , citizenship involves something beyond self-interest .
We all want to benefit from good government , but citizenship should have a collective dimension that transcends narrow cost-benefit calculations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ book by political scientist Ethan Porter , The Consumer Citizen , makes a provocative claim : The conventional idea of citizenship is a fantasy , and the only language the vast majority of people understand is consumerism .
If that ’ s true , Porter says , then we need a form of politics that accepts this reality and tries to leverage it to produce the best possible outcomes .
I ’ m a little skeptical of Porter ’ s argument , but I ’ m also not sure he ’ s wrong @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to talk about why he thinks our assumptions about citizenship are outdated , why people who benefit most from government often reject it , and if a hyper-individualistic consumer culture is really compatible with any meaningful vision of citizenship .
A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows .
It ’ s hard to have this conversation without a clear idea of what democratic citizenship is supposed to mean and what it actually looks like in the world .
So let ’ s start there .
There ’ s an idealized vision of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ back to ancient Greece and ancient political philosophy .
The idea is that citizenship makes demands on people and it means active involvement in public life .
It demands that people be responsible and take the time to acquire knowledge about policy issues .
It demands that people participate in political debate and accept all the burdens that come with democratic engagement .
So you ’ ll notice I ’ m using words like “ responsibility ” and “ burden ” and “ demands.
” These are the kinds of words that have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the book , I try to imagine an alternative vision of citizenship that isn ’ t based in some fantasy of “ public debate ” and doesn ’ t place politics in some abstract realm removed from how actual people live their lives .
If we ’ re going to be honest about the possibilities of citizenship today , we ’ ve got to be honest about how people think and how they spend their time .
If the “ ideal ” citizen is a fantasy , what we have instead is something @ @ @ @ @ @ @ What ’ s that ?
The consumer citizen is , firstly , a person who devotes much of his time to things besides citizenship .
More specifically the consumer citizen is a person who spends a lot of his life shopping and making consumer decisions .
Most people don ’ t spend much time thinking about , say , monetary policy , but they make many choices every day about what to buy or not buy , who to hire or who not to hire , what they can afford and what they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ result of this , people develop habits and techniques as consumers , and those habits and techniques shape the decisions they make as citizens , even if it ’ s not intentional .
A consumer citizen approaches government the way he or she approaches a provider of consumer goods .
Now , you and I both know government is not an ordinary economic firm , but nonetheless that ’ s how consumer citizens see government .
And that means they ’ re wondering , what are they getting out of it ?
They @ @ @ @ @ @ @ getting a fair return on their investment .
Are the benefits worth the costs ?
The argument of my book is that there ’ s a disjunction between what government is and the expectations people have from their experiences as consumers .
And that disjunction helps explain some of the more interesting puzzles in American political life .
What puzzles does it explain ?
Well , here ’ s one .
In a time of massive inequality , what explains Americans ’ opposition to tax increases ?
There have been many answers offered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the answer , I think , has to do with the expectations that consumers have about what they pay for .
Like an ordinary firm , government extracts costs ; but unlike an ordinary firm , it doesn ’ t make clear the benefits that people receive in return .
People feel that they don ’ t get a good deal from government .
And so they punish government as they would an ordinary firm — by withholding their support .
Give me some examples of citizens making political decisions through a consumerist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I came across a New York Times article about the Bush tax cuts of 2001 .
A man quoted in the article said something to the effect of , “ It ’ s really good to get something back from government for a change.
” At first glance , that ’ s bizarre because of course the person has likely benefited from any number of public goods the government has provided , even if he never benefited from direct benefits .
But I think it makes more sense if you imagine a typical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Imagine a person who leaves work on Friday to get his biweekly paycheck and finds that some of the money is already removed for taxes .
He feels it as a sort of cost that government is imposing upon him .
Over the weekend , he takes his wife out to dinner .
Working around the house , he pulls his back , so he takes a painkiller .
He takes his kids to the park .
He ’ s actually constantly receiving government benefits , but it ’ s really unlikely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ those benefits come from government .
So , as a consumer , he feels ripped off .
As a consumer , he says , well I paid for something on Friday , I paid money to the government and I ’ m not getting any benefits .
Again , you and I can sit here and say , oh , no , he did benefit , and indeed he did .
But for someone who , again , isn ’ t spending their time thinking about politics , it can be hard to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the perspective of a consumer citizen , government is like an unfair company in the market , ripping them off and overcharging them .
Most “ consumer citizens ” are very bad at understanding how government interacts with their lives .
The costs of government ( taxes ) are very clear , but the benefits of government ( public parks , drivable roads , safe food to eat ) are harder for people to connect .
That ’ s probably unavoidable in a big , complex society like ours , but it also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ outcomes .
It seems pretty clear that consumer citizenship does lead people to make less-than-defensible political choices .
One study in the book shows that people who aren ’ t particularly knowledgeable about politics are more likely to prefer candidates who provide them with equal amounts of government benefits and government costs , over candidates who promise them more benefits than costs .
As consumers , we want the value of what we paid for to align with the price we paid for it .
Consumer citizens approach candidates the same way .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ book .
The less politically knowledgeable are more likely to prefer political candidates who give them fewer direct benefits compared to the costs they pay .
