Comments | thirdworld: Middle-Class Welfare

thirdworld

Middle-Class Welfare

Jan 12, 2009 14:32

I work at a Trust and by supporting a range of local nonprofits, we are a big part of serving the poor, the disenfranchised, the homeless, the powerless the starving, as well as the environment, local economies and and so on. We facilitate everything that a range of diverse nonprofits serve. Philanthropy has its flaws, but by and large it's good to ( Read more... )

life, politics, economy, mmt, friends, pers

Comments 11

gerisullivan January 12 2009, 23:29:16 UTC

Excellent post, full of truth and good points. Just a few hours ago, a friend offered to advance me some money against future "Shop at Geri's" purchases, if it would help me through this month's cash crunch. ("Cash crash" is more like it ( ... )

thirdworld January 14 2009, 16:39:05 UTC

Thanks for your detailed comments and sorry I took so long for me to reply. Damned birthday was a distraction.

First, thanks so much for your comments and thoughts. On your "cash crash", agrathea had a similar festive season, though fortunately she had a bit of a buffer built up. What the two of you do is hard and susceptible to the current panicked "don't spend" cycle in which the country is spiraling out of control. As you said, it is a business of spikes and troughs and February often brings a spike, and I hope the same is true again this year. Seems you are living right in that zone I'm talking about, which I'm really sorry to hear about. I have an idea for a web page that helps us strengthen our friendship families that I'm stewing on... as if I need any more projects ( ... )

deedop January 12 2009, 23:55:05 UTC

(Now look what you've done... pulled me out of LJ vacation mode because I feel compelled to contribute to the conversation...)

A few random thoughts:

Community is key. Even if a community's members can't offer financial support, there are still so many other useful options: Trading of supplies & tools, bartering of skills and labor, group brainstorming & problem solving, sharing of resources such as gardening space, a warm home with a fireplace when others are without heat...

Also, there's always going to be someone out there who can still afford to pay for services or crafts, so the community works together to promote each other's work: here's someone who makes soap, someone else who designs logos, another community member who runs a cafe ( ... )

thirdworld January 16 2009, 18:19:33 UTC

I started a reply to you but lost it, then had a birthday, an evening at the local Drupal user group and then a chore evening from hell, so here goes again. First, thanks for your thoughtful reply. You are one of the folks I was thinking about. Your situation you mentioned in a prior LJ post on medical insurance represents a further breakdown of the problem, as in yes, lost a job and found another and can get by somewhat, but damn, lost insurance in the process.

On community, you and I had a lot of similar thoughts. Spurred on by these conversations, I've come up with what I believe is a very strong idea, but I'm going to need help on the technical end. It needs to be timely so I plan to use the MLK service day to get it started. Drupal may get the job done, but I'm not sure. Want to be involved? I'm going to have to find some of that PDX tech crowd generosity. I can't do it alone and perspectives like yours are invaluable. Maybe we could meet for coffee... my treat ;). agrathea is working this weekend (got to take the work when she finds it ( ... )

deedop January 16 2009, 19:22:44 UTC

At the very least, we should meet for coffee. I'm not sure what's going on Monday: there's the Day On project, which I think is mostly happening at CubeSpace (see http://dayon.org/), but I think that's more geared toward helping current non-profits with tech work. The trick to Monday for me is that it's Dave's Saturday and I'm not sure if he wants me to disappear for all of it. (Also, I have something else stewing -- see below.)

I am also working on SEEcamp (along with medicalfairy who mentioned it here as well) and there's hope in that, I think... and I'm talking to a couple of other PDXgeeks about a Recession Hacking workshop of some sort ( ... )

medicalfairy January 13 2009, 03:12:28 UTC

I started to adopt a more punk ethic because of the economic problems. Yeah, it was nice being middle class for a while, but I know that this will be much like the Great Depression that my grandparents were born into.

I'm starting to accept the idea of not needing as much, and realizing that the people around me will take care of me and by the same token I have to take care of everyone. The nice thing about Portland is that people want to help each other here, even if they are insular. I've come up with a lot of ideas already, and we're working on organizing SEEcamp just to get people talking and doing before things get bad.

thirdworld January 16 2009, 18:22:26 UTC

I agree. We need to cut the chaff for sure. agrathea and I already have to a large degree, and we have a teeny-tiny house, which helps. However, for many folks this is not enough.

On Portland, I totally agree. I'm working on two projects right now to help out and getting involved here and there. What a great city we live in.

anonymous January 13 2009, 03:59:42 UTC

Very thoughtful post, Grant. I've been mulling over some similar thoughts for some time, but haven't been able to formulate them into an articulate whole yet. Maybe soon ( ... )

marahsk January 13 2009, 05:05:17 UTC

I have to say, while I'm pleasant to my neighbors when I happen to encounter them (and vice versa), I consider them to be strangers who happen to live near me, and with whom I have little else in common.

Community *is* important, but unlike in previous centuries, travel and the Internet allow me to be part of a community that selects for having more in common than merely an accident of geography. I consider that a good thing--for example, I have so much more in common with Grant, who was born half a world away from me, and who now lives most of a continent away, then I do with my nice-but-very-mundane neighbors. Grant is so much more a part of my community than my neighbors could ever be.

anonymous January 13 2009, 16:43:44 UTC

Yes, I get that. My intentional community is what gets most of my energy and love. But I think there are also enormously good reasons to know your neighbors. We recently had a major snow event here in PDX, where it was literally impossible for many to leave their homes. In many cases, immediate neighbors were the only ones in a position to help one another. (That's one thing that prompted my appeal to neighbors) I imagine other emergency scenarios where neighbors would seriously have to rely on one another. If we don't know one another, how would we know who needs help, or who to call on. When I see someone taking items out of a neighboring home during the day, how do I know if that's supposed to be happening or if I should call the police. I think technology allows us to form communities in ways we couldn't in the past, but I'm not sure it substitutes for all forms of community.

And on some level, maybe because of my age, it just doesn't seem right that I don't know people who live literally feet from me...

marahsk January 14 2009, 19:08:29 UTC

Yeah, I can see that. But in my whole life I've had to ask a neighbor for a favor exactly once (to watch our house during a funeral. That was my old neighborhood, and she was someone I used to chat with once in a while).

I have trouble envisioning en emergency in which we'd have to rely on our neighbors for help (and vice versa), but should that happen, I imagine that it be like one of those disaster movies in which a bunch of random strangers are thrown together, and end up working together because they have to

I'm not going to spend a lot of time or emotional energy on them, but I wouldn't turn them away if they needed help. It wouldn't really occur to me to go to a neighbor if I needed help, though.