The Future of Work: The Gig Economy is Here to Stay.

Spring Colors in a Floodplain Forest

The Gig economy is the term on the tip of the tongues of commentators and analysts these days. It’s a very broad term that describes both the increasing tendency of employers to hire independent contractors and short term workers rather than add new full time employees, and their accompanying taxes and benefits, to their workforce. It also describes a range of individuals who, by choice or necessity, build an income around work that is self-directed and without both the benefits and the downsides of a traditional job. A gig job may be a sole source of  income or performed in addition to a traditional job that doesn’t generate the income necessary to either the needs or the financial aspirations of the person involved.

The Gig Economy may seem to be a new phenomenon to many, but to folks who live in the shadow of Rattlesnake Ridge it’s been a way of life for a long time. When my friend Micky Lewis, whom you’ve met in this column before, delivers wood to my home in the middle of the winter, between snow plowing gigs, he’s supplementing work as a contractor that comes and goes with the vagaries of the economy and the real estate market among other variables. Now this is the life that Micky has chosen, but for many such work comes as a necessity. The trade off that many of us made to live here is that well paying jobs tend to be less available here.

So now the phenomenon has spread throughout the economy and we have a name for it, possibly named from the well known phrase “I’ve got a side gig doing . . .you finish the sentence”.  

The Gig Economy is not well defined. In fact, to date, no formal definition has been established even for the terms “Gig Economy” or “Gig Worker”. Furthermore, statistical information that really measures the number of people engaged in the gig economy is nowhere near the level of sophistication as those who are employed in the full time labor market. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has stubbornly clung to measuring three things: “Farm employment, non-farm employment and employers, there just aren’t that many gradations for job categories beyond that except by industry” according to the most comprehensive research on gig jobs I have found at Nation1099.com (see below).  

There are some understandable reasons for this. After all we are trying to measure not only those who make their entire living putting together gigs, both online and offline, as well as the people who have a job but supplement it with gig jobs; and those who label themselves consultants. In an effort to attempt to get a handle on this part of our economy the GAO issued a report in 2014 and could not decide whether the portion of workers that BLS defined as “Contingent Workers” represented 5% or 40% of the workforce.  It is estimated that as much as 90% of the jobs added since 2015, encompassing all three of these, have been gig jobs. 47% of Millenials, who make up the largest portion of the workforce, according to surveys are engaged in some level of freelance work.

A few other instructive bits of data are worth considering:

1. According to Forbes Magazine, since 2000, 1099s have gone up 22%, while the traditional W-2 forms have stagnated.
2. Some researchers project that half of the working U.S. population will move into the gig economy within the next five years.

Among the trends nationally that will have the greatest impact on the number of people in the Gig economy is the alignment of small business growth and Gig Economy growth. These days when most people think of the Gig Economy they think of big companies like Uber, Lyft, AirBNB, etc. but one of the fastest growing area of Gig Job growth is new and expanding small businesses who find it easier and more affordable to hire freelance workers than to add individuals to their payroll. This is partly due to costs but it is also caused by a new trend in business with jobs being broken down into component parts with the work divided between technological solutions (robots, software, etc.) and freelance workers for specific tasks that cannot yet be solved employing technological solutions.   

All of the trend lines indicate that the Gig Economy is here to stay. It will bring massive change, massive opportunity and massive disruption to the economy and our lives, making it both exciting and dangerous, particularly when combined with another trend in business, exchanging technology for labor. Most economists, futurists and other prognosticators predict that by 2020 almost half of the entire labor force in the US will be employed within the Gig Economy. That’s the same year, by the way that many say we will begin to see massive disruption in the largest source of individual employment, drivers as driverless trucks and automobiles begin the process of what very well may become a driverless society by 2050.

Now, the good news and the bad news. First, most people who are employed in some way in the gig economy indicate a high degree of satisfaction. Varying polls show a satisfaction rate of as much as 75%. They enjoy the flexibility and the freedom that it provides for them.