By contrast , the people who are very politically knowledgeable are more likely to prefer candidates who offer them direct benefits , who offer them benefits beyond the value they paid .
When people ask what ’ s the matter with Kansas or make that kind of argument , I think part of the answer has to do with the power of consumer citizenship .
But the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the consumer citizen can effect political change .
What does it mean to appeal to consumer citizens ?
It means being comfortable with government , particularly in the US , advertising its services in a way similar to private companies .
This is something that government used to do but doesn ’ t really do much of anymore .
You can go back and see art from the New Deal period .
Government actually used to be invested in this idea of promoting itself .
It ’ s not really the case @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unfortunate .
As I show in the book , there are different lessons we can take from consumer life .
We can take those lessons and apply them to certain advertisements for government .
Done right , such advertisements can actually increase trust in government and increase support for various forms of taxation and government spending .
So government needs to get more comfortable with advertising itself again .
You take a very realist position , which is that consumerism is a permanent feature of our culture and we have to reconcile our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ think consumerism is incompatible with citizenship , or at least deeply at odds with it , and trying to marry the two is therefore a mistake .
I ’ ll tell you why , but I ’ ll pause and let you push back however you ’ d like .
I guess I don ’ t think of this as an attempt to marry consumerism and citizenship .
My argument is that the two are already connected , whether we like it or not .
There are obviously real tensions here — I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I definitely agree that those tensions are deeply problematic for our politics .
But the question is , what are we supposed to do ?
Consumerism isn ’ t going away , so we can either give up on citizenship or attempt to leverage the consumer mindset to make the world something closer to what we want it to be .
Part of what I ’ m getting at here is that to be a citizen you have to care about your country and you have to care about the people who make @ @ @ @ @ @ @ society like ours , market logic shapes our relationship to nearly everything , including and especially people .
We ’ re not part of some shared project .
We ’ re all competing for money , for power , for status , for whatever advantages we can get .
How do you build a viable conception of citizenship on that foundation ?
I think you do it by reaching out to people where they are .
One approach would be to build on the ubiquity of online shopping .
There ’ s a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , in which the authors describe a series of virtual town halls they conducted , with legislators .
These town halls do a lot to connect people to the legislators .
But let ’ s bring these town halls to places where people actually are .
So you can imagine , you ’ re buying something on Amazon and you ’ re suddenly asked , do you want to participate in a town hall with your representative ?
And it doesn ’ t have to be Amazon .
You could bring virtual town @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It doesn ’ t just have to be online , either .
Whenever you go to Costco , when you ’ re walking around and getting your free stuff , it ’ d be really neat if there was also some local representative there , sharing other ways to get involved and perhaps offering a way to get involved right there .
Part of government ’ s charge in an era of consumer citizenship should be to reach out to citizens in marketplaces , whether they be virtual or in-person , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s what we do , and here ’ s how you can get involved .
I don ’ t really disagree with you on the substance here ; I guess I ’ m just not that sanguine about the viability of consumerism in the long term .
But maybe you ’ re right , maybe we don ’ t have a choice .
Here ’ s something that might make you a little more optimistic .
I conducted an experiment in early 2015 , trying to get people to enroll in the Affordable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out .
One message that was sent out to prospective customers emphasized this notion of consumer fairness .
Another message just contained typical advertising pablum .
It turned out that the consumer fairness message was really effective at compelling people to sign up for the ACA .
Notions of fairness and reciprocity have always been essential to consumer behavior .
Consumer behavior is not just a pure maximization game .
Consumer behavior often involves consumers making decisions about what counts as fair , what counts as unfair , and wanting to be treated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s transactional , consumer citizenship can also be reciprocal .
If we can inculcate a sense of shared obligation and a sense of reciprocity , we might be able to use consumer citizenship to achieve the higher , more idealized version of citizenship that I think you ’ re interested in and I think a lot of people are interested in .
But to do that , we need to begin by acknowledging people as they are , not as we might wish them to be .
Can you recall the specific @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The fairness message made clear at the top that the company ’ s “ plans are priced to reflect their costs , ” thereby hitting a key tenet of consumer fairness .
The fairness postcard also made clear that the company sought to provide “ fair coverage for you and your family.
” In the same place on the placebo postcard , recipients were told when the company was founded and the state in which it operated .
Both postcards contained the same content otherwise , describing the company as offering high-quality , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fairness message was nearly twice as effective as the placebo message in getting people to enroll .
What ’ s your parting advice to politicians and parties who , for better or worse , have to appeal to consumer citizens if they have any hope of achieving their goals ?
I can maybe offer some advice to the incoming Biden administration , because a lot of the book looks at attitudes toward taxes and government spending .
Progressives are often afraid to talk about the costs that government imposes and instead want to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ provides .
I think progressive policymakers should not be afraid and instead should communicate to citizens that the government doesn ’ t just provide benefits , it provides you a fair deal for the costs that you ’ ve already paid .
This notion of a “ fair deal ” encapsulates both benefits and costs .
It may be counterintuitive to politicians on the progressive side , but I think doing this will likely lead to people becoming more supportive of progressive taxation and also increase their trust in government .
That ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the book , at least .
