Four For Friday | September 22, 2023

LF82 | Right to repair, hosptal price gouging, the polycrsis and a playbook for the brain economy

Welcome to a Looking Forward’s Four For Friday. Four things that have piqued my interest this week. Enjoy!

Right to repair shenanigans

A crucial aspect of building a circular economy that doesn’t destroy the environment is ensuring that products can be repaired and re-used. Unfortunately, that generally runs counter to traditional corporate business models which want you to throw it out and buy new.

Here’s an eye-opening and colorful account of long-standing corporate efforts to prevent the ‘right to repair’ regulations from gaining ground, slowing progress in reducing waste, emissions and inefficiency. The US DCMA, originally intended to protect content, is now being used to make it illegal for people to use spare parts not supplied by the original manufacturer. Ventilators, wheel chairs, car parts, tractors and printers can’t be repaired without the authorization of, and hefty commission to, the manufacturer.

The article shows how Apple in particular appears to be particularly adept at avoiding and outsmarting these regulations, and now it’s time for its customers to start holding it to account.

The perils of consolidating and centralizing care

This article points to a shocking rise in sneaky overhead costs that US hospital systems are putting onto bills for simple medical procedures that take place in primary care clinics— that are now owned by the hospitals.

This trend of consolidation and centralization is counter to the ongoing megatrend of care shifting to the edges - the homes and communities - and underlies the importance of robust competition and consumer safeguards.

The ‘polycrisis’ and systems cascades

An engrossing if chilling site about the polycrisis and the ‘systems cascade’ - of how one change sets of another that sets of another etc, all the way down. This linked article says we’re already in stage of collapse, where the issue is not the simply the historically aberrant weather and temperatures, but the interconnected cascade of failing systems:

• The Antarctic ocean circulation has slowed decades ahead of schedule while recent research warns that the AMOC, which was assumed to stay stable until 2100, could now collapse mid-century - or as early as 2025.

• Greenland and the Antarctic are losing ice six times faster than expected, tracking with the IPCCs ‘worst case’ climate warming scenario. In March 2022, temperatures up to 38.5°C higher than normal were seen in the interior of East Antarctica, shocking scientific experts.

• The Thwaites Glacier (aka “the Doomsday Glacier” with enough ice to raise global sea levels 2 feet) is of particular concern, showing the potential for chaotic, unpredictable change. It’s melting slower than forecast but retreating faster inland, indicating destabilisation at lower temperatures than expected.

• Sea surface temperatures in some regions have been literally ‘off the charts’, not in one region but in most. Increased sea temperatures drive droughts and wildfires and damage marine ecosystems, causing coral bleaching - further risking food supply.

It makes Britain’s U-turn on environmental regulations, and the toxic political influence of fossil fuel industries, all the more reprehensible.

A playbook for the ‘brain economy’

Given disruptive change is a certainty, how do we equip ourselves to survive and thrive in the new world order? One important component will be improving brain capital - the brain health and brain skills of society. We need to equip people with the skills, ability and knowledge to address complex, dynamic challenges.

This piece in Psychology Today argues that “an economic transition from the old playbook to a new one should be built off our brains, placing significant value on the cognitive, emotional, and social brain resources of citizens and their communities.” It notes there are significant similarities between the brain and the economy - complex, information processing devices - but, “our current model does not sufficiently value brain health. Society currently seek efficiencies that squeeze workers and erode their brain skills and brain health.”.

When we start to treat workers more as humans and less like bad robots and build up brain capital we may just have a chance to address the polycrisis. That will include enabling a more equitable and efficient care delivery system and ensuring corporates do their bit to promote the ability to repair and re-use.

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That’s all for this week. As always, feedback welcome. Feel free to share insights or links of interest.

- Stephen