Editor’s note: This commentary is by Jaquelyn Rieke, a writer, land steward, and entrepreneur who started Nutty Steph’s Vermont Granola in 2003, which she sold to the factory workers in 2019, when it became Rabble-Rouser Chocolate & Craft Co.
The national CARES Act funding came from our federal government, and will be paid off by our grandchildren and their grandchildren. It is not a gift falling from the sky, and its method of distribution is thus a matter of consideration for all Vermonters. When small businesses were required to beat out other businesses in a first-come, first-served system, our state perpetuated a “Hunger Games” mindset of scarcity, competition and fear. These funds will ultimately arbitrate the survival of many Vermont businesses, and I don’t believe this dog-eat-dog mentality engendered the Vermont we want to create post-Covid.
Now, new funding targeted for sole proprietors, a group omitted from the first round, is being conducted as a lottery. The Hunger Games meets Wheel of Fortune!
My experience began on Monday, July 6. I woke with a start at 5:30 a.m. — no alarm clock needed. I had been jittery for a week since the announcement of the Vermont CARES Act funding launch. I am one of 10 members of the ownership team of Rabble-Rouser Chocolate & Craft Company. Prior to Covid-19 we employed 31 part-time and full-time employees in our Middlesex and Montpelier factory stores. In a few short months we were down to one location and 13 employees. It was my job to apply for the latest round of CARES Act funding in an effort to stem the flood of financial losses, which have been $205,000 in 2020, to save what remains of our business and livelihoods.
We had been warned by state officials that there would not be enough funds to help all the Vermont businesses that applied. Vermont would begin disbursing $70 million dollars on July 6, at 8 a.m. SHARP, and I was ready. I felt exceedingly fortunate as I waited to apply for these new funds. Having successfully navigated processes for a combination of grants and low-interest loans totaling $233,000 since March, I was confident our business would successfully qualify for the $50,000 of much needed economic assistance. Indeed, we did.
I also felt fortunate that morning for other reasons: 1. We had been informed and educated about what to expect by all four business associations to which our business has time to belong. 2. I have high-speed internet in my home office. 3. We possess extensive bookkeeping knowledge, which helped prepare required documents with ease. 4. Our business is well established and so I am able to focus largely on capitalization during this crisis and do not need to run the store, make the chocolate, mop the floor, and all the things I did when our business was younger. 5. We have a highly talented and responsive accountant, who even answered calls on both Saturday, the 4th of July, and Sunday, readying me for the epic pending moment.
I FELT fortunate because within the business landscape, Rabble-Rouser IS fortunate. But I also felt an inordinate amount of anxiety and discomfort, an uneasiness to the bone. I began to wonder about what effect this $70 million dollar distribution would bring about and whether the businesses in the most need would be helped? I believe Vermont followed the destructive American pattern that prioritizes the most privileged above the most vulnerable. I see no reason why it would not have been highly feasible to provide a two-week application process and then calculate the distribution of available funds to all applications in a proportional amount. The same fair and simple process could have also been applied to the new sole proprietorship funding.
According to Grammerist.com, “The term first come, first served was popularized by shopkeepers during the nineteenth century. The system … encourages customers to believe that they must act quickly or risk losing an opportunity.” In other words, it creates a sense of panic, a belief in scarcity and motivates human behavior accordingly. It creates panic buying. This disbursement created a lot of anxiety for Vermont business owners, employees and their accountants. Additional pressure for people already suffering from high anxiety seems the opposite of caring. Instead of relaxing on a holiday weekend, business owners all over Vermont were frantically preparing their mad dash for needed funds.
Much like individual humans, every Vermont business is important and they create ripple effects that extend broadly toward the health of us all. If Rabble-Rouser had gotten less than $50,000, but the process had been equitable, our business would have gained and not forfeited wealth. If just one or two more businesses in our town were able to stay in business, then their survival would have positively impacted our business in the long run by adding to the vitality of our town.
I believe we can choose to stop playing the Hunger Games and instead share Stone Soup with enough for all, but to do so will require an intentional shift in our collective consciousness. We operate with a debunked 19th/20th century myth of Social Darwinism that espouses that certain people become powerful in society because they are innately better. This type of thought has been used globally to justify racism, imperialism, eugenics and social inequality for over 150 years.
Few cultures adopt the blind acceptance of competitive systems better than our USA. To create a richer, more generative and resilient future, we must shift the foundations of our society away from this Manifest Destiny, cutthroat, iron-fisted, killer instinct, every-man-for-himself sense of competition, and finally move toward cooperation. I hope that leaders everywhere will begin to evolve systems to extend beyond Social Darwinism and scarcity thinking.
