The Rise of New America: An Interview with Jack Lessinger

By The Mother Earth News Editors
Published on March 1, 1988
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PHOTO: PHIL SCHOFIELD
The "Prophet of Penturbia" speaks out on the Careful Conserver.

An interview with land economist Jack Lessinger who predicts rural America will dominate our country’s lifestyle and economy in the 21st Century.

The Rise of New America: An Interview with Jack Lessinger

In addition to writing and playing the violin every chance he gets, Dr. Jack Lessinger keeps a sharp eye peeled on the nation’s economy, looking for indications that corroborate his theory of socioeconomic change and migration. He also publishes a bimonthly newsletter on Penturbia, available for $25 per year fromSocioEconomics, Seattle, WA. Recently re turned from a visit to Australia, Lessinger reports finding numerous penturbias down under, to him a sign that the profound economic changes he sees are global in reach.

You predict the rise of a new economy, one you call that of “the Careful Conserver.” To achieve it, must we pass through an economic depression?

It is altogether likely, as the weakened dollar and the stock market crash of last October appear to augur. Of course, most economists have banished the word depression from their professional vocabularies, believing that the government can manipulate away such a seemingly unpleasant extreme whenever it chooses. I feel otherwise, that depression is as inevitable as that winter will follow summer. However, the important thing is not to be depressed by depression but to see the event as functional and constructive–painful here and there but only in the short run. Rather it’s a sign of a changing of the guard, a transition during which new social and economic solutions and priorities can arise. It might well be regarded as a time for hope rather than despair, the pause between acts as the scenery shifts.

What do you see as the life span of the economy of the Careful Conserver? Will it, too, eventually be replaced?

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