Bottom line : If people are approaching government as if it ’ s a provider of consumer goods , the government should respond by emphasizing to citizens how it ’ s a fair provider of consumer goods .
And that means government has to get back into the self-promotion game .
It has to sell itself to people in the most universal language we have : consumerism .

A lot of Americans think the country should be run like a business.
This is a problem on a few levels. Most obviously, a country isn’t a company. Businesses exist to turn a profit; countries do not, and competence in business rarely translates to competence in politics.
Treating the country like a business also encourages Americans to think of themselves as customers rather than citizens. Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner spoke directly to this idea in a 2017 interview: “We should have excellence in government ... The government should be run like a great company. Our hope is that we can achieve successes and efficiencies for our customers.”
American citizens are not Trump’s customers — we’re his boss. But more broadly, calling citizens “customers” implies the only thing that matters is self-interest: What am I paying, and what am I getting for it? Ideally, citizenship involves something beyond self-interest. We all want to benefit from good government, but citizenship should have a collective dimension that transcends narrow cost-benefit calculations.
Here’s where a new book by political scientist Ethan Porter, The Consumer Citizen, makes a provocative claim: The conventional idea of citizenship is a fantasy, and the only language the vast majority of people understand is consumerism. If that’s true, Porter says, then we need a form of politics that accepts this reality and tries to leverage it to produce the best possible outcomes.
I’m a little skeptical of Porter’s argument, but I’m also not sure he’s wrong. So I reached out to him to talk about why he thinks our assumptions about citizenship are outdated, why people who benefit most from government often reject it, and if a hyper-individualistic consumer culture is really compatible with any meaningful vision of citizenship.
A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows.
Sean Illing
It’s hard to have this conversation without a clear idea of what democratic citizenship is supposed to mean and what it actually looks like in the world. So let’s start there.
Ethan Porter
There’s an idealized vision of citizenship that really goes all the way back to ancient Greece and ancient political philosophy. The idea is that citizenship makes demands on people and it means active involvement in public life. It demands that people be responsible and take the time to acquire knowledge about policy issues. It demands that people participate in political debate and accept all the burdens that come with democratic engagement.
So you’ll notice I’m using words like “responsibility” and “burden” and “demands.” These are the kinds of words that have typically been associated with citizenship. In the book, I try to imagine an alternative vision of citizenship that isn’t based in some fantasy of “public debate” and doesn’t place politics in some abstract realm removed from how actual people live their lives. If we’re going to be honest about the possibilities of citizenship today, we’ve got to be honest about how people think and how they spend their time.
Sean Illing
If the “ideal” citizen is a fantasy, what we have instead is something you call the “consumer citizen.” What’s that?
Ethan Porter
The consumer citizen is, firstly, a person who devotes much of his time to things besides citizenship. More specifically the consumer citizen is a person who spends a lot of his life shopping and making consumer decisions. Most people don’t spend much time thinking about, say, monetary policy, but they make many choices every day about what to buy or not buy, who to hire or who not to hire, what they can afford and what they can’t afford. As a result of this, people develop habits and techniques as consumers, and those habits and techniques shape the decisions they make as citizens, even if it’s not intentional.
A consumer citizen approaches government the way he or she approaches a provider of consumer goods. Now, you and I both know government is not an ordinary economic firm, but nonetheless that’s how consumer citizens see government. And that means they’re wondering, what are they getting out of it? They’re wondering if they’re getting a fair return on their investment. Are the benefits worth the costs?
The argument of my book is that there’s a disjunction between what government is and the expectations people have from their experiences as consumers. And that disjunction helps explain some of the more interesting puzzles in American political life.
Sean Illing
What puzzles does it explain?
Ethan Porter
Well, here’s one. In a time of massive inequality, what explains Americans’ opposition to tax increases? There have been many answers offered to this question. But part of the answer, I think, has to do with the expectations that consumers have about what they pay for. Like an ordinary firm, government extracts costs; but unlike an ordinary firm, it doesn’t make clear the benefits that people receive in return. People feel that they don’t get a good deal from government. And so they punish government as they would an ordinary firm — by withholding their support.
Sean Illing
Give me some examples of citizens making political decisions through a consumerist lens.
Ethan Porter
While writing the book, I came across a New York Times article about the Bush tax cuts of 2001. A man quoted in the article said something to the effect of, “It’s really good to get something back from government for a change.” At first glance, that’s bizarre because of course the person has likely benefited from any number of public goods the government has provided, even if he never benefited from direct benefits. But I think it makes more sense if you imagine a typical weekend from the perspective of this man.
Imagine a person who leaves work on Friday to get his biweekly paycheck and finds that some of the money is already removed for taxes. He feels it as a sort of cost that government is imposing upon him. Over the weekend, he takes his wife out to dinner. Working around the house, he pulls his back, so he takes a painkiller. He takes his kids to the park. He’s actually constantly receiving government benefits, but it’s really unlikely he’s actually going to understand those benefits come from government. So, as a consumer, he feels ripped off.
As a consumer, he says, well I paid for something on Friday, I paid money to the government and I’m not getting any benefits. Again, you and I can sit here and say, oh, no, he did benefit, and indeed he did. But for someone who, again, isn’t spending their time thinking about politics, it can be hard to discern those benefits. And so from the perspective of a consumer citizen, government is like an unfair company in the market, ripping them off and overcharging them.
Sean Illing
Most “consumer citizens” are very bad at understanding how government interacts with their lives. The costs of government (taxes) are very clear, but the benefits of government (public parks, drivable roads, safe food to eat) are harder for people to connect. That’s probably unavoidable in a big, complex society like ours, but it also seems like a recipe for incoherent electoral outcomes.
Ethan Porter
It seems pretty clear that consumer citizenship does lead people to make less-than-defensible political choices. One study in the book shows that people who aren’t particularly knowledgeable about politics are more likely to prefer candidates who provide them with equal amounts of government benefits and government costs, over candidates who promise them more benefits than costs.
As consumers, we want the value of what we paid for to align with the price we paid for it. Consumer citizens approach candidates the same way. This is a key point in the book. The less politically knowledgeable are more likely to prefer political candidates who give them fewer direct benefits compared to the costs they pay. By contrast, the people who are very politically knowledgeable are more likely to prefer candidates who offer them direct benefits, who offer them benefits beyond the value they paid.
When people ask what’s the matter with Kansas or make that kind of argument, I think part of the answer has to do with the power of consumer citizenship. But the consumer citizen is not immovable. Appealing to the consumer citizen can effect political change.
Sean Illing
What does it mean to appeal to consumer citizens?
Ethan Porter
It means being comfortable with government, particularly in the US, advertising its services in a way similar to private companies. This is something that government used to do but doesn’t really do much of anymore. You can go back and see art from the New Deal period. Government actually used to be invested in this idea of promoting itself. It’s not really the case anymore. I think that’s unfortunate.
As I show in the book, there are different lessons we can take from consumer life. We can take those lessons and apply them to certain advertisements for government. Done right, such advertisements can actually increase trust in government and increase support for various forms of taxation and government spending. So government needs to get more comfortable with advertising itself again.
Sean Illing
You take a very realist position, which is that consumerism is a permanent feature of our culture and we have to reconcile our politics to that reality. But I think consumerism is incompatible with citizenship, or at least deeply at odds with it, and trying to marry the two is therefore a mistake. I’ll tell you why, but I’ll pause and let you push back however you’d like.
Ethan Porter
I guess I don’t think of this as an attempt to marry consumerism and citizenship. My argument is that the two are already connected, whether we like it or not. There are obviously real tensions here — I don’t deny that. And I definitely agree that those tensions are deeply problematic for our politics. But the question is, what are we supposed to do? Consumerism isn’t going away, so we can either give up on citizenship or attempt to leverage the consumer mindset to make the world something closer to what we want it to be.
Sean Illing
Part of what I’m getting at here is that to be a citizen you have to care about your country and you have to care about the people who make it up, but in a capitalistic society like ours, market logic shapes our relationship to nearly everything, including and especially people. We’re not part of some shared project. We’re all competing for money, for power, for status, for whatever advantages we can get.
How do you build a viable conception of citizenship on that foundation?
Ethan Porter
I think you do it by reaching out to people where they are. One approach would be to build on the ubiquity of online shopping. There’s a great book, Politics With the People, in which the authors describe a series of virtual town halls they conducted, with legislators. These town halls do a lot to connect people to the legislators. But let’s bring these town halls to places where people actually are.
So you can imagine, you’re buying something on Amazon and you’re suddenly asked, do you want to participate in a town hall with your representative? And it doesn’t have to be Amazon. You could bring virtual town halls to any place of online business.
It doesn’t just have to be online, either. Whenever you go to Costco, when you’re walking around and getting your free stuff, it’d be really neat if there was also some local representative there, sharing other ways to get involved and perhaps offering a way to get involved right there.
Part of government’s charge in an era of consumer citizenship should be to reach out to citizens in marketplaces, whether they be virtual or in-person, and announce itself. Say, here’s what we do, and here’s how you can get involved.
Sean Illing
I don’t really disagree with you on the substance here; I guess I’m just not that sanguine about the viability of consumerism in the long term. But maybe you’re right, maybe we don’t have a choice.
Ethan Porter
Here’s something that might make you a little more optimistic. I conducted an experiment in early 2015, trying to get people to enroll in the Affordable Care Act. Different messages were sent out. One message that was sent out to prospective customers emphasized this notion of consumer fairness. Another message just contained typical advertising pablum. It turned out that the consumer fairness message was really effective at compelling people to sign up for the ACA.
Notions of fairness and reciprocity have always been essential to consumer behavior. Consumer behavior is not just a pure maximization game. Consumer behavior often involves consumers making decisions about what counts as fair, what counts as unfair, and wanting to be treated fairly. To the extent that it’s transactional, consumer citizenship can also be reciprocal. If we can inculcate a sense of shared obligation and a sense of reciprocity, we might be able to use consumer citizenship to achieve the higher, more idealized version of citizenship that I think you’re interested in and I think a lot of people are interested in. But to do that, we need to begin by acknowledging people as they are, not as we might wish them to be.
Sean Illing
Can you recall the specific phrases you used in each message?
