Opinion: What the Ballerina Farm following tells us about the economy

Much commentary has followed Hannah Neeleman, the face of the popular Ballerina Farm. With millions of followers on social media, Hannah promotes an idyllic made-from-scratch, home-grown lifestyle on her 328-acre farm in rural Utah.

As a Julliