The Federal Budget scrum is in full swing. The window of opportunity for scaffolding the current societal reno project, leveraged by an injection of uncertainty about the durability and range of our enumerated freedoms, will be closed in the next 60-90 days. The various confab spending initiatives seeping out of The Caldron add up to the largest pro forma ever penciled by any organized body, public or private. For some the outcome will be a vaguely based ecstasy over the record-breaking spend-tacular, ostensibly intended to acquire for us all the things we truly ever needed, while for others it will be a journey of denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance as they learn to cope with Parasitic Stage 4 Metastatic Political Ambition.
Dramatic public health policy has closed shops and restaurants and of those businesses remaining open many US workers are quitting their jobs, refusing to return to work, and petitioning to continue working remotely. Apparently, many of our fellow citizens need a moment.
Prior to the pause a few of us naively believed questions like (1) “What if I lost my job?”, (2) “What if we all lost our jobs?”, (3) “What if no one wants a job?”, (4) “What if there were no jobs to want?”, and (5) “What if there were no jobs to lose?” were posed only in Robert Reich’s social theory design thinking laboratory. But since operation free market endoscopy was launched, we’ve moved into Latter Day John Lennon territory.
Personal interests naturally highlight the first two questions. You have bills to pay, pleasantries to plan, and ideally, a future. But recently question three has intrigued the journalists and HR staffers, and questions four and five are coming into focus as economic signals and cultural clashes suggest there may be a mismatch between Planner ambitions and the buried needs of the human spirit. On the macro level you have the promise of unlimited growth potential on the backs of the unemployed or underemployed taxpayers during a long stretch of wage suppression. On the micro level it’s as if workers see the inevitable outcome and ask, “What is the best we can get, right now?” Off camera, they ponder.
How long did it take you to disassociate the old physical workspace rituals from the productive elements of your job? Which of the remaining required tasks are not delivering personal value – are essentially overhead costs to allow you to do the tasks you prefer? When you contemplate these things, do you consider the way government policies and funding priorities impact the choices you have, and how long these choices will be available?