Ethan Porter
The fairness message made clear at the top that the company’s “plans are priced to reflect their costs,” thereby hitting a key tenet of consumer fairness. The fairness postcard also made clear that the company sought to provide “fair coverage for you and your family.”
In the same place on the placebo postcard, recipients were told when the company was founded and the state in which it operated. Both postcards contained the same content otherwise, describing the company as offering high-quality, generous, and affordable coverage. The fairness message was nearly twice as effective as the placebo message in getting people to enroll.
Sean Illing
What’s your parting advice to politicians and parties who, for better or worse, have to appeal to consumer citizens if they have any hope of achieving their goals?
Ethan Porter
I can maybe offer some advice to the incoming Biden administration, because a lot of the book looks at attitudes toward taxes and government spending. Progressives are often afraid to talk about the costs that government imposes and instead want to talk only about the benefits that government provides. I think progressive policymakers should not be afraid and instead should communicate to citizens that the government doesn’t just provide benefits, it provides you a fair deal for the costs that you’ve already paid.
This notion of a “fair deal” encapsulates both benefits and costs. It may be counterintuitive to politicians on the progressive side, but I think doing this will likely lead to people becoming more supportive of progressive taxation and also increase their trust in government. That’s what I showed in several studies in the book, at least.
Bottom line: If people are approaching government as if it’s a provider of consumer goods, the government should respond by emphasizing to citizens how it’s a fair provider of consumer goods. And that means government has to get back into the self-promotion game. It has to sell itself to people in the most universal language we have: consumerism.


vox--2020-12-18--How one city is building vaccine trust in Black and Latinx communities

The need for widespread vaccination against Covid-19 is urgent — experts say about 60 percent of people need to be vaccinated to see the vaccine ’ s effect on the disease that has claimed the lives of more than 300,000 Americans .
But the country must first surmount a considerable challenge : convincing many everyday Americans , not just skeptics , to get vaccinated .
This challenge will be doubly tough in Black and brown communities , where the coronavirus has disproportionately decimated families and where distrust of government and medical institutions remains high .
In November , Pew found @ @ @ @ @ @ @ likely to say they would get a vaccine than other Americans.
” Only 32 percent of Black adults say they would definitely or probably get a vaccine , compared with 52 percent of white respondents , 56 percent of Hispanic respondents , and about 72 percent of Asian respondents , according to Pew .
Similarly , the Kaiser Family Foundation ’ s December vaccine monitor found that Black Americans are among the most hesitant when it comes to the vaccine — 35 percent say they definitely or probably would not get vaccinated — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in general or are worried they might get Covid-19 from it .
The same report found that about half of Black adults are not confident that they were considered in the vaccine development process ; over a third of Hispanic adults say the same about their needs being considered .
Distrust of government and institutions is rooted in a long history of state-sanctioned malpractice .
One of the most infamous examples is the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male , conducted by the US Public Health Service .
From 1932 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 600 Black men about their participation , telling them they were being monitored for “ bad blood ” when they were actually being studied to understand the impact of syphilis in the human body .
The government also intentionally withheld penicillin ( which was discovered as a reliable cure for syphilis during the course of the study ) from the men who suffered and eventually died of the disease .
The distrust is also a response to a well-documented history of not being taken seriously by doctors and being undertreated for pain due @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hard to repair trust that ’ s essentially never been earned — enslaved Africans who were brought to America endured centuries of medical exploitation .
Though the Kaiser monitor summarized Black and Hispanic attitudes as largely hesitant , it did find an inkling of hope : With each monthly accounting of attitudes , more members of each group say they will get the vaccine than say they will not , suggesting that vaccine hesitancy can be reduced with more information .
Researchers are confident that communication and clarity about the efficacy and potential @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a long way to change attitudes .
This outlook is already in effect on the ground in Camden , New Jersey , a city that is about 92 percent Black and brown and where one in every 14 residents has been infected with the coronavirus .
There , the health department has launched an on-the-ground effort in which a team of ambassadors has been tasked with knocking on as many doors as possible to persuade residents to take the vaccine .
According to Camden County health director Paschal Nwako , people ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ since the team knocked on the first door in November .
“ We ’ ve had individuals who open their door , then close it back on the first day .
Then on the next day , they open the door and listen to us for a minute , then close it .
Then the next day , they open their door and engage us for five minutes , ” Nwako told Vox .
“ It ’ s not easy , but we stick with them because we know it ’ s the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the right information.
” Nwako talked to Vox about the challenges and opportunities ahead with getting Camden residents to take the vaccine .
Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity .
Camden City has the highest infection rate in the Greater Philadelphia region , with 5,583 cases of coronavirus as of December 11 .
For comparison , Camden has nearly twice as many cases as the neighboring and largely white Cherry Hill neighborhood , though they have about the same number of residents .
Why is this happening in Camden ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ lives in multigenerational housing .
There is also higher density housing in Camden .
There are pockets of essential workers that could have been exposed to the virus in their front-line jobs , like people that work in restaurants and grocery stores .
There are also undocumented populations who are worried about reaching out for public health information .
So if there are people who live in close quarters , like families that live in one-bedroom or two-bedroom apartments , it ’ s easier for the virus to spread .
In Cherry Hill @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The positivity rate we are seeing comes from people congregating together because they are family-oriented .