The bad news is that almost all of the people employed in the Gig Economy are within the middle class strata of society. Very few of the working class and poor, whom I have referred to as the Precariat, are currently engaged in this sector of the economy. Where there is massive income disparity between the wealthy and everyone else already, this threatens to make the problem even worse.

Furthermore most jobs within the Gig Economy have no benefits and therefore fall outside of the social safety net that we have constructed since the Great Depression.

Meanwhile, Trump Tweets, the Republicans hide and the Democrats are gleefully looking to 2018 without a clue of what they will do - other than to hold impeachment hearings -  if they take over the control of the House and/or the Senate. Granted, the Democrats have no power within the government but they could be setting an example by telling us what they would do if they did. It may be that their relationship with labor - which in fairness was largely responsible for building the middle class in this country - has paralyzed them. Labor has already been through a dramatic decline in America and they are fighting to maintain their clout. The Gig economy represents an existential crisis for them.  Unless the labor movement comes up with some new approaches to organizing, their days are numbered.

Here’s the problem in a nutshell, while we have moved to Workforce 2.0 in the global economy our governance is still stuck in Democracy 1.0 and Capitalism 1.0 and that is a real and growing problem. If I were advising an insurgent Republican candidate or an Independent Candidate for President I’d tell him or her to adopt a radical centrist agenda that spoke to the greatest threats to American economic stability and democracy. Go BIG or Go Home as they say.  It would take a whole lot of guts and it would be a high risk strategy. It might also be the first real step toward righting the ship of state and saving both capitalism and democracy.

Links:

http://nation1099.com/gig-economy-data-freelancer-study

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregoryferenstein/2015/12/12/the-gig-economy-appears-to-be-growing-heres-why/

https://smallbiztrends.com/2016/07/20-surprising-stats-freelance-economy.html

About Wayne D. King: Wayne King is an author, artist, activist and recovering politician. A three term State Senator, he was the 1994 Democratic nominee for Governor and most recently the CEO of MOP Environmental Solutions Inc., a public company in the environmental cleanup space.  His art is exhibited nationally in galleries and he has published three books of his images. His most recent novel "Sacred Trust" a vicarious, high voltage adventure to stop a private powerline, has been published on Amazon.com http://bit.ly/STPaper. He lives in Rumney at the base of Rattlesnake Ridge and proudly flies both the American and Iroquois Flags. His website is: http://bit.ly/WayneDKing

Color and Form on the Upper Baker River

Color and Form on the Upper Baker River 

A combination of unique forms and colors make this image taken on the Upper Baker River particularly interesting.

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The Value of Native American Indian Investment in America

In the last few months I have been thinking a lot about the values and obligations that we Americans share with one another.

In December I wrote a column that asked the question of whether GDP (also called GNP or Gross National Product) was the best way to measure American success and happiness. (InDepthNH.org - http://bit.ly/2I38p1q );

In February, I wrote a column titled "Restoring the American Voice" (InDepthNH.org http://bit.ly/2Kfuvyn) advocating the need for us all to moderate our differences by remembering and respecting those values that we all share. . . Singing the American Song together as we find our way through the sea of changes ahead.

In my March 3, 2018 column "A National American Social Dividend and a New American Paradigm" (InDepthNH.org http://bit.ly/2r1HYRB ) I suggested that we recognize an American Social Dividend. Essentially making the case that beyond the inheritance of private wealth that we have long recognized in America, that there should be a recognition of an inheritance of public wealth. A recognition of those contributions made over the centuries to the nation's wealth by those who are not in the 1%., including both the collective personal investments made (willingly or unwillingly) and the collective investments created by laws and institutions that have provided the legal and economic framework for a successful economy and a robust democracy. Those investments have played a role in the long term success of the American economy and our way of life that is every bit as important as the Plutocrat, who is able to pass along to his or her children the wealth generated during their lifetime. In fact, it could be argued that, without the robust institutions of Democracy, Capitalism - which is more of an "Operating System" than it is an ideology - could not have produced the rewards it has produced for those Plutocrats.

