This is beautifully written and thought provoking. Personally, the tariffs have upended my daughter's startup business plan, and I have invested in her new company, so I share her worry and uncertainty; she is designing and manufacturing a product by sourcing leather from Italy and having it produced in China. She's an individual craftsperson yet caught up in the global trade dynamics. So far, America's tanneries and manufacturing can't match in quality and price what Italy and China offer. To be continued ... but what really hit me was your ode to West Oakland and the port. The Mandela Parkway is one of the best things to come out of Loma Prieta. I used to drive around West Oakland's toughest neighborhoods almost daily (one of the only white people there) because my daughter trained in aerial arts at an old warehouse there that housed Trapeze Arts, and later she transferred to Kinetic Arts nearby. I'd witness all the bygone beauty of the neighborhood and also see its potential. Other times, I followed your running routes for runs along Jack London Square and to the port. Twice I chaperoned field trips at daybreak at the wholesale produce market, where freshly offloaded veggies and fruits were sold near Jack London Square to buyers for restaurants, and we'd give geography and economic lessons to the school kids about the global trade and where all these exotic fruits and veggies came from. The Pacific Circuit certainly has terrible costs in terms of the environment and cheap labor, and West Oakland has suffered from neglect and exploitation. But we don't have to fall into the traps of overconsumption and isolation. And I don't think trade barriers and trade wars will make the situation any better; they'll lead to inflation and suffering and perhaps lay the groundwork for military conflict. I hope more people follow your example and connect with places like West Oakland, and with each other, and support craftspeople when possible more than mass producers. Let's all shop locally more and use Amazon less. But we'll still source and buy things globally, because we've become a global economy.
Man! I love this. Hope things work through with the start up. A bit that I cut out of this post was a recap of a conversation with the founder of Near Earth socks that I had right after the tariffs were announced. A little surreal, he was rushing to get a load of product on a plane before the weekend ended to get the shipment to Denver before the import taxes forced him to pull back as he revises his cost structure.
Interestingly, he sees opportunity in helping European brands to just stop selling in the US entirely and find new markets in the EU and Asia.
I used to live in Jack London Square, right near the port of oakland (POO as we called it). Used to race bikes on Tuesday nights around the port roads, dodging freight trains and cargo trucks.
An alt framing — what would an economy that elevated the value of production over the value of consumption look like?
Oh I love it, Blake. I’ve heard about the Tuesday night racing in the port. We did a lot of weekend workouts there on foot in the 2010s when we were trying to run marathons quickly. It’s a nice quiet place for a hard effort.
I love your reframing. I’ll think about that question. 🙂
This is great, I am planning to read the book in the near future--after finishing Richard Walker's Pictures of a Gone City. I grew up in Oakland, have left it, returned to it, and it is always evolving. I hope the tarriffs don't completely wreck the city's historical gains.
…i’ve already been broker than i have ever been for a few years now (the irs is going to love having the last $6k of my savings)…so scaling back has been a slow and steady reverse to youth for me and a good reminder of how well i might have had it working a brief dalliance in tech…all to say as the dollar shrinks, recession/depression looms, and the global comfort of infinite capitalism turns into the void version of its true self i am more and more aware of just how much stinking privilege i have…20 years now in west oakland from the haunted two stories of a murder suicide house to the plywood built four stories of a near squatter punk warehouse (long since became condos) to now paying the most rent i ever have to live in a black mold crusted rat walled beautiful birdhouse…west oakland, like america, is far more optimism and dream to me than reality…and i keep it that way to stay sane and satiated…more and more of us will continue to get poorer and poorer (hi a.i.)…but it doesn’t have to hurt our happiness or hope…
Love this so much. I have thought a lot recently about consumption and abundance. One of the things that bothered me about my last sponsorship was the ridiculous amount of stuff I was given. Since being dropped, I have been donating, selling, sharing things and really working down to a my core needs. I want to be in that happy place of having enough, but not feeling overwhelmed by too much. I want to be a more conscious consumer. I want to buy from companies that produce good products and have good practices. As Sarah points out in her comment, we can do that while participating in the global economy. Right now, I have enough stuff. I don't need anything more. I have enough running shoes to get me through the next 2 years (at least). I don't need the latest and greatest from whatever the hot brand is.