That ’ s why around the Thanksgiving holiday , we were telling the community to stay within their own bubbles .
And now , we are seeing more cases in people ages 30 to 42 on average ; during the first wave , from March to June , it was people ages 65-plus .
But while we are seeing more positive cases in younger people , these people aren ’ t ending up in the hospital @ @ @ @ @ @ @ died during the first wave .
The Pfizer vaccine is already in use at Camden ’ s Cooper University Hospital downtown .
What does this mean for the city ?
The vaccine is being administered to health care workers at Cooper Hospital during the first phase .
They are looking at vaccinating 8,800 employees and expect to take up to a month to do that .
Right now , we are in phase 1a , which is health care workers and long-term care residents .
From there , we go to phase 1b @ @ @ @ @ @ @ police officers , firefighters , EMT and EMS workers , people who work in jails , as well as people who work in dental offices , pharmacies , restaurants , supermarkets , and warehouses doing food distribution .
These people are essential because without their services like food and health care , we can not provide what citizens need to survive .
Then we go to phase 1c , which are adults ages 65 and above and all adults with high-risk medical conditions .
And then we go into phase 2 , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sometime in March .
We know that there is vaccine hesitancy , especially among minorities .
We have to work hard to make sure that we partner with Camden City residents to disseminate Covid vaccination information in the county , targeting minorities — Hispanics , African Americans , and also faith-based communities in Camden City .
Studies have shown that Black Americans are among the most hesitant on the vaccine primarily because they ’ re worried about side effects and also don ’ t trust the development process .
Why is this the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ kind of reasoning among Camden residents ?
Vaccine hesitancy is a barrier among minority populations because of the history in these communities of the testing of medications and vaccines on them in the past .
That ’ s a problem .
We are training ambassadors in the community to convince the rest of the community that the vaccine is safe to take .
But while we know there is hesitancy , we expect that to change now that the vaccine is here .
People are going to see people like them taking the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ give that survey again , we expect the number of people willing to take the vaccine to increase .
And bear in mind that by the time we get this vaccine to the general public in Camden , the number of people that will have taken this vaccine will have increased tremendously .
And without side effects between now and then , people will be more willing to take the vaccine .
Just like every other product that is new on the market , there will be a hesitancy .
People will eventually @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The same Kaiser Family Foundation study revealed that there ’ s also a fear that there won ’ t be equitable distribution of the vaccine , that there might not be enough vaccines for certain communities .
Is this a fear you ’ ve come across while on the ground ?
And what is the county doing to make sure this isn ’ t a reality ?
There ’ s no such fear here .
Everyone will be going through New Jersey ’ s vaccine scheduling system .
It is open to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and doesn ’ t discriminate .
Everyone has to sign on and just choose a site .
We have ample vaccines that will be coming through from Moderna , and we expect to get more from Pfizer , and also AstraZeneca down the line in March , when they get their emergency use authorization from the FDA .
Can you say more about the role these vaccine ambassadors are playing in the community ?
Why did the health department choose to launch this initiative , and what ’ s the impact been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about what they read or hear on the television .
So when somebody in their community calls them on the phone , or sends them a text that will end up with a phone call to discuss the vaccines with them , that is more effective .
Since there are high-density living spots in Camden City , if we go into a building and stay in the lobby , we are able to engage people when they come down and get on and off the elevators .
We can talk to them briefly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the second floor , 10th floor , 12th floor to have more conversations standing 10 feet apart , people are more responsive having seen us in the lobby .
That person will be more open to speaking with you than a person who has not seen you before .
That strategy has been working because we are engaging with them by giving them masks , telling them where to go to get tested for coronavirus , and how to social distance .
So far , we have knocked on 52,646 doors , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ text messages , and conducted 991 wellness check shifts throughout the city .
Wow !
And you ’ ve also been conducting a vaccine study .
What have you been asking residents , and what do you hope the survey can help your team do ?
We ask them if they have taken a vaccine before , how they feel about taking vaccines , whether they feel like vaccines can prevent diseases , the side effects they have had in the past when they took a vaccine , and how they feel about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
We plan to use the information from this survey for a health education campaign in the community to build trust for the vaccine .
We already have health educational materials that we are floating around Camden City .
We ’ re giving it out to the churches that usually send it out to their members or when they come in on Sundays .
Information packets are located at the front of churches for people to collect , for example .
Moderna informed us that an African American woman was the lead in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will help reduce the anxiety and fear in the community over the efficacy of the vaccine .
What do you think the rest of the country can learn from what your team is doing in Camden around vaccine hesitancy ?
We know that it ’ s better to deal with communities when you are right there with them .
If we go door to door , it means that we are right in the community and it means that we are engaging with them right there on the street , in front of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with them .
What we are also seeing is that the community needs employment — this is the highest want and need .
People don ’ t want the government to hand them over money .
They don ’ t want them to hand them over food .
We have provided them with food , sometimes four times a week with the food bank we provide .
They know where to get food .
We provide them with masks and all the information they need to get tests and to take the vaccine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
We need a place to go work .
Camden was hit with high unemployment as a result of the pandemic .