Now don't get me wrong. . . I am a "Capitalist" and there is nothing , in my opinion wrong with being wealthy; frankly, I wish I were. The sooner we stop denigrating people for being wealthy, or poor, the faster we will rediscover our American Voice. But the myth of the "self-made man" is just that, a myth. Behind every self-made man is an education financed by taxpayers, or a patent protected by a law and perhaps financed through a government research grant; a government infrastructure and a physical infrastructure, paid for by taxpayers at every level; or, a government guaranteed loan for a business . . . do I need to go on?

In the Column I cite just some of the ways in which, over more than two centuries, we have padded the GNP at the expense of one group or another concluding, finally that "in some way or another we are all aggrieved, we are all due reparations; we are mutually responsible for our successes and our failures and mutually entitled to an American Social Dividend paid for with the blood, sweat and tears of every American. . ."

Naturally in thinking about all this I began to wonder if there were not a way to show that both the political and economic success of our nation is grounded in the contributions and sacrifices of all Americans, even those who have been marginalized historically.

So I began to construct a series of questions that I wanted to try answering to help me better explain all this and to defend the proposition.

Our Time Comes

Here is the first question I asked myself (hey give me a break I'm Iroquois!) How does the value of the land taken from Native American people in the conquest of the US relate to GNP today?

As far as I know, no one has done extensive academic research on this topic and for good reason. It would be almost impossible - without Big Data and a powerful computer - to figure out, given differing land values and differing time tables, to say nothing of the fact that knowing when a land transaction was actually voluntary (not very often). On the other hand there is enough data out there to do a "back of the envelope" calculation generally, so here goes:

Using very rough estimates and not including the land taken from Native American people prior to 1776 and also not including improvements on the land such as the towns established in Georgia and the Carolinas by tribes like the Cherokee. It is generally understood that since 1776 Native Americans have been moved from lands totaling 1.5 Billion acres to a small set of reservations dotted around the country. If you simply use the general value of an acre of land prior to the Gold Rush ($1.25) the 1.5 Billion acres had a rough value back then of 1.9 Billion dollars. Using another rough calculation, real dollar values, we can estimate that $1.00 in the early 1800s is roughly (very roughly as we have no data related to inflation before 1913) equivalent to about $49.00 today. Since we know that no land in California today sells for $49.00 per acre (Average 2012 California farm real estate values set an all-time record - $7200 per acre) we can be sure that this is a conservative number, the value of the theft of native lands is, at a minimum $87 Billion dollars. If we use the $7,200/acre value, the value - still conservative - is 10.1 Trillion dollars. A glance at an estimate of the total value of US land is $14.48 Trillion dollars. The numbers show a surprising correlation. While about 80% of the lands of America were taken from native people after 1776, the value of that land today represents 70% of the total value of "unimproved" real estate (land only) in the US.

OK but the way we measure the wealth of our nation is not by real estate value, its by GDP. So how do we figure out what portion of the nation's wealth has been generated from lands taken from Native American people?

Well, let's try this: 18% of GDP is generated by real estate activity. 70% of 18% is 12.6%. GDP in 2016 was 18.57 Trillion. 12.6% of 18.57T is 2.32 Trillion dollars or 12.5% of 2016 US GDP generated from the 1.5 Billion acres of land taken from Native Americans since 1776.

While this is a seat of the pants calculation - I suspect the actual numbers would be higher - and certainly subject to legitimate criticism as there are many variables in the cost and value of land across the USA, the point made is the same. A large portion of national wealth has grown from the lands that we expropriated from Native American Indians.

Native people have not sought reparations. The loss of culture and marginalization for them has been far more important and can never be remunerated. It would be a step in the right direction to at least recognize that a substantial portion of our bounty today can be attributed to the land their ancestors called home.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

About Wayne D. King: Wayne King is an author, artist, activist and recovering politician. A three term State Senator, he was the 1994 Democratic nominee for Governor and most recently the CEO of MOP Environmental Solutions Inc., a public company in the environmental cleanup space.  His art is exhibited nationally in galleries and he has published three books of his images. His most recent novel "Sacred Trust" a vicarious, high voltage adventure to stop a private powerline, has been published on Amazon.com http://bit.ly/STPaper. He lives in Rumney at the base of Rattlesnake Ridge and proudly flies both the American and Iroquois Flags. His website is: http://bit.ly/WayneDKing

