Human Capacity Development Enterprise…changing the view of ‘normal’.

One of the new sectors in a Full Spectrum Economy will be the Household Enterprise Sector (HES).  This is the proactive step of recognizing that the caring work done in the home—developing children to their fullest human capacity, caring for our elders and disabled to assure high quality service—can and should be a measured economic sector.

Often times when we discuss the HES with people, there’s a gut reaction—no, we don’t pay people to stay home and raise their kids. The irony in this is that if I take a child to ‘day-care’, and pay someone to take care of my child—everyone’s okay with it. But if I do this work myself, in my home, it has to be done for free.  The same thing with caring for an elderly family member.  If I stay home and do this, no pay. If I bring someone in from the outside to do the same work—it gets paid for.

Ah, you say—yes, but we’re ‘hiring’ professionals to do this work and that’s the difference.  We have standards for the day-care centers or the corporation who sends care-workers into the home and we can hold someone accountable if the work is not done.  Well, then wouldn’t you agree—the only thing we need to do is ‘professionalize’ the person who stays in their home to do this work?

That’s exactly what we’re saying can happen as we begin to build a Full Spectrum Economy—that the Household Enterprise Sector results in the creation of thousands of non-profit enterprises that employs millions of professionals working in the home.

Imagine yourself ‘applying for work’ at a non-profit organization that pays you to work in the home doing child development, elder care or care for a disabled person with a standard of professionalism that challenges you to do high quality work.   And, just as happens in other non-profit enterprises, you work with teams of people focused on ensuring that work you do produces the best possible outcomes.  At the end of the month, you receive a pay check commensurate to what the non-profit corporation has contracted to pay.  Please note, you’re not being hired to be a parent.  You’re joining a non-profit enterprise whose mission and vision is ‘full human capacity development” of children and in some instances high quality elder or disabled care.  The non-profit organization hires professionals who want to do this work, these professionals work in teams and focus on best practices and high standard outcomes.  You can be hired---and you can be fired—not as a parent but as a HES professional.

Looked at through this “professional” lens, it changes the whole perception of the work being done in one’s home. Now, those who work inside the home are afforded the respect and status that we give to other professionals.  Seen this way, we can all recognize the value of the work done in helping children achieve full human capacity development, and/or in caring for our elderly or disabled members with high level, in-home care.  Our world can’t function without this work as it provides a benefit to us all and it is time to include it in our economic system.

Why is it any different than the millions of other people who now work from their homes and expect to be paid. How many thousands of sales people work from their homes?  We don’t think of them sitting around eating bon-bons and being paid to make a few phone calls.  Hired as professional sales people—they and the corporation they work for have determined their job description, work load, outcomes etc. and at the end of the month, that sales person receives a pay check commensurate to what they’ve contracted with their corporation.

If you can permit yourself to shift out of the old perception of ‘paying people to raise their kids’ and into the new perception that the work done in the home is the equivalent of professional work done by many different professions—sales, graphic design, tech consultants, lawyers, etc. who also work out of the home, then you can give yourself permission to recognize the value of adding the HES as part of our monetized economy.

We’ve become habituated to ‘not paying’ for child development in one’s home, but just because it’s a habit does not mean it’s a good idea!  Because when you step back and look at it, this habit doesn’t make sense. The very best place for child development starts in our home and starts on the day of birth (actually, even before). Bringing this into economic measurement and paying for this work raises the standards of care and produces better outcomes for everyone—children, families, community, the economy and the world. 

It has never been more important that we do this. The economy of the future will be driven by highly creative and conscious people and the best way to enable this is to ensure that every child on this planet has the opportunity to reach their highest level of human development. The best way to make this happen is to include this in our economic measurements and pay for this vital work.  We know it is valuable because if we paid for all the work we do in our home through the market system—it would cost $135,000 a year. Yes, that’s right, $135,000 if we had to ‘hire out’ for all of this work. 

It’s nonsense then not to begin paying for this work and including it in our economic measurements.  Once we make this shift and begin to see how ‘normal’ it is to include this sector in our economic measurements, we can begin to see the myriad of extra benefits this creates for the rest of the economy as well.  As the consumer economy is clearly winding down, adding the HES provides a new source for employment and wealth accumulation. Knowing that the most important need of the ‘knowledge/service’ economy that will be replacing the consumer economy are humans functioning at full capacity, investing in the creation of the HES will prove to be one of the most intelligent steps we can take.  And as the future generations of children rises to this next level of conscious, whole person development—the outcome results in a better world for us all; a planet that will be restored and a platform for creativity and inventiveness that will take us to new levels of ‘real wealth’ that will benefit all people and the planet.  This ‘new normal’ is possible when we add the HES to our economic system.