The Overdue Makeover of the American Way, ‘Lagom': Income Inequality, the ’85’ & ‘Working for the Few’, The Third Metric

This is the third reblog of a 2009 piece i wrote about the need for a Swedish-style makeover , ‘Lagom’ (moderation and balance), of American cultural values in light of the 2008 recession...and especially the somewhat obscene map-redistribution (upwards) of wealth and income during the so-called ‘recovery’ since then. The last reblog was June 2012, '"LAGOM": A New Life Style for Post Recession Americans’. Arianna Huffington’s ‘The Third Metric’ way of redefining and measuring the value of one’s life, lifestyle, mode of living, life philosophy and self-evolution is much in tune with ‘Lagom’.

This time, I am motivated to reblog about Lagom, by Robert Kall’s January 25, 2014, piece in OpEdNews, 'Needed: A Science, Economics and Lifestyle of SMALL-- It's Time to Face Reality-- Too BIG is Too Dangerous--‘, where Kall notes:

'Too big is not just about too big to fail banks. Nature abhors just about anything that is too big. Giganitism is an abnormality that, in humans and most life forms, leads to pathology or death. The same is true about things humans create-- companies, government, political and economic systems, megastores, megachurches, the 85 billionaires. who own as much as half of the seven billion planetary inhabitants.'

Ah, the newly arisen mega-monster, ’The 85’. January 21, 2014, Huffingtonpost summarized a January 21, 2014, Oxfam analysis (“Working for the Few”)that the richest 85 individuals around the globe (1 % of global population) own, possess or control more than collectively owned by half (50%)the globe’s humans! With a global population currently around 7.14 Billion, this means each of the ’85’ owns as much as 84 million ‘lesser’ human beings. Question, ‘is this a palatable outcome of economic ‘freedom’?

Does this extreme wealth imbalance deserve to be preserved at all costs much like a sacred icon of the lesser god, money? Or, is such extreme imbalance a sign of gross disfunction, a pathology as Kall suggests?. As Kall notes (his writing is one of my fav reference points):

'The problem is, as Lord Acton observed, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." I would argue that there are so many risks and dangers in giving people the ability to accumulate huge amounts of money and the power that comes with it, that we should put limits on wealth...'

‘Lagom’ is a Swedish philosophy of day-to-day living that emphasizes the quality of life over material accumulation - of living in moderation, sufficiency, balance and sustaining our world. More and more is being written, with increasing alarm and fretting, that America and indeed the global village need to find options to free-market capitalism, the presumed driving force behind the Industrial Revolution that now seems to be not only a barrier to progress but, unless we find a path away from it, we might end up self-destructing. In the absence of an active pursuit of safe, alternative energy - are we held back by technology (unlikely) or are we stymied by the petro-lobbyists (very likely)?. How many more Fukushima’s (March, 2011, nuclear reactor melt-down in Japan) can we, the globe and not only America, sustain?

The recession lingers. The ‘unemployed’ has lost meaning because so many have given up looking for a job thus skewing the BLS curves to where few know or can guess. This recession hasn't finished teaching us that the American idolizing of the Darwinian-capitalist pursuit of riches, where a neighbor in difficulty automatically becomes a "loser" to be put out of mind and forgotten, just doesn't cut it when "we" are coming close to becoming one of "them".

This recession is marked by a frightening prospect of overnight conversion from ‘plush-to-bust' that can reach all levels, just, post-recession, ask Bernie Madoff's “clients” (to refer to a now classic meme). We all feel the anxiety of material failure, of being second, of being the loser even when we are nicely comfortable...for the moment. When, in our daily pursuit to hang on, we have the rare moment to pause and think about things, we intuit that ‘it’ doesnt make sense. But, who has the time to contemplate when we are so driven to materially excel and garner more than our neighbor in the race to see who next will be the winner, or loser.

The essence of this recession is the repeat of a lesson that the wild-frontier, laissez faire (self-regulated, NOT!) capitalism ala Ayn Rand is just a dream; actually a dangerous nightmare because it creates a make-believe theater of false fronts and actors in false face where "dollars are the ultimate". Repeatedly, with each new generation of Americans who are not schooled about past economic collapses and who eagerly join the race to grab the brass ring and win the carnival doll, these falsities come tumbling down killing the fortunes and hopes of many many people, families, countries.

However, America is not down and out for good. We can move on to a higher level of maturity by adopting a life style of moderation, suitability (LAGOM) from one of the most advanced cultures on the planet, and perhaps the culture with the highest standard of living and certainly the first or second highest in cultural well being, Sweden.

In Sweden, cultural happiness can be summarized in the following observation about purely economic success (which seems to be the current way America values itself):

For all its prominence, GDP is only one yardstick of economic performance and it is no guide to social progress. It simply indicates the market value of all goods and services produced in an economy. It takes no account of how income is shared out, or of how it is generated. Few would celebrate a boom in costly divorce cases – but it would be great for GDP.

America is ready for a new way of living life. It is in our best interest to try a new way of valuing living life rather than material accumulations.

It is time to try "Lagom".

"LAGOM" has no exact translation in English. But good translations of lagom are: "enough, sufficient, adequate, just right". Lagom is also widely translated as "in moderation", "in balance", "optimal", and "suitable", also "sustainable" as a way of life.

Lagom also carries the connotation of perfection through appropriateness.

The value of "just enough" can be contrasted to the value of "more is better". It is viewed favorably as a sustainable alternative to the hoarding extremes of consumerism

"Lagom" is said to describe the basis of the Swedish national psyche,..of consensus and equality. It is ... to be modest and avoid extremes.

Similar to Lagom" is the Middle Path in Eastern philosophy, and Aristotle's "golden mean" of moderation in Western philosophy.

So, America, let's have "Lagom" meals; "Lagomish" houses, cars, and visible material wealth in general.