If you know of better sources for the information on the back of my "envelope" I'd love to find out about them so that I can update this information. If you disagree with my points, I'd like to hear you, especially if you have a well thought out response and not just a snarky or snide remark. Lets have an honest dialog and we'll all benefit from it. wdk

Preamble - Critical Thinking and the Paradox of History

Lessons from a Lifelong Student (and sometimes Teacher) of History
Wayne D. King

"Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender it too soon or to the first comer: there is nobility in preserving it coolly and proudly through long youth, until at last, in the ripeness of instinct and discretion, it can be safely exchanged for fidelity and happiness."
George Santayana
US (Spanish-born) philosopher (1863 - 1952)

History and politics must be approached with a large dose of skepticism whether from the left or the right because, after all, history is generally written by the "winners" whether their cause was just or not. While I may have coined, or simply adopted, the phrase "The Paradox of History" neither the phrase itself, nor the thought, is unique or original.

Economist John Maynard Keynes coined the phrase the “Paradox of Thrift” to describe that point in a recession when the public is inclined to save as much as possible and spend as little as possible, while at the same time massive spending is the only way to alleviate the economic peril that the country faces. The Paradox of history is simply that history is written by the “winners” who have a vested interest in the narrative, while at the same time, history's greatest benefit to us is what might be learned from an unbiased narrative that provides us an opportunity to see both the good and bad in its events, personas and results. Stated more eloquently by Gordon Craig, “the duty of the historian is to restore to the past the options it once had.”

So, therefore, a good teacher's first responsibility to his or her students is to convince them that they should believe as little as possible of what he or she is about to tell them. Let's call that the "educators corollary" to the Paradox of History.

Having admitted to complete and utter fallibility, a good teacher must then impart his/her knowledge assertively, as if no other source was closer to the oracle of knowledge and truth.

A worthy teacher, then, seeks not to serve answers or truths but to urge students toward the development of critical thinking skills and a healthy skepticism, from which they can derive their own narrative.

This does not in any way alleviate the burden upon you, the student. Quite the contrary in fact - it imposes a larger responsibility because you must find a way to demonstrate a modicum of deference to my years of experience and knowledge while, at the same time, double checking the veracity of everything you learn from me.

One of the first things that you will learn is that a good critical thinker does not mistake opinion or "common sense" for fact. Opinion, after all is just that; one person’s view of something. Common sense, that stalwart beacon of logic and wisdom with which your elders have urged you to imbue your thoughts and behavior, is an even more devilish force because it is empowered by the vast influence of majority thought.

Stephen Hawking, in his extraordinary "Science in the New Millennium" speech, said “. . . common sense is just another name for the prejudices that we have been brought up with.”

Facts, on the other hand, as Mark Twain said, are "stubborn things" they may stand by themselves or they may be turned into thought, but without them thought has no basis in reality; and, ultimately, no power.

So, as we begin this adventure, make it your goal to keep both your eyes and your mind wide open. Take joy in the moments in which your notion of the world is turned upside down because that is the surest sign that something useful is happening to you.

The Best Leader

Snow River

A leader is best
When people barely know
That he exists,

Less good when
They obey and acclaim him,
Worse when
They fear and despise him.

Fail to honor people
And they fail to honor you.

But of a good leader,
When his work is done,
His aim fulfilled,
they will all say,
'We did this ourselves.’

