permaculture

["Michael Kramer" <MKramer@hawaii.rr.com>]

Interesting timing to continue to see the great discussion about the cost of 
information and courses. I just got a letter from a student who was a bit 
stunned about my earnings from a teacher training course. His statement was 
"that's an awful lot for just a week of teaching."  And while I can certainly 
counter about the many hours spent in planning to teach that result in a 
final wage calculation of around $10/hour, what he was really hinting at is 
the difficulty with asking to be paid thousands of dollars to teach. This is 
a fundamental issue for activists who have seen the horrors of capitalism and 
have deep personal issues with what money can represent in the world if it is 
used to foster hoarding and exploitation. But teaching permaculture is not 
that. It's interesting to sense the inner conflict inside about what our own 
time and energy is worth, and I'd suggest that these are deep psychological 
issues for most folks. As such, as Graham pointed out, the typical cycle of 
most advocates, particularly the earth stewards, is to give and give to the 
point of burnout; there is little attention to self-preservation or 
regeneration, there is sincere devotion to the cause, and money is held up as 
an evil to be avoided. 

Money has no inherent value, but it's such a charged issue, so people 
struggle with deciding how much their time is worth; we compare our rate of 
pay to other professions, try to make some sort of logical conclusion, but 
ultimately it's arbitrary. And I'd say it just has to do with what one has 
the guts to ask for; I've noticed that as I've increased my asking price over 
the years, I still get as many opportunities as I did before, so nothing has 
really changed expect my comfort level in asking for more money. Since many 
of us don't feel comortable about our relationship to money, we project this 
onto the permaculture movement and conclude that permaculture is all about 
primitive living.  I would counter that primitive living is not accessible to 
the mainstream public, so the path to change will continue to be slow using 
that strategy. 

And permaculture needs no more martyrs, bur rather inspirational leaders who 
do not misinterpret the limiting surplus ethic as self-sacrifice. We can only 
be generous in giving our surplus when we ourselves have enough, and each of 
us has a different definition of enough.  I am often disappointed by the 
judgmental nature of activists, even in our movement. But striving to be more 
selfless than the next is not permacultural, but more likely a call for 
attention.  People want recognition but not money, people want society to 
change its ways but they might not change their own. Permaculturists are only 
deemed credible if they work the land and live a hippie lifestyle of poverty, 
even though they may live off welfare or have trust funds to support their 
lifestyles. This righteousness hurts our chances of affecting change in this 
society. There is no right way to live permaculture. 

If we ignore money as a flow across our landscape and don't create right 
livelihoods, permaculture will be a hobby or side gig for too many.  We need 
to make as much money as we can and reinvest it in as many permaculture 
educational opportunities and projects as possible. This is why a significant 
portion of the surplus of all my classes is donated to the local permaculture 
guild. So I encourage us to value ourselves, value our work, and value the 
communities we teach. Permaculture is about local control of resources, and 
this includes the almighty (though deflating) dollar.


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Michael Kramer
Natural Investment Services
P.O. Box 390595
Keauhou, HI 96739

www.NaturalInvesting.com
808-331-0910
Toll-free: 888-779-1500

"Be the change you wish to see in the world."
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