Ryan Kmetz is Research Director at IQSpatial. We are privileged to have his time in this episode. He talked with us about economic conditions faced by geospatial workers in the US. We reflected on the emergence of a protest movement, the No Kings march a couple of weekends ago. We observed how this has emerged in the context of very high cost of living, lack of wage growth, high costs of housing and education. Ryan is a useful guest here because he has in his family history a great great great grandfather who was involved in similar protest movement against a Russian czar and was sent to Siberia as punishment.
In a hero’s journey like so many who have come to America over the centuries, this man escaped prison to New York City where he sold newspapers on a street corner. A few generations later we have Ryan to tell this story and remind us that things happen in cycles.
By using a translation service you can read more about this family member here.
Ryan also told us about another family member who adds to the picture of unrest like we see now occurring in cycles, and how cynical political figures can exploit underprivileged groups in society to distract the population from the real causes of their issues. I recommend listening to find out more about that family figure.
After mentioning the work of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle…
…Ryan then turned the mic toward me for a summary of what I have observed in my career from the perspective of exploitation of the poor and vulnerable. It was a chance to step through what I covered about a modern version of The Jungle, to do with migrant worker abuse, earlier in the year in 8 episodes starting here:
We then used this material about cycles of exploitation of the vulnerable in society across the centuries, examples from his family history of how to deal with that, and evidence of this pattern continuing in my career across the world to make the case for a new way of worker participation in the economy.
That new way is expanding democratic participation via owning shares. When you own shares you can vote on how a company is run. This could involve community organising and we can use a prior guest Frank Romo for inspiration here:
Ryan and I perceive there is an opportunity to assert ourselves in the industry to direct our work to favour the poor and marginalised.
I look forward to your own reflections on this matter and working with you to build up a force for justice here.