Lao-Tzu
Chinese philosopher
Wayne D. King

Adopt an Image and Raise Money for Your Non Profit or Small Business

Alton Washday Expressions

Alton Washday Expressions

Produced by special request in an affordable limited edition of 100 signed and numbered originals for the good folks at the Rumney Village Store - that would be George & Sheila - a beautiful 8" x 20" signed image with a certificate of authenticity. You can purchase this original art for just $95.00 at the Rumney Village Store on Main Street in Rumney, New Hampshire. If it's too far to travel and you'd still like an original signed print, you can order it right here and we'll see to it that the Rumney Village Store gets credited - but you can save the cost of shipping by stopping by RVS and buying it directly and maybe purchasing one of their great deli offerings! or grab a copy of Sacred Trust 😉 . http://bit.ly/AltonEXP

As a way to support local businesses and nonprofits I have created this Adopt-an-Image program. If you or your nonprofit have an interest in adopting your favorite image its easy, just click here: http://bit.ly/AdoptImage 

An Opportunity in a Crisis - Time for NH Eversource to Move On From Northern Pass

The Whisper of Wind 

Here in the shadow of Rattlesnake Ridge winter is slowly evolving into spring. The morning calls of the Black Capped Chickadees or the Blue Jays alerts us to that fact. Today I listened to the winter remembrances of one woman who was stunned when she was able to walk right up to a group of ducks on a frozen lake this winter, only to discover that their feet were frozen in the ice.


NH Eversource, New Hampshire’s largest utility company, has a problem . . . They are stuck in the 1980s. The world has changed around them and they have remained firmly implanted. Like ducks with their feet frozen in the ice. They have hunkered down in the face of a wintry storm of deregulation and relied on the old standbys: elect a governor who will be “your guy” - better yet, your toady - spread some cash around and you’ll get whatever you want. That’s how we got the highest electricity rates in the country, some will recall.

To summarize just how we arrived at the place we are today, I’ll make the blatantly self-interested - but nevertheless appropriate - reference to my new novel “Sacred Trust”. In this fictional account, a group of citizens who have banded together to stop “Granite Skyway” a powerline proposed by a consortium of investors including the state’s principle utility company. In this excerpt James Kitchen, a journalist covering the fight, gives the following factually-based summary.

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“Two years before Jimmy Carter ascended to the Presidency, New Hampshire held an election for a United States Senator to replace the retiring Norris Cotton. A close contest between the Democrat John Durkin and the Republican Louis Wyman led to two recounts; the first won by Durkin by ten votes and the second won by Wyman by 2 votes. Finally, headed for another recount and seemingly at an impasse, the election was decided in the US Senate and Durkin was seated.

Two years later, as the Carter (Administration’s) National Energy Policy Act was moving through the congress John Durkin slipped an amendment into it. The amendment required utility companies to purchase power - at market rates - from any producer of electricity generating fewer than 80 megawatts.

Durkin originally believed he was helping establish a foothold (for New Hampshire-based) wood to energy biomass and trash to energy cogeneration. He was. But the door he opened with his amendment turned out to be big enough for every dreamer and entrepreneur, with a viable idea for generating electricity renewably, to walk through. Soon proposals for small hydro (called Low Head Hydro), solar power, wind power and other renewable resources were on the drawing board or underway.

The National Energy Policy Act passed the Senate by 1 vote.

Over the years since then changes have been made to the Energy Act, but all moving the country toward the day when renewable energy would account for a larger and larger portion of the power produced.

The changes of the 70s represented the first steps in a changing relationship between America’s public utilities and the people and businesses that consumed the energy. Utilities no longer held complete monopoly power over both the sale and the purchase of electricity as well as its transmission.

(This transmission line) represents a well-planned effort to reverse the evolutionary chain of events leading us to this place. (The state’s largest utility) and a large group of investors, both individuals and institutions, have joined together to build a private transmission line. Not subject to the same constraints of public utilities, allowing them to circumvent many of the requirements the utility would be subject to had they proposed to do this alone, as a public utility. At the same time, because the utility company is an investor in the project, they are able to make side deals between their company and the Transmission project that gives it access to the electric utility rights of way - - perhaps even - - a backdoor to allow the project to use state laws providing protection from losses that result from so-called stranded assets, to assure that if the investment made turns out to be uncompetitive - as the cost of renewables continue to go down - The Transmission project will still be able to charge New Hampshire ratepayers for a portion of the costs of the transmission line.

