Alvin Toffler’s The Third Wave is an essential book for understanding the dramatic social shifts of our time. In 1980, he predicted and even described Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube with amazing accuracy (without calling them by name of course)!
One area Toffler falls short, however, is in his use of the word "prosumer" – activity by a person who produces something for his or her own use. He used this concept as the basis for identifying trends such as the rapid growth of Home Depot, Lowe’s and other “do-it-yourself” stores. As our information economy breaks down the mass market, personal customization and production is the natural result – moving right in hand with the environmentally conscious trend toward local production and consumption. Of course, this is valuable, yet I think Toffler goes too far in saying that homemakers should be subsidized by tax dollars for the value they bring to society in raising children, a recommendation which interferes with the family as it builds up the welfare state. (Neither should they be penalized, of course.)
Though I’m astonished by his brilliance; in this case I think he conflated concepts by focusing too much on the individual as the primary economic unit of society. In my opinion, the primary economic unit is the household. In fact, this is etymology of our word "economy", from the Greek words "oikos" (household) and "nomos" (law, or ordered behavior). The household is the ultimate cradle-to-cradle system. This resolves Toffler’s concern of putting a salary on domestic work; while it is true that domestic work has a significant social benefit, it is primarily a household benefit, and today our society is beginning to reaffirm the household benefits of our actions.
The dramatic increase in telecommuting, home schooling, and square foot gardening are just three examples of a social trend toward more household-centric cultural orientation, and I’m sure you can think of several others.
