This was originally proposed in a letter to President Obama:

Excerpted from Warren Johnson:

“What is needed is a way of creating jobs at less cost and use of oil. This could be done by encouraging the creation of sustainable ways of life by offering assistance to those who would like to live in the simpler, more cooperative ways that can be supported with renewable energy. The industrial niche is growing crowded even as it is being consumed with the depletion of the fossil fuels that made the Industrial Revolution possible in the first place. The opening we have is in the sustainable niche that supported human life prior to the industrial era, and will do so again after the fossil fuels are gone, and with the larger amounts of renewable energy that modern technology can make available on an ongoing basis.

The cost of assisting those who would like to develop the sustainable niche will be small compared to creating jobs in the growth economy. This is reflected in the cost of the stimulus efforts that halted the deflationary spiral, but were not able to return the economy to growth, in part because each uptick came with the rise in oil prices that cut short further recovery. The potential for growth is declining now because of the decades long efforts to bias the economy toward growth in every possible way, but the sustainable niche remains wide open for the individuals, families, and the young who would like to create sustainable ways of life that will gain in value as less energy is available. The more Americans who do this, the less dangers there will be in the mainstream economy, with less unemployment and debt.

I see this offer of assistance as akin to the offer of land under the Homestead Act, with both attracting those seeking ways of using their energies that also benefit the nation. In our case, this would be with the decentralization toward renewable resources, rather than bringing industrial resources to urban areas in super tankers and 18 wheeled trucks. The debts and high oil prices plaguing the growth economy are the market signals directing us toward sustainable ways of life that will be all there are after the industrial resources are gone.

This proposal is spelled out in a manuscript that has fallen into the void between the partisan divide in this country. It was different in 1978 when Sierra Club Books published my Muddling Toward Frugality that did fairly well, selling 50,000 copies. I’ve been a Democrat all my life, but now see myself as a disillusioned humanist/modernist as politics became more of a way of protecting one’s own interests rather than the common good. This put me among the many people supporting your election, but then made your job difficult when so many people persist in pressing only for their own interests.

The new manuscript is titled The Gift of Peaceful Genes and the Sustainable Revolution, and points to the value of cooperation in the long human advance, rather than competition. My hope is that the transition from growth to sustainability will appeal to both conservatives and liberals because it moves us away from the anger and insecurity of a competitive way of life, and toward the greater importance of cooperation in the family and community in the smaller scaled, more decentralized ways of sustainability. There are also general references to the selflessness asked for by all the great faiths, and a handful of phrases that reflect the wisdom in the Bible.

A central theme, however, if that the evolution of sustainable ways can be carried forward with the market forces that everyone is familiar with in this society. They can take us through the new economic territory as ordinary people make the decisions that are best for them in the changing circumstances. This depends, however, on biasing the economy toward sustainability rather than growth, with the highest priority being to preserve the ongoing health of the mainstream economy that everyone depends on. This means that the amount of assistance will have to vary based on the need for jobs, profits, and balanced budgets, and that oil imports can be reduced steadily to assure the development of renewable energy without federal subsidies, but also with less defense spending needed. Markets have a proven record for encouraging change, but only if shaped by higher values, with sustainability the one that will take us in needed direction, rather than the growth that is leading to anger and fear when it is no longer possible. Sustainability can take us toward the stability and continuity that is the conservative value that has been lost in the modern era, but will return when sustainability is the more feasible goal, ending the high percentage of Americans who now feel the nation is headed in the wrong direction.

This all assumes that there is someone with the capacity, and courage, to bring such issues into the open for discussion, which is your great asset. This will be essential to overcome the understandable concerns about the end of growth, and especially if the transition toward sustainable ways can be carried forward by those who relish the opportunity to do this, without forcing all of society to move in this direction.

I have attached several items that I hope will provide you with a feeling for what I am proposing:

* The Table of Contents and Preface of The Gift of Peaceful Genes and the Sustainable Revolution. The rest of the manuscript available on the internet at www.peacefulgenes. com.

* Introductory material from the reprint edition of Muddling Toward Frugality that just came out, with a review of it by Edward Abbey serving as a forward, and followed by my introduction to the reprint edition hat points to how different our society is now than in 1978.”