From the Canadian Border to a terminus in Southern New Hampshire, the only electricity that will flow through the transmission lines will be what it purchases from Hydro-Quebec in Canada. This will effectively limit the number of renewable energy projects possible forcing the state backwards relative to our surrounding states.

The motivation that brought on this Transmission line proposal is, despite all this, understandable. The changes that have taken place over the past twenty years represent an existential challenge to many utility companies, including ours. They are casting around for ways to generate more profits in an era of shrinking opportunities.”

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The final paragraph of the excerpt above is an important reality to understand. In fairness to NH Eversource, the changes taking place in an era of deregulation represent an existential threat to utility companies nationwide. Particularly those whose feet remain stuck in the ice.

In the coming “Age of Electricity” the principal battleground will be over who controls the production and distribution of power. All across America today the battle lines are being drawn and the two sides are rushing to create advantages for themselves. Already many other power transmission projects are proposed from Maine to Washington State and the Canadian Electricity Association projects a tripling of that demand in the next ten years. In most instances these transmission projects are being proposed by utility companies or consortiums that include a local utility company.

Utility companies, like NH Eversource, represent one front in this battle over competing visions of our energy future. After more than 3 decades of shifting regulations and with the backdrop of a growing movement toward smaller, green energy sources, utility companies are in an existential battle for survival.

Most utility companies, including Eversource, are seeking to maintain control of the revenues generated by the flow of electricity.

With a few rare exceptions, they are pitted against those advocates of a new distributed energy paradigm where small, renewable power production replaces the large electricity generators of today.

Most Americans notice that things are changing with respect to energy production and transmission but they have yet to put together the full picture of what will be a sea change in life for every American this presages.

This clash between the past and the, as yet unwritten, future is the overarching theme of “Sacred Trust” because it is the overarching theme of the fight for a sustainable future.

But here’s where things get interesting. Within this existential crisis for NH Eversource are the seeds of opportunity. It may require a house-cleaning at Eversource, though it is within the power of those already there to make these changes (and in the interest of transparency I have some folks there whom I consider friends). Some will describe such changes as revolutionary; others will say the changes required are simply evolutionary changes that Eversource missed out on because they thought that continuing to play the game of “power politics” would sustain them; Still more will simply describe them as getting back to the fundamentals of giving the customer what they want.

NH Eversource’s Northern Pass proposal represents the tragic and classic example of a company that has lost touch with its main mission, to serve its customers. Despite the outrage of the Governor over the decision of the Site Evaluation Committee, the unanimous decision - made quickly and decisively by the SEC - should have been the proverbial two by four between the eyes of the jackass, but Eversource persists.

It’s time for NH Eversource to drop the Northern Pass like week-old roadkill, and, if they hope to survive, to begin the process of reinventing the company. While I think it’s unlikely that they would go so far as to apologize to the people of New Hampshire for putting the interests of a small group of investors ahead of the people of the state, just the act of publicly beginning an introspective process to build consensus among stakeholders would go a long way toward restoring confidence among our citizens.

It really doesn’t need to be painful. Eversource - and the State of New Hampshire - can start by taking a page from Vermont’s play book.

Mary Powell, CEO of Vermont’s largest Utility, Green Mountain Power, with the support of her team, has transformed GMP into a powerhouse among Utility companies (though she calls GMP an energy transformation company); Delivering clean, cost-effective and highly reliable power to customers all across Vermont, with the highest customer approval ratings in the US. The list of her honors and awards from prestigious organizations would take up most of this column, including being named “Vermonter of the Year” in 2015 by the Burlington Free Press.

Here’s how she explains her company’s success:

“The first thing I got to do, which was really an amazing opportunity, was to radically transform the culture of our company, from a very traditional, bureaucratic, slower-moving organization to one with the credo “fast, fun, effective and customer-obsessed.” To make sure we were talking about customers, not meters, leaning in the direction customers wanted us to go.

The reason we love solar and distributed resources …was because that’s what our customers told us they wanted to do. It sounds trite, but in my experience working in different spaces, when you’re focused on the bottom line of your customers and your communities and those that you serve, you ultimately will do fine for yourself as an organization whether you’re a utility or a company selling t-shirts.”

