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  • From: "Michael Kramer" <MKramer@hawaii.rr.com>
  • To: <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] financial issues
  • Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2004 20:47:27 -1000

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.


-----
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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  • [permaculture] financial issues, Michael Kramer, 09/14/2004

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