Needed: "Come as You Are" Economic Options

How does one explain workplace skills shortages, when there are low levels of labour force participation at the same time? For that matter, labour force participation in the U.S. now lags behind other developed nations. It's a circumstance which highlights how employer/employee relationship expectations have diverged in ways which - thus far - are only becoming more difficult to reconcile.

To put this structural reality into a broader perspective: Diverging workplace expectations could lead to further economic and social instability, since both groups are gradually becoming less willing to accept what the other has to offer, over time. Left unaddressed, that's a recipe for slow but sure institutional breakdown. Already, there's more jobs available than individuals who are actually seeking work. Might a different institutional approach prove more amenable, to broader labour force participation in the future? What if there were economic options that could make it more tempting - not to mention more feasible - to maintain lifetime economic commitments?

While some may view gig work as a "come as you are" option, these digital platform opportunities are somewhat limited to the coordination patterns of today's already prosperous regions. Informal commitments such as these are certainly helpful, but they need more viability in broader formal patterns which can align temporary commitments with lifetime production and consumption opportunities. Otherwise, it could prove difficult to regain the productive agglomeration that so many regions now lack.

Alas, there's good reason why one seemingly needs "near perfection" to land jobs which include ample compensation and benefits. In recent centuries, tradable sectors have increased productivity by decreasing the amount of labour required in relation to total output. As some of our institutions continued down paths toward ever greater productivity, the employment they still required, meant higher levels of skill would be necessary in more instances.

Nevertheless, other institutions took a high skills approach for entirely different sets of reasons. The result? Today's requirements for non tradable sector human capital investment, have partially offset total factor productivity gains. Were it not for the strong emphasis on quality product, and the extensive human capital that seemed necessary, the societal burden of excess input in relation to output, might have been more obvious. For that matter, as things currently stand, the concept of "come as you are" time based service options, runs completely counter to a wide range of societal expectations. Even so, national budget obligations for quality product costs are continuing to expand, and governments have yet to discover long term solutions. Worse, labour force participation is likely to decline further in the years ahead, if knowledge production is not approached differently.

Fortunately, total factor productivity could be regained, by reducing the amount of skill arbitrage which takes place as production residuals or debt dependent secondary markets. Should time based services become organized as internally derived markets, time units would in turn become wealth, via product which simultaneously carries elements of knowledge and skill. Once labour is reconfigured as mutually held time priorities, we can create "come as you are" workplaces which treat learning as part of wealth creation process. As a point of marketplace origin, time based services would help to maintain tradable sector productivity levels in general equilibirum, since they don't need to siphon away tradable sector revenue.

An apt way to think about the possibilities of time value, is to imagine a single time unit as a single apple. Then, envision any possible health concerns as a "blemished" apple, but one which still holds plenty of economic value. Indeed, individuals could potentially match time and skill priorities, based on forms of personal "imperfections" which hold particular meaning for them. The matched priorities are still time unit wealth in every instance, meaning there's no loss of institutional productivity on sick days, such as occurs when one's skill is arbitraged as workplace production residuals!

"Come as you are" economic options, would mean a chance to seek out the valued time of others, one negotiated share at a time. With a little luck, regular exposure to what others expect, would in turn help to temper and fine tune what we expect. And - of course - likewise for everyone else as well. Here, I'll dream a little and say perhaps we wouldn't be so impelled to run away when it all goes awry, because we would finally start to believe it is possible to negotiate with others through the course of our lives, for our wants and needs. I can't help but believe that if we had the ability to directly negotiate with others in our workplaces and learning spaces, our home lives would benefit as well. With a little luck, economic platforms for processes such as this, might even encourage us to become a civil, considerate society, once more.