“fast, fun, effective and customer-obsessed.” You don’t see the word shareholder anywhere in this. It’s not because no one cares about shareholders, it’s simply because if you do the job right, the customers will benefit first and the shareholders will follow.

Links:

http://midwestenergynews.com/2016/01/19/qa-a-vermont-utility-ceo-brings-her-story-to-wisconsin/

https://greenmountainpower.com/2010/01/11/president-ceo-mary-powell/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterdetwiler/2017/04/06/green-mountain-power-customer-obsessed-and-designing-for-elegance


About Wayne D. King: Wayne King is an author, artist, activist and recovering politician. He was a three term State Senator, who Chaired the Senate Economic Development Committee and the NH Senate Economic Summit. In 1994 King was the Democratic nominee for Governor and most recently the CEO of MOP Environmental Solutions Inc., a public company in the environmental cleanup space. His art is exhibited nationally in galleries and he has published three books of his images. His most recent novel "Sacred Trust" a vicarious, high voltage adventure to stop a private powerline has been published on Amazon.com as an ebook (http://bit.ly/STrust ) or in paper at http://bit.ly/STPaper . He lives in Rumney at the base of Rattlesnake Ridge. His website is: http://bit.ly/WayneDKing

Creating Common Cause - Restoring the American Voice

Standing atop Rattlesnake Mountain gazing down at the Baker River as it winds its way down the valley from its headwaters in Wentworth to its confluence with the Pemigewasset River in Plymouth there is a sense of peace . . . a sense of place that one feels.

I go there from time to time, in body or in spirit, to be reminded of what Camus said: “In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.”

I seek out that summer at times like this, when the chaos in Washington and the world begins to overwhelm me. When one tweet storm after another sweeps across the country blotting out all of the other crises in need of our attention. That invincible summer somehow creates the space for me to continue on.

The most recent distractions began with a memo sandwich over the Russia imbroglio; “the Nunes Republican memo” to which the entire intelligence community had objected but was released by the President over their objections; followed by a second memo “The Democrat’s Memo” that the President just could not release because of the objections of the Department of Justice.

In the middle of this memo sandwich, was The State of the Union Address - the second longest such address in American history - It wasn’t until he had finished that I realized the President had spent more than an hour telling us about all of the fantastic things he had done and never once spoken about our collective future . . . our American Journey.

Stinson Brook Camus Poster

The speech was filled with “I’s” and “me’s” and few - if any - “we’s”.

Call me an incurable romantic but there is something about the State of the Union Address that leads me to expect my president to tell us where he - or she - sees us going together in the future. Looking to the future together creates shared moments that encapsulate our hopes and our dreams. It even helps us to tame our fears from time to time.

Dreaming together is a fundamental part of the process for defining, redefining and reinventing ourselves. It is the expression of an ever evolving American Voice - constantly filling in the spaces between “We hold these truths to be self evident” with the inspirational ideas for building a “More Perfect Union”.

Yet, in over an hour of boasting and braggadociousness, Donald Trump never called on Americans to dream together; never engaged our American Voice; never sang our American Song.

Yet somewhere, in the back of our minds, most Americans - including those who voted for Trump - can still hear that song. The song that we share, the bond that we share, the nexus between what we all recognize as fundamental American values and our willingness to engage one another in the journey to define a more perfect union. This has been the glue that has held us together through some of the most challenging times in our history. That is the American Voice.

Now, more than ever, we are called upon to embrace those fundamental values.

The American voice is being shattered into a babel-like cacophony and we must fight with everything we have to recover it. Not because The American Voice alone will save us from the crises ahead . . . it won’t . . . but because it will provide us with common ground to talk with one another and a common cause that will keep us from falling into an ever widening rabbit hole of fear and retribution driven by the political extremes in their efforts to either advance an extremist agenda or exact retribution from those advancing such an agenda.

