Radical Homemakers - Shannon Hayes - Part 2

Radical Homemakers - Shannon Hayes

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 71

  March 12, 2017 

Book 23 - Radical Homemakers - Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture
by Shannon Hayes (2010)
 Part 2 - pages 49-108
Reading Time - 1 hour

Our corporate-driven economy, which values the GDP above all else is, I think, broken. We might not all realize it but... if I step back far enough, it's pretty obvious. Corporations get richer and the average family goes deeper into debt. We're just asleep... I think.

But there is a solution... instead of an extractive economy (one driven by the extraction of resources - a.k.a. raping and pillaging the earth) we could have a life-serving economy. There have been many people who have suggested that our economy, as it currently functions, is not sustainable. Infinite growth is not possible in a world of finite resources. But advocates for social change have to argue that their idea won't hurt the economy... won't hurt corporate America. Cause corporate America dominates our politics, foreign policy, food industry, environmental policies, music, entertainment and education. If it doesn't make money... corporate America is not interested in it. If there's a way to make money... then they are all in. The thing is... we've bought into the corporate model.

We go to school to choose a career track. We write our resumes to get a job with good pay and benefits. We then spend our pay cheque on a killer mortgage for that house in the burbs. We then need one, and probably two, cars to commute back and forth. We go into debt trying to buy all the stuff that we need for our careers... or our lives in the burbs. Although the author doesn't say it quite so bluntly... I would say that sounds a bit like slavery to me.

We think that life will be better with more money, a bigger house, a better car, more stuff. But will it? They've done studies, and after you get $10,000 annual income/year, your happiness doesn't increase if you earn $20,000, $60,000 or $200,000. We think it will... but it doesn't.

The thing is... the foundation of our wealth isn't oil or money... it's water and sunshine. I would say clean water and unfiltered sunshine. Not sure what the people in Beijing would say when their water is polluted and their sunlight is filtered through thousands of feet of atmospheric smog.

Here's the thing... back in the 13th Century, you could be a member of the aristocracy, a member of the peasantry or a member of the emerging "middle class". A couple who owned or rented their own home. The man was the hus-band = house-bond (bonded to the house, not to a feudal lord) and the housewife was his partner. They supported themselves and their household from the land that they owned. They were a team. A team of producers. But the Industrial Revolution changed all that... men went to work in factories that produced the goods that he would have normally made at home. The kids went to school. The family moved from their ancestral village to the city to be closer to the factory. They left behind their friends and relations. So you have the housewife, alone at home, doing all the tasks of the household... without the aid of the husband, the kids or the extended family. See how it starts to go sideways? Men went to "work" and women stayed "home". But then the factories made products to make her life easier too... washing machines, irons, processed food. Advertisers made sure that they targeted the housewife. And so it went until the housewife was the one who chauffeured the kids around, put a TV dinner into the oven and did all the shopping. The ultimate Consumer. No wonder the 1960s housewife was bored, depressed and disillusioned.

Now... the thing isn't to go back to the past. Nope. I don't need how to learn how to knit or sew or make my own shoes. But... each daily need that we can re-learn to provide in our homes, strengthens our independence from the corporate machine. We can simplify our demands and rebuild our domestic culture.

Interestingly enough... since about WWI, Americans have been getting much, much unhappier. They earn more... but that doesn't equate to happiness. In fact... there is a huge increase in depression... not to mention obesity. The author of the book identifies three key "home-wreckers":

1. Compulsion to Overwork - we work more hours today than did the feudal peasants. Americans work more than the Japanese. But even though people work more... they are saving less. And studies have been done which show that the more you spend... the bigger your ecological footprint. But ya gotta work, work, work... more and more hours to save your job or look better than the other person. But it's killing us... and the planet.
2. Reckless Pursuit of Affluence - The average American spends 6 hours/week shopping and 40 minutes/week playing with their kids. Is there something wrong with those numbers? We want more... and more... and more. So we earn more... so that we can buy more... so that we can earn more... but we can't even enjoy the stuff that we buy. Buying stuff doesn't make us happy. But advertisers have figured out that all they have to do is "sell them their dreams... sell them hope". Which made me think... all those HGTV shows... you know, House Hunters International, Tiny House Hunters, Property Brothers... ALL of them... are a big marketing scam. They are selling us dreams and hopes! "Ooohhh... tiny living... that sounds like it would be soooo good... let's buy a tiny house!" or... "Ooohhh... granite counter tops... they all have granite counter tops... let's rip out our kitchen and install new cupboards and granite countertops... it'll only take 30 minutes (like it does on TV)." I have to admit... those shows are starting to make me sick. Am I the only one who wonders why people can't be happy with the existing cherry cabinets and granite counter tops? "I don't like the colour." Give me a break. I'm starting to see the "script" behind these shows. 
3. Credo of Individualism - Only 28% of families eat together for one night a week. Most houses nowadays are built so that everyone has their own TV in their own room. No one spends time together anymore. We do the same thing in our neighbourhoods. Do we know our neighbours? Do we get together with them? The life-serving economy is based on interdependence... on relationships and community.

Alright... so I'm glad we don't have to go back to growing our own flax and making our own linen. In the next section, the author is going to touch on the How of all of this...

One final thought... the history of the British Empire involves a lot of colonies. Why did the empire need colonies? For raw materials and trade. But the British government (and other governments) didn't harvest the raw materials... they gave that task to chartered corporations and companies... Hudson's Bay Company, Dutch East India Company, British South Africa Company, etc. The thing was... some of the "colonies" had local inhabitants who often got in the way of raw material extraction. I mean... it's hard when the local inhabitants keep attacking your trading posts and your traders and stuff. Those companies/corporations had a hard time of it. Better for the British government to handle the "inhabitants" and clear the land for all those happy traders to extract the resources... Profits above all else you know. Each empire (British, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch) handled the local inhabitants differently... reserves, extermination, slavery. All in the name of corporate greed.

That might not be historically accurate... but it's what came to me.