This Substack is for readers interested in freely discussing, critiquing, and possibly promoting the ideas in my book, A Part-time Job in the Country: Notes Toward a New Way of Life in America. In it I explore a world of New Country Towns in which people work only part-time outside the home, using their free time to build their own houses, garden, cook and care for their children and grandchildren, and pursue hobbies and other outside interests.
In order to bring this new way of life into being, I propose the general idea of factories in the countryside run on part-time jobs, arguing that with the right kind of wage bargain between labor and management— namely, one that ties total compensation to output—such factories can be made to run considerably faster and more efficiently than conventional factories, generating not only higher hourly earnings for the workers involved, but higher rates of return on investment.
For reasons of economy, especially in the areas of retirement and end-of-life care, I propose that the residents of these new towns live on small three-generation homesteads grouped around neighborhood greens, with parents and grandparents sharing the same piece of property under two separate roofs at opposite ends of the garden.
Also for reasons of economy, I proposes that the new towns themselves be small enough and laid out in such a way that its residents can easily get around on foot, by bicycle, or in lightweight electric cars that go 30 mph, thereby eliminating the need for high automobiles.
Putting it all together, I am able to show just how and why factories of this new type can lead to a happier, more sustainable way of life in America, while simultaneously increasing the rate of profit for the investors involved. It would be a win-win proposition for labor and capital alike.
But even so, I acknowledge that only new trade legislation in the form of high tariffs on goods manufactured in low-wage countries overseas will cause American manufacturers to begin voluntarily locating their most labor-intensive facilities in the US once again. In other words, the current neoliberal consensus, based as it is on a misbegotten notion of “free trade” in a lopsided world, will have to be challenged.
To this end I advocate the founding of a powerful new kind of national membership organization that can effectively represent the interests of the many tens of millions of ordinary working- and middle-class Americans who (according to an old Gallup poll) are likely to be interested in this new way of life, a major goal of which will be to pressure Congress to pass the necessary legislation to make it all possible.
But first and before all else I hope to attract the attention of a talented group of young adults from across the US who would like nothing better than to launch such a democratic mass movement for change.
Clearly, there will be much to talk about in the weeks and months ahead. To get a complete overview, readers might consider purchasing a copy of the book itself, which is available on Amazon. The ebook version costs $3.95. The paperback version has a complete index, which may be useful in exploring several of the technical appendices, for example this one, which are intended primarily for any professional economists out there who might be interested in them.
