Francis Perkins: Cooperation and Mutuality in 1935

The 70th anniversary of Social Security is fast upon us. I recommend that you go to the link below to NPR's On Point radio show for a very interesting segment on the origins of Social Security. Click on "Closing Segment" Then scroll down to the Closing Segment to listen to Francis Perkins, the first woman Cabinet member, in a 1935 talk on the need for cooperation and mutuality to protect all of us from the unknown vagaries of the market.

The history, the context, of her achievement is fascinating.

Today's political leaders appear to be leading the forces that reject cooperation and mutuality as an organic part of American culture [Social Security, Social safety nets, etc].

On the other hand, those of use who look at the world from the perspective of citizens who are peers acting in their roles as members and participants of networks based on Internet principals see things quite differently.

Can it be that the fundamental conflict on Social Security is really about the validity and appropriateness of a world view that makes cooperation and mutuality a core principal?

Consider that more than a few economists and regulators insist that the term "consumer" is the correct term when talking about members of online networks. They flat out reject the term "citizen". Perhaps this is because they have never used a bittorrent client like Azureus which reminds you, as a function of the software, when you quit an upload if your share ratio is less than 1! Not having experienced this modern instance of "cooperation and mutuality" they are unable to understand the benefit of running your share ratio up to 1.2 or higher, but not necessarily above 1.5. Could it be that they have no idea what a "share ratio" is? Could it be that they have no idea how to monetize this cooperative gain from collective action? Could it be that they have forgotten that if is as important to build the common good as it is to build private wealth?

Perhaps they would find it instructive to use Azureus to legally download, and then VLC to watch, edge created content such as the film Star Wars Revelations and the series The.Scene.

Francis Perkins understood the value of cooperation and mutuality in 1935. Benjamin Franklin understood this in 1727. What do and an organic aspect of our culturewe have to do to once again restore this as a fundamental principal of our democracy?

Posted by Jock Gill at August 13, 2005 12:34 PM | TrackBack