Almost every American recognizes that major changes are roiling our economy and our geopolitical world, happening at an ever increasing rate. New York Times Columnist Tom Friedman describes this as the age of accelerations. The days of the simple Command Economy vs. Market Economy are drawing to a close. The left vs. right debate no longer serves us well, if it ever did. We are a nation in search of a new paradigm. A paradigm that remains true to the central ideas and ideals of the American vision of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. A nation with a place for everyone: Where the working class is not marginalized; where the wealthy are not villainized; where the poor have a real pathway out of poverty, where the middle class is expanding, not shrinking; where it matters not what your skin color is or who you choose to love or what you choose to call yourself; where the opportunity for a meaningful life is recast to reflect a new set of realities and participation in the ongoing Great American Journey is an imperative.

In order to define and build this new paradigm we will need to be able to speak with one voice - One American Voice - respectful of our differences, bold enough to honor the traditions of our founders, challenging the people to help define this new paradigm, crafted by evolution not revolution and built from the center out, not from the margins.

In other words, like a gyroscope on a rocket that prevents over-compensating in the blink of an eye turning one odd movement into an uncontrollable series of gyrations that tear the ship apart; We need the common ground of our American Voice and shared American Values to serve as a ”governor” - moderating the reaction when the “Heat of the Moment” will tempt us toward over-reaction. We must find a way to stop screaming at one another and begin listening . . . moving our country forward.

Over the next few weeks, I intend to use this column as a way to propose a series of interconnected ideas for moving beyond the current divide. Ideas for strengthening the American Voice and building a new entrepreneurial American economy and community.

The changes that will be required to address these new challenges we face will not be simple. The challenges that have led to where we are today are momentous and they require big ideas and solutions. If we employ our American Voice toward a civil discussion we can take on even the most intractable challenges: dramatic and increasing income disparity coupled with an unstoppable tsunami of automation that will continue to disrupt the economy and the jobs of almost every imaginable field of work and endeavor; Increased tribalization within the American community pitting rich against poor, Democrat against Republican, urban against rural.

You will not be surprised, from someone who proudly claims to be a “Radical Centrist”, that I believe one reason for this is the extremists in both political parties who have declared war on their centrists. Part of the case I intend to make over the next few weeks is a case for strengthening voting rights and watering down the power of political parties.

I also intend to make the case for National Service. It was Gandhi who said “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” These words reflect what many others have said . . . that the greatest beneficiary of public service is the person who serves, not the person served. Service creates a touchstone we share with one another. It takes us out of ourselves and puts us into the shoes of others.

National service - either civilian or military - should be a legacy requirement of the American journey. For every American it could be a transformational moment in both their personal journey and our collective one.

The benefits of national service accrue to both the individuals who serve, those who are served and to the country in whose service the individual labors. There is a power to the nexus of the three; synergies that can have the effect of strengthening the bonds between diverse people, creating a sense of community.

Probably most controversial, at first blush, will be the case for a universal basic income. A legacy payment to every American citizen based on contributions to the wealth of our nation made since 1492. You might be surprised at the people who have made the case before me including conservative economist Milton Friedman and Libertarian icons as well as titans of technology who see it as a way to unleash America’s entrepreneurial spirit and to free the middle class and the precariat from the yoke of unnecessary regulation and bureaucracy.

This is not to neglect other fundamental aspects of renewing the American idea in a post-Trump world. Education is a core value that will require fundamental change to reflect the world in which we live as is the nexus of science and morality.

Let’s take a journey together . . . Americans all.


About Wayne D. King: Wayne King is an author, artist, activist and recovering politician. He was a three term State Senator, who Chaired the Senate Economic Development Committee and the NH Senate Economic Summit. In 1994 King was the Democratic nominee for Governor and most recently the CEO of MOP Environmental Solutions Inc., a public company in the environmental cleanup space. His art is exhibited nationally in galleries and he has published three books of his images. His most recent novel "Sacred Trust" a vicarious, high voltage adventure to stop a private powerline has been published on Amazon.com as an ebook (http://bit.ly/STrust ) or in paper at http://bit.ly/STPaper . He lives in Rumney at the base of Rattlesnake Ridge. His website is: http://bit.ly/WayneDKing