Subsequent to the initial Covid outbreak in the spring of 2020, the company that I work with chose to re-invent the paradigm of its corporate structure to include the elimination of “continued company growth” as a basic policy. The pandemic reinforced priorities other than the drive for profit that is endemic to American capitalism. Aside from creating a smaller more efficient work force and simplifying company functions, the company modified its paradigm to include non-economic growth as an essential indicator in its future direction.
The vision included a more than living wage for all, the encouragement and pursuit of the arts. The vision includes more family time, with the use of flex scheduling and prioritization of support for children. Too often, the daytime pressures of work exclude parents from participating in a child’s activities or assisting a senior member of the family. The workplace now places the needs of others on a similar level of importance to productivity. It is the recognition that the concept of money in society needs to be regarded in its proper perspective to living a life of appreciation and enjoyment. Finding validation in work- life balance becomes an added component to the description of productivity.
Coinciding with the company transition in the fall of 2020 was an interview with Mariana Mazzucato (NYT 11/27/20 p.B6) who is an environmental economist at University college in London. Her thesis is that post-Covid measurements of GDP have changed how values in the economy have moved from finance and real estate to childcare and health care workers. Currently GDP measurements of goods and services as well as the creation of wealth have been centered on extraction more than creation of value.
Mazzucato reminds us that at Davos in 2020 the new corporate mantra was to value stakeholders over shareholders. She points out that not much has changed since then regarding re-defining the value of GDP to include productivity created by wages, worker representation and healthcare. Women in particular suffered the consequences because they were excluded in the productivity numbers since they stayed home to care for children and parents. Her focus is that the work provided by women in the home and health care workers create economic value.
Subsequent to the 2020 election, President Biden has introduced an infrastructure/families bill that includes family leave provisions, preschool funding and outright payments for child support. Conservatives have objected to the inclusion of social aspects of the infrastructure bill. It is an unwillingness to understand that the definition of productivity and prosperity, as well as GDP, have changed in the post-Covid world. Liberals are arguing and the majority of Americans agree, the new definition of GDP include a broader definition of goods and services.
The post Covid change in priorities, both on a company level and a macro level indicate a shift in the definition o what well-being means for Americans. Covid has been the unwitting catalyst that in providing the inclusion of all types of work that create value in America. Women in particular need not only to be recognized in the work place but in their overall contribution to that value.
FW 5/5/21
American Commentary 