by Ann Kramer
"Educated and raised differently" that phrase is easy to appreciate in a country like Afghanistan where the literacy rates are 28%. You can see why we would want this to occur - because educated people are people who have a reason to live instead of becoming suicide bombers. Educated people want their children to grow up and build healthy communities and not spend their time as part of a terrorist group. What Friedman learned is that humans who know how to live full lives make the ending of terrorism possible. After 8 years in Afghanistan, it's clear that attacking terrorism from the outside isn't working. However empowering people through education and good early child development gives them the skills to change it from within and that is the keyto shifting the strategy and creating the solution we all want.
But the need for "being educated and raised differently " isn't true just in a third world country""this is true in the United States as well. And in fact, if the US is going to regain its position as a world leader""the sooner we understand this, the better. The future we're heading into will depend on people who have reached their full human capacity potential. This requires us to invest in the "9 months and 21 years to create this next generation". And the only way this is going to happen is if we finally understand and acknowledge that the work done in our homes has to become part of our paid economy. There's no way we can expect someone to do this work without compensation while expecting the highest levels of outcome. And we need these high level outcomes for our future. We're a post-consumer economy walking full steam ahead into a Knowledge/Service economy and this requires people who know how to think, create and find solutions for the ever-constant changes that our world will be experiencing.Fact: one in seven adults in the US is functionally illiterate. This didn't occur in their adulthood - it's the outcome of their childhood experience. We are losing ground every day we do not understand the impact this will make on not only the US, but the world. We can no longer afford to have the raising of our children be unpaid work. This work is far too important and the outcomes it produces - adults that are able to function fully in the world - requires us to give this work the respect it is due and pay for it commensurately. Otherwise, the US will not be prepared for the 21st century and we will certainly not be the leaders we could be. That would be a huge loss simply because we do not understand that it is time to leave the status quo behind and create a broader economic system that includes this work as part of the measured economy.
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Creating a Caring Economics
Riane Eisler’s book, The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics, proposes a new approach to economics that gives visibility and value to the most essential human work – the work of caring for people and nature. Her ideas are hailed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu as “a template for the better world we have been so urgently seeking,” by Peter Senge as “desperately needed,” and by Jane Goodall as “a call to action.”
Dr. Eisler’s Full Spectrum Job Creation Proposal (developed to help Congressional members better understand Caring Economics)takes into account the full spectrum of economic activities; reaching beyond the traditional sectors to include activities of the household, of community caregivers and of the life supporting processes of nature. Supported by a grant from Kalliopeia Foundation, CPS seeks to mobilize a social movement to create a better society inspired by the principles of Caring Economics.
Participate in the CPS program Alliance for a Caring Economy (ACE) and help build this movement.
Let's work together to build: A Full Spectrum Economy
In these volatile economic times, the Alliance for a Caring Economy, a project of the Center for Partnership Studies, is launching an initiative to work with representatives from government, business, public and academic sectors to develop the foundations to build a Full Spectrum Economy--based in the partnership/caring principles outlined in The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics.
Please join us in building a Full Spectrum Economy. On this site you'll find information, videos, discussions and ways you can become involved in building a Full Spectrum economy.
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