While our leaders constantly reassure us (and themselves) that the current economic downturn will bounce back soon with a few choice tax cuts and targeted spending, we may be in for a prolonged economic recession or depression. This means that many of us, even if the blow is lightened somewhat by our social safety net, many have to find ways to live our lives with as little expenditure and waste as possible. It is a daunting, and for some, terrifying prospect. Yet, with a few skills and an altered mindset, such a period of scarcity may not be as difficult or unbearable as we may think.
Where to begin? While it is important to change one’s purchasing habits–buying local food and the like and contributing to the local economy–the first and most important step may be to change the way we view and utilize our most immediate resource and re-energize the home as a place of production.
The last four or five decades have been a relative economic anomaly. In previous eras, much “work” was done either in the home, near the home, or within a walkable community. In fact, up until the 1950’s and the rise of convenience products and gadgets, the home played a central role in economic activity. While most household members still had to leave the home to generate revenue, the house was a place of considerable productivity. From backyard gardens, to grinding sausage, to mending clothes, the household played a dynamic role in everyday economic life. Not only were people workers and employees, they were also skilled producers for themselves and their neighbours. Rather than making much money, these forms of production saved a lot of money. As Benjamin Franklin always said, “a penny saved is a penny earned.” I’m not sure that was actually Ben Franklin, but he seemed like the kind of smart guy that understood that producing and saving are two sides of the same coin.
Our home lives now produce fewer useful goods (blogs being an exception) than any period before us and we no longer view the home as a place of production. It is where we sleep, spend our leisure time, and shovel the sidewalk to avoid being penalized by the city. Wendell Berry, a writer and farmer from Kentucky, claims that home production actually continues. Yet, it has undergone a fundamental shift:
With its array of gadgets and machines, all powered by energies that are destructive of land, air and water, and connected to work, market, school, recreation, etc., by gasoline engines, the modern home is a veritable factory of waste and destruction. It is the mainstay of the economy of money. But within the economies of energy and nature, it is a catastrophe. It takes the world’s goods and converts them into garbage, sewage, and noxious fumes–for none of which we have found a use (Berry 52).
Essentially, our homes have shifted from a place of useful production, to a centre for processing waste. We import various items into our home and convert them to wrappers, drippings, cans and the like that have no useful value that have nothing but a negative impact on the world (and our own wastelines, usually). Plus, we burn plenty of fossil fuels in the process. Indeed, the home could be one of the most wasteful and least productive structures of all—if you take the big-box store and the office tower out of the running.
Why is it that wage work is the only kind of work that is considered worthwhile in the modern economy when home-based work for ourselves is just as valid and essential? Not only that, but it affirms that we are not simply consumers but creators and producers in our own right. Saving money or work that helps avoiding expenditure or waste should also be considered worthwhile economic tasks.
Recognizing this issue, however, presents us with the opportunity to shift our homes back to productive units. While it is unlikely that the home will shift back, even part way, to the productive output of the past, we can limit the destructiveness caused by the way we organize our homes. We need to become producers, rather than simply consumers and processors of waste.
Three (baby) steps toward a resilient home economy:
Step 1: Learn how to do things yourself. This may be the most important step of all. Mending torn socks, fixing a leaky faucet, and making pancakes from scratch are all money and waste-saving skills. When you’ve gained a few skills, branch out and try your hand at some rudimentary carpentry or landscaping. There is much work around the home that can be done to save money, but you need to know how to do it. When you get good enough at something, it can also be an output for creative energies.
Step 2: Grow your own food. Chances are, if you live somewhere with some counter space, you can grow some kind of food. While not all of us have access to land for a garden, smaller things such as planting tomatoes in pots on a balcony or planting a spice garden can decrease the fossil fuels and packaging from travel in the conventional food system. Not only that, but you can easily do either without much effort, financial investment or fossil fuel.
Step 3: Prepare as much as you can from scratch. This may seem like a daunting task, but sacrificing the convenience of processed food will both save money and provide healthier sustenance. With the money you save by not purchasing processed food, you could easily start buying local and organic food and still save money. If you want to really get into it, start processing your own food like pasta and preserves, which can be done for a fraction of the price at the grocery store—even if you’re using organic food. Tools like a bread pan or even a food processor can be considered investments that allow you to create a wider array of food products and save more money.
Sources:
Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1986).
