What Counts?

We overvalue the conspicuous, and things we can count. We undervalue the internal, and things for which there is no market. The caring professions are most brutally hit. The economics of 1-1 care, or anything that requires the time and effort to see an individual, are poor. A homemaker raising poor children does the “same” work that a homemaker raising wealthy ones does, but homemaking would be an awful business. No one else would put the level of effort in. Conspicuous is easier to manage. Work where you can clock in and clock out. Work where you say you will dig eight holes in an hour, and you dig nine. Or you dig eight, but in fifty minutes. This means we overvalue things that are easy to communicate. If something is hard to explain, it requires trust and confidence. It requires letting go of a desire to manage and control. The only way the economics of care work is by releasing them from the constraints of monetisation. By empowering them with engines of capital working in areas where the economics do work. Not all good ideas are good business ideas. Not all good work can be seen.