…i’ve already been broker than i have ever been for a few years now (the irs is going to love having the last $6k of my savings)…so scaling back has been a slow and steady reverse to youth for me and a good reminder of how well i might have had it working a brief dalliance in tech…all to say as the dollar shrinks, recession/depression looms, and the global comfort of infinite capitalism turns into the void version of its true self i am more and more aware of just how much stinking privilege i have…20 years now in west oakland from the haunted two stories of a murder suicide house to the plywood built four stories of a near squatter punk warehouse (long since became condos) to now paying the most rent i ever have to live in a black mold crusted rat walled beautiful birdhouse…west oakland, like america, is far more optimism and dream to me than reality…and i keep it that way to stay sane and satiated…more and more of us will continue to get poorer and poorer (hi a.i.)…but it doesn’t have to hurt our happiness or hope…
This is beautifully written and thought provoking. Personally, the tariffs have upended my daughter's startup business plan, and I have invested in her new company, so I share her worry and uncertainty; she is designing and manufacturing a product by sourcing leather from Italy and having it produced in China. She's an individual craftsperson yet caught up in the global trade dynamics. So far, America's tanneries and manufacturing can't match in quality and price what Italy and China offer. To be continued ... but what really hit me was your ode to West Oakland and the port. The Mandela Parkway is one of the best things to come out of Loma Prieta. I used to drive around West Oakland's toughest neighborhoods almost daily (one of the only white people there) because my daughter trained in aerial arts at an old warehouse there that housed Trapeze Arts, and later she transferred to Kinetic Arts nearby. I'd witness all the bygone beauty of the neighborhood and also see its potential. Other times, I followed your running routes for runs along Jack London Square and to the port. Twice I chaperoned field trips at daybreak at the wholesale produce market, where freshly offloaded veggies and fruits were sold near Jack London Square to buyers for restaurants, and we'd give geography and economic lessons to the school kids about the global trade and where all these exotic fruits and veggies came from. The Pacific Circuit certainly has terrible costs in terms of the environment and cheap labor, and West Oakland has suffered from neglect and exploitation. But we don't have to fall into the traps of overconsumption and isolation. And I don't think trade barriers and trade wars will make the situation any better; they'll lead to inflation and suffering and perhaps lay the groundwork for military conflict. I hope more people follow your example and connect with places like West Oakland, and with each other, and support craftspeople when possible more than mass producers. Let's all shop locally more and use Amazon less. But we'll still source and buy things globally, because we've become a global economy.
Man! I love this. Hope things work through with the start up. A bit that I cut out of this post was a recap of a conversation with the founder of Near Earth socks that I had right after the tariffs were announced. A little surreal, he was rushing to get a load of product on a plane before the weekend ended to get the shipment to Denver before the import taxes forced him to pull back as he revises his cost structure.
Interestingly, he sees opportunity in helping European brands to just stop selling in the US entirely and find new markets in the EU and Asia.
Great review
I used to live in Jack London Square, right near the port of oakland (POO as we called it). Used to race bikes on Tuesday nights around the port roads, dodging freight trains and cargo trucks.
An alt framing — what would an economy that elevated the value of production over the value of consumption look like?
Oh I love it, Blake. I’ve heard about the Tuesday night racing in the port. We did a lot of weekend workouts there on foot in the 2010s when we were trying to run marathons quickly. It’s a nice quiet place for a hard effort.
I love your reframing. I’ll think about that question. 🙂
As you think about it, I should credit Oren Cass whose excellent book "The Once and Future American Worker" the phrase it taken from.
Added to my list of to-reads! I've heard Cass on a couple podcasts lately. Thanks, Blake.
This is great, I am planning to read the book in the near future--after finishing Richard Walker's Pictures of a Gone City. I grew up in Oakland, have left it, returned to it, and it is always evolving. I hope the tarriffs don't completely wreck the city's historical gains.
…i’ve already been broker than i have ever been for a few years now (the irs is going to love having the last $6k of my savings)…so scaling back has been a slow and steady reverse to youth for me and a good reminder of how well i might have had it working a brief dalliance in tech…all to say as the dollar shrinks, recession/depression looms, and the global comfort of infinite capitalism turns into the void version of its true self i am more and more aware of just how much stinking privilege i have…20 years now in west oakland from the haunted two stories of a murder suicide house to the plywood built four stories of a near squatter punk warehouse (long since became condos) to now paying the most rent i ever have to live in a black mold crusted rat walled beautiful birdhouse…west oakland, like america, is far more optimism and dream to me than reality…and i keep it that way to stay sane and satiated…more and more of us will continue to get poorer and poorer (hi a.i.)…but it doesn’t have to hurt our happiness or hope…
Love this so much. I have thought a lot recently about consumption and abundance. One of the things that bothered me about my last sponsorship was the ridiculous amount of stuff I was given. Since being dropped, I have been donating, selling, sharing things and really working down to a my core needs. I want to be in that happy place of having enough, but not feeling overwhelmed by too much. I want to be a more conscious consumer. I want to buy from companies that produce good products and have good practices. As Sarah points out in her comment, we can do that while participating in the global economy. Right now, I have enough stuff. I don't need anything more. I have enough running shoes to get me through the next 2 years (at least). I don't need the latest and greatest from whatever the hot brand is.
…i’ve already been broker than i have ever been for a few years now (the irs is going to love having the last $6k of my savings)…so scaling back has been a slow and steady reverse to youth for me and a good reminder of how well i might have had it working a brief dalliance in tech…all to say as the dollar shrinks, recession/depression looms, and the global comfort of infinite capitalism turns into the void version of its true self i am more and more aware of just how much stinking privilege i have…20 years now in west oakland from the haunted two stories of a murder suicide house to the plywood built four stories of a near squatter punk warehouse (long since became condos) to now paying the most rent i ever have to live in a black mold crusted rat walled beautiful birdhouse…west oakland, like america, is far more optimism and dream to me than reality…and i keep it that way to stay sane and satiated…more and more of us will continue to get poorer and poorer (hi a.i.)…but it doesn’t have to hurt our happiness or hope…