[ In April , Camden ’ s unemployment rate jumped to 15.1 percent from under 5 percent in March 2020 ; the unemployment rate was 7.1 percent in October , the latest month for which data is available . ]
As we close out a year that has been very tough for Camden residents , what brings you hope as we move into 2021 for administering the vaccine in Camden ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the end is in sight .
But we also know that a vaccine does not equate to vaccinations .
Having vaccines but not vaccinating is no good .
The good news is , though , that we expect the hesitancy to reduce by March .
When the community sees that people are not developing any side effects or dying suddenly because of the vaccine , they will be open to taking it .

The need for widespread vaccination against Covid-19 is urgent — experts say about 60 percent of people need to be vaccinated to see the vaccine’s effect on the disease that has claimed the lives of more than 300,000 Americans. But the country must first surmount a considerable challenge: convincing many everyday Americans, not just skeptics, to get vaccinated.
This challenge will be doubly tough in Black and brown communities, where the coronavirus has disproportionately decimated families and where distrust of government and medical institutions remains high.
In November, Pew found that Black adults are “much less likely to say they would get a vaccine than other Americans.” Only 32 percent of Black adults say they would definitely or probably get a vaccine, compared with 52 percent of white respondents, 56 percent of Hispanic respondents, and about 72 percent of Asian respondents, according to Pew. Similarly, the Kaiser Family Foundation’s December vaccine monitor found that Black Americans are among the most hesitant when it comes to the vaccine — 35 percent say they definitely or probably would not get vaccinated — because they don’t trust vaccines in general or are worried they might get Covid-19 from it. The same report found that about half of Black adults are not confident that they were considered in the vaccine development process; over a third of Hispanic adults say the same about their needs being considered.
Distrust of government and institutions is rooted in a long history of state-sanctioned malpractice. One of the most infamous examples is the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male, conducted by the US Public Health Service. From 1932 to 1972, researchers lied to around 600 Black men about their participation, telling them they were being monitored for “bad blood” when they were actually being studied to understand the impact of syphilis in the human body. The government also intentionally withheld penicillin (which was discovered as a reliable cure for syphilis during the course of the study) from the men who suffered and eventually died of the disease.
The distrust is also a response to a well-documented history of not being taken seriously by doctors and being undertreated for pain due to medical racism. It’s hard to repair trust that’s essentially never been earned — enslaved Africans who were brought to America endured centuries of medical exploitation.
Though the Kaiser monitor summarized Black and Hispanic attitudes as largely hesitant, it did find an inkling of hope: With each monthly accounting of attitudes, more members of each group say they will get the vaccine than say they will not, suggesting that vaccine hesitancy can be reduced with more information. Researchers are confident that communication and clarity about the efficacy and potential side effects of the vaccine can go a long way to change attitudes.
This outlook is already in effect on the ground in Camden, New Jersey, a city that is about 92 percent Black and brown and where one in every 14 residents has been infected with the coronavirus. There, the health department has launched an on-the-ground effort in which a team of ambassadors has been tasked with knocking on as many doors as possible to persuade residents to take the vaccine. According to Camden County health director Paschal Nwako, people’s attitudes about the vaccine have already changed since the team knocked on the first door in November.
“We’ve had individuals who open their door, then close it back on the first day. Then on the next day, they open the door and listen to us for a minute, then close it. Then the next day, they open their door and engage us for five minutes,” Nwako told Vox. “It’s not easy, but we stick with them because we know it’s the only way we can get the community the right information.”
Nwako talked to Vox about the challenges and opportunities ahead with getting Camden residents to take the vaccine. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Fabiola Cineas
Camden City has the highest infection rate in the Greater Philadelphia region, with 5,583 cases of coronavirus as of December 11. For comparison, Camden has nearly twice as many cases as the neighboring and largely white Cherry Hill neighborhood, though they have about the same number of residents. Why is this happening in Camden?
Paschal Nwako
In Camden, much of the population lives in multigenerational housing. There is also higher density housing in Camden. There are pockets of essential workers that could have been exposed to the virus in their front-line jobs, like people that work in restaurants and grocery stores. There are also undocumented populations who are worried about reaching out for public health information. So if there are people who live in close quarters, like families that live in one-bedroom or two-bedroom apartments, it’s easier for the virus to spread. In Cherry Hill, people are able to spread out. The positivity rate we are seeing comes from people congregating together because they are family-oriented. That’s why around the Thanksgiving holiday, we were telling the community to stay within their own bubbles.
And now, we are seeing more cases in people ages 30 to 42 on average; during the first wave, from March to June, it was people ages 65-plus. But while we are seeing more positive cases in younger people, these people aren’t ending up in the hospital or dying in the same way people died during the first wave.
Fabiola Cineas
The Pfizer vaccine is already in use at Camden’s Cooper University Hospital downtown. What does this mean for the city?
Paschal Nwako
The vaccine is being administered to health care workers at Cooper Hospital during the first phase. They are looking at vaccinating 8,800 employees and expect to take up to a month to do that. Right now, we are in phase 1a, which is health care workers and long-term care residents. From there, we go to phase 1b, which are other essential workers — police officers, firefighters, EMT and EMS workers, people who work in jails, as well as people who work in dental offices, pharmacies, restaurants, supermarkets, and warehouses doing food distribution. These people are essential because without their services like food and health care, we cannot provide what citizens need to survive.
