[Themaintainers] Why Do People Neglect Maintenance?

[Ishi Crew]

I commented on the blog post.  While i am sympathetic to views such as
'socialism', 'anti-capitalism' , 'degrowth', 'peace not war', 'democracy' ,
'green new deal',  'bs jobs', 'unconditional  basic income',  and even
'environmentalism', and I know these are popular terms or  'brand names' or
slogans people can rally behind, I think they are a bit too too vague to
 be very useful apart from  some short term protest or social movement.

  (The comment about the  US Chamber of Commerce I fully agree with ---not
a good group, with a long track record  of bad behavior--e.g. Arch Coal in
WV.)

The one thing lacking in discussions about 'maintenance' is 'exactly what
should be maintained?', and also who should do it, how do you decide?
There was a mention of Russ Roberts and a cleaning woman at a conference;
I've been to many conferences, and cleaning staff---a form of
maintenance---are rarely invited to the conference.   Usually cleaning
staff do one form of maintenance, while students, professors, and people in
think tanks or NGOs are seen to do another form of 'maintenance' --eg write
papers about how to optimally organize the world.  Often they leave out of
their analyses things like cleaning, and maintenance workers such as
cleaning staff.  And this is discussed in point 8 of the blog post.

I'm all for empirical and analytical study of these issues---which I view
as part of 'system science' or 'complexity theory'.   But these are not
just theoretical issues; they are practical ones as well.  And you have to
'cross the t's and dot the i's'.  Deal with every issue--not just
organizing conferences, funding NGOs,  and publishing papers.

 My area is riddled with problems of violence, poverty, addiction,
inequality, intolerance, pollution, consumerism, and health---and its where
the maintainers conference is scheduled to be if i recall (Trinity
college).
    (I haven't really decided whether to attend although its local--it may
be unaffordable for me, and I'm not part of the 'in crowd' who goes to
these conferences.  I'm more a part of the 'out crowd' who are discussed at
the conferences--the social problems outside on the street, who are rarely
asked what might be relevant to solve their problems--which they will often
acknowledge they have, but feel they are powerless to do  anything
about-and are often labelled as mentally ill or unstable, psychopathic,
antisocial, irresponsible, uneducated and unintelligent, incompetent,
non-empathetic, pathetic etc.  )

People in 'out crowds' (just like the 'in crowd' ) just 'maintain' --try to
keep their sanity and their lives, and most try to avoid causing harm and
stay out of trouble.   (Alot of 'maintenance' goes into things like
prisons, criminal justice system, police and health care---all of which
deal with problems which are likely mostly preventible. Who wants to spend
their lives doing  maintenance repairing problems that shouldn't exist in
the first place? )

On Wed, Jul 31, 2019 at 10:10 AM lee vinsel <lee at themaintainers.org> wrote:

> Hey, everybody.
>
> The three Maintainers co-directors - Andy Russell, Jess Meyerson, and I - pulled
> together a blog post laying out the factors/explanations we often hear
> about why maintenance is neglected.
> <http://themaintainers.org/blog/2019/7/30/why-do-people-neglect-maintenance>
> As is often the case these days, this post attempts to echo back what we've
> been hearing from others - including all the folks on this list!
>
> And as always, we are especially keen to hear feedback from you all. We're
> hoping this post kickstarts discussion about how to think and theorize
> about and empirically study these issues. Please give us feedback in anyway
> you see fit - in the blog comments, on Twitter, via private/direct
> messages, such as email, and ESPECIALLY on this list!!! :-)
>
> Hope everyone is doing well.
>
> Lee
>
> --
> Co-Director
> The Maintainers
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> https://lists.stevens.edu/mailman/listinfo/themaintainers
>
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