Here Is the Transformative Potential of Thinking Differently About Household Management

In the previous newsletter I was asking the question: How comes that we have car service shops at every street corner, but no household management agency? The article stroke a chord, as afterwards I received numerous comments and direct messages about why the vision of the household management agencies available at every street corner is so hard to achieve.

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Problem Nr. 1: People

I know many friends who have actually seen this market niche, too, and tried to do something about it.

Inevitably, sooner or later they dropped the idea for two reasons: unreliable customers AND unreliable suppliers.

On the one hand, as I was pointing last week, our gender and societal mindset is still tightly wrapped around women = care at home FOR FREE.

For as long as we, women, don’t decouple loving our family and caring for them (for free), we won’t budge anywhere on this subject.

On the other hand, we have the suppliers. And who would be happy today to handle household management chores for somebody else when they can drive Bolt for a few bucks or when they can watch Tik Tok at home and be happy with their small social service allowance?

Here I argue several points. Keep reading to understand my train of thought.

Are We Really Employing the People Available Around Us Wisely?

First point: particularly in Europe I believe that we distribute too much social support for too little in return.

In my village back in Transylvania almost every house receives some form of social support: for children, pensions, disability, unemployment, and God knows what else.?

Except for the pensions above a certain volume, which are taxed, do you think the people receiving other forms of social support have some minimum obligation for the community whose taxes pay their bills??

Nope. None. Or very little, in some cases.?

This is where I think we do things wrong in Europe. Handing money around FOR FREE is never the solution, as it encourages and nurtures learnt powerlessness.?

To restore people’s dignity there needs to be a this-for-that. With the exception of children, all social services should be, in my view, conditioned by a certain level of positive societal contribution by the recipient.

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Could We Turn Migration into an Opportunity?

Two: migration.

All developed countries are currently under assault. Climate change, war, and poverty continue to displace people who find it easier than ever to pierce borders and to seek a better life in a healthier ecosystem.?

And what do we do with these economic immigrants once they arrive??

We ignore them at best, and we harass them back into the sea at worst.?

This is purely and simply stupid. And cruel.?

When an immigrant arrives to a new location, they need resources to orient themselves fast in the new environment. Access to a source of income is vital. The more well-being that source of income provides, the more the newly arrived is able to integrate and want to contribute and give back.?

Make no mistake, I am fully aware of the cultural differences and security risks of what I am saying. But still: I do believe that we are ignoring a massive pool of potentially positive human contribution at our own peril.

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Are We Doing Enough to Provide English Language, Digital, and Craft Skill Education?

What would happen if we used all that money wasted on free social security or migration return programs to actually create robust, comprehensive, and effective (properly measured) English language, digital, and craft skill development programs available for everyone??

To be honest, going through these reskilling / upskilling programs should be compulsory for people seeking social support. Not many people have a growth mindset with a focus on learning, BUT the encounter with dire circumstances in life is often enough to get their attention. We need to make better use of this emotional momentum in order to start helping people help themselves.?

It breaks my heart to see EU funds wasted with so much ease on silly initiatives leading nowhere.

For example, in my view, corporate organizations should never be allowed to qualify for using EU funds to train their employees. Corporate human resource upskilling and reskilling should be tightly connected with the company’s long-term profitability; as such, no one’s tax money should go to feed for-profit entities.?

The irony of it? Companies tap into EU funds to train their people just because money is available. Therefore we end up training people on topics they don’t need for budgets so low it makes you cringe, with training sessions held by subprime trainers – all that because there are EU funds available.?

And the cherry on the pie? All that money comes from the EU taxpayers’ money, including myself. I literally pay taxes so other low-competency-low-budget trainers get to make a meal by providing subpar services to EU fund subsidized reskilling programs in corporate organization.?

Igh!

But back to our topic. If we were smart enough to use the money available all around us to fast reskill and upskill those in real need, I believe we would end up having more than enough labor force to nurture our streetcorner household management agencies.

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The Secret Sauce? Purpose

But there is one more thing I haven’t seen clearly articulated anywhere. People serve people and they like doing it.

I remember my cleaning ladies beaming with joy when I would make them a symbolic gift, hug them, and thank them for their time – and when I would explicitly tell them how much their work meant to me. ??

If mentally healthy, people just want to be useful. It’s the lack of purpose for people with low-level skills that we nurture through our ignorance of their complex humanity topped by our systematic buying away our guilt with free subsidies that’s doing all the harm.?

So I propose: find the people, train the people, show the people their purpose, and a few fundamental pieces of the puzzle of how we could get household management agencies at every street corner could be solved.?

Last but not least...

Lastly, to get all that in motion we need one last massive piece of the puzzle: transformative leaders. Genuine, courageous, visionary transformative corporate, social, community, and political leaders. Women and men alike.?

We, women, could also start with ourselves by decoupling love and care. Caring – aka carrying the burden of household management as a sign of love for our families – is nothing but a romanticized idea that takes the burden away from individuals, communities, and the state, and places it on the shoulders of women. FOR FREE.?

That is not ok. Nor should it be acceptable anymore. I really do believe that we need to start reevaluating our emotional and mental patterns around loving care in order to create real choice for everyone – women, families, people in need of care, and people in need of purpose regardless of their social status or degree of education. Perhaps I come across as na?ve or idealistic, but I do believe that, when done well, this might just work. ??

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