Then we go to phase 1c, which are adults ages 65 and above and all adults with high-risk medical conditions. And then we go into phase 2, which is the general public and should happen sometime in March.
We know that there is vaccine hesitancy, especially among minorities. We have to work hard to make sure that we partner with Camden City residents to disseminate Covid vaccination information in the county, targeting minorities — Hispanics, African Americans, and also faith-based communities in Camden City.
Fabiola Cineas
Studies have shown that Black Americans are among the most hesitant on the vaccine primarily because they’re worried about side effects and also don’t trust the development process. Why is this the case, and have you noticed this kind of reasoning among Camden residents?
Paschal Nwako
Vaccine hesitancy is a barrier among minority populations because of the history in these communities of the testing of medications and vaccines on them in the past. That’s a problem. We are training ambassadors in the community to convince the rest of the community that the vaccine is safe to take.
But while we know there is hesitancy, we expect that to change now that the vaccine is here. People are going to see people like them taking the vaccine. So if we were to give that survey again, we expect the number of people willing to take the vaccine to increase.
And bear in mind that by the time we get this vaccine to the general public in Camden, the number of people that will have taken this vaccine will have increased tremendously. And without side effects between now and then, people will be more willing to take the vaccine. Just like every other product that is new on the market, there will be a hesitancy. People will eventually feel more comfortable to start using it.
Fabiola Cineas
The same Kaiser Family Foundation study revealed that there’s also a fear that there won’t be equitable distribution of the vaccine, that there might not be enough vaccines for certain communities. Is this a fear you’ve come across while on the ground? And what is the county doing to make sure this isn’t a reality?
Paschal Nwako
There’s no such fear here. Everyone will be going through New Jersey’s vaccine scheduling system. It is open to the public, all New Jersey residents, and doesn’t discriminate. Everyone has to sign on and just choose a site. We have ample vaccines that will be coming through from Moderna, and we expect to get more from Pfizer, and also AstraZeneca down the line in March, when they get their emergency use authorization from the FDA.
Fabiola Cineas
Can you say more about the role these vaccine ambassadors are playing in the community? Why did the health department choose to launch this initiative, and what’s the impact been so far?
Paschal Nwako
People are sometimes confused about what they read or hear on the television. So when somebody in their community calls them on the phone, or sends them a text that will end up with a phone call to discuss the vaccines with them, that is more effective.
Since there are high-density living spots in Camden City, if we go into a building and stay in the lobby, we are able to engage people when they come down and get on and off the elevators. We can talk to them briefly there. Then when we get up to the second floor, 10th floor, 12th floor to have more conversations standing 10 feet apart, people are more responsive having seen us in the lobby. That person will be more open to speaking with you than a person who has not seen you before.
That strategy has been working because we are engaging with them by giving them masks, telling them where to go to get tested for coronavirus, and how to social distance.
So far, we have knocked on 52,646 doors, made 57,802 phone calls, sent 37,858 text messages, and conducted 991 wellness check shifts throughout the city.
Fabiola Cineas
Wow! And you’ve also been conducting a vaccine study. What have you been asking residents, and what do you hope the survey can help your team do?
Paschal Nwako
We ask them if they have taken a vaccine before, how they feel about taking vaccines, whether they feel like vaccines can prevent diseases, the side effects they have had in the past when they took a vaccine, and how they feel about the Covid vaccine coming down the pike.
We plan to use the information from this survey for a health education campaign in the community to build trust for the vaccine. We already have health educational materials that we are floating around Camden City. We’re giving it out to the churches that usually send it out to their members or when they come in on Sundays. Information packets are located at the front of churches for people to collect, for example.
Moderna informed us that an African American woman was the lead in producing the Moderna vaccine. So that will help reduce the anxiety and fear in the community over the efficacy of the vaccine.
Fabiola Cineas
What do you think the rest of the country can learn from what your team is doing in Camden around vaccine hesitancy?
Paschal Nwako
We know that it’s better to deal with communities when you are right there with them. If we go door to door, it means that we are right in the community and it means that we are engaging with them right there on the street, in front of their homes. And then we stick with them.
What we are also seeing is that the community needs employment — this is the highest want and need. People don’t want the government to hand them over money. They don’t want them to hand them over food. We have provided them with food, sometimes four times a week with the food bank we provide. They know where to get food. We provide them with masks and all the information they need to get tests and to take the vaccine, and they say, now what? We need a place to go work. Camden was hit with high unemployment as a result of the pandemic. [In April, Camden’s unemployment rate jumped to 15.1 percent from under 5 percent in March 2020; the unemployment rate was 7.1 percent in October, the latest month for which data is available.]
Fabiola Cineas
As we close out a year that has been very tough for Camden residents, what brings you hope as we move into 2021 for administering the vaccine in Camden?
Paschal Nwako
The best hope is that we expect that the end is in sight. But we also know that a vaccine does not equate to vaccinations. Having vaccines but not vaccinating is no good. The good news is, though, that we expect the hesitancy to reduce by March. When the community sees that people are not developing any side effects or dying suddenly because of the vaccine, they will be open to taking it.