Those of us who were young in the fifties, sixties and seventies are now aging, and just as we tried in our youth to find alternative ways of living, learning, cooperating, having fun, and being productive, I think we’re destined to replay many of these scenarios in our old age, when creative independence and autonomy from centralized systems is likely to be the prescription for not just quality of life but survival itself. Being able to explore personal options for healing without interference from the government, and being able to form communities in which love and care are among the most valued and best compensated of human resources, seem to me to be very closely connected alternative lifestyles.
Any one of us not in need at this moment could, before the sun rises again, find our entire life changed with our independence and abilities gone forever. It happens every day. Yet, when such a terrible thing happens, we are like animals struck dumb by a nameless shadow of terror from the sky. And if we did not care for the awful fate suffered by others before us, we can really complain if we find ourselves lying alone in illness or old age without hope of love or mercy.
If we are as individual people to receive the kind of loving care which we would all hope to have when we are old or sick or desperately injured, we must as individuals who are yet whole, create and support a society which actively and imaginatively cares for its members in need.
Many of the social inventions in this book are driven by my observation that people who have the ability to love and care for others possess an economically valuable resource which is in great demand and short supply.
In practical terms social inventions are a lot like mechanical inventions. To be worth a second glance, they have to work, to do what they are supposed to do, and to do it dependably and cost-effectively. They have to meet real needs or create and fill new ones, fit in with people’s existing lives, and give perceived value.
There are lots of other possible criteria, but for a social invention there are only two that count – it has to work, and be relevant. And that’s where the mechanical inventor and the social inventor take different paths. When you are building a machine you can get feedback. It works, or it doesn’t. You can test the validity of your invention – it either works or it doesn’t. If it works, you can set out to optimize it; if it doesn’t work, you try to fix the problem and go on, or you can decide that your idea won’t work and stop the bubble machine.
Social inventors rarely get a chance to see their inventions bench tested, let alone given a test run on a real track. It’s hard to build a model, much less a working model, since social inventions involve people as the basic “mechanism”, and only social inventors who happen to be kings, dictators, or very rich are able to create actual working (or non-working) models of their social inventions.
But just as technical or mechanical inventors aren’t stopped by the fact that the realistic prospect of a successful gadget or “million dollar” idea is very small, social inventors probably aren’t stopped just because its extremely unlikely that their work will ever receive formal recognition, much less be put to the actual test.
Social inventions begin with hubris and, if they are any good at all, end with humility. I offer these inventions not in the hubris of creation, but after many years of reflection. I humbly believe in their potential to make this world a better place for all of us, and I want to share them with others.
This book explores a number of closely related social inventions on the subject of the unrecognized but very real economic value of love and care, two of a small but precious number of valuable, scarce human capital resources which are unvalued in a world dominated by economies based on the possession and exploitation of labor, technology and material resources.
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