| |
by Robert Jawitz
The
key to a resilient economy is for a family to reduce housing
obligations, reduce dependence on commercial food production,
and to reduce childcare costs. Those three items alone can
reduce the income requirements of the family by ½. Other
costly items are eldercare and healthcare. In fact, elderly
often must sell their homes in order to afford expensive nursing
care either in an assisted living facility, nursing home or
with home health care. Healthcare is the fastest growing cost
in the family budget now following housing, childcare, food
and taxes in that order.
Before the industrial revolution made us an urban society,
most families in Europe and the US addressed the above needs
via the family farm. Typically, generations lived together
and the house and the farm were transferred from an older generation
to another. Living together in a farm without a mortgage addressed
the burden of housing costs. Living on a farm made home food
production a natural and having the generations supporting
each other had a built-in mechanism for childcare and eldercare.
Medicine was not so sophisticated in those days and so the
costs were not so high.
RMI is not recommending that we return to the family farm,
but it recommends reviving some attributes of that living structure
to make the economy more resilient. Those attributes are achieving
a mortgage-free house, keeping the house for future generations,
growing food, sharing childcare and eldercare duties and simplifying
healthcare. The major attribute to revive is the concept of
the multigenerational family as the basic organizing unit.
Life on the family farm was hard and that is why the industrial
alternative was attractive enough to leave it. However, today
the post-industrial economy has other ways for us to make an
income other than selling a crop and has available labor saving
devices to make work and food production easier. Our post-industrial
economy doesn’t tie us to an urban center and frees us
to make new organizing structures wherever we want.
The basic structure we propose is a place that has two houses
and an attached cottage to one. In them four generations can
co-exist. One house, the main house, is the residence of the
middle aged generation (say age 50), the attached cottage is
for the elder generation (say age 75), the other house is for
the young generation (say age 25) who is responsible for the
children (say 2 in this model). The elder generation is basically
independent (as all elderly wish to be) but gets primary support
from the middle –aged generation. The young generation
is also basically independent but gets support from both the
middle aged generation and the elder generation for both financial
as well as with childcare help. The structure would include
gardens as well as facilities for making a living (shops, studios,
offices). Here, all the generations support each other and
learn from each other. Our model also includes a family burial
ground so that generations that are gone can be remembered
by those that remain. Thus, the structure acts like a generational
pump. When the elderly die (say at 100 with our improved healthcare),
the middle aged couple (now elderly) move into the cottage,
the younger couple (now 50) move into the main house and assume
the duties of the middle aged couple and one child (now 25)
takes the young couple’s house and raises children. The
other child would leave and join another household as the remaining
child takes a spouse also from an outside household. Thus,
the entire structure is in equilibrium and can be maintained
for many generations.
Here’s how we get there. A young couple (say both 25)
buy a house (with a 25 year mortgage). They have two children.
In 25 years, they are now 50, their mortgage is paid off, but
they still have incomes and they start building the small cottage
for their retirement. The two children (now about 25) want
to move out. One joins another family and moves away while
the other brings a spouse in and builds the 2 nd house on the
property with a 25 year mortgage. Now they have two children.
By the time their children are ready to have a household (25
years or so), the generational pump can continue, all the mortgages
are paid for and the family finances are now secure. With this
model, the family must suffer through two generations with
the stress of the money economy and the requirement to make
the mortgage payments (but they can reduce childcare costs,
food costs, eldercare costs and have the benefit of mutual
support and education). But the future has a goal and the goal
is a resilient economy and a fulfilling work life.
Click
here to
download printable version of this article in Adobe Acrobat format (PDF 69K).
If you don't have Acrobat Reader download
it first here.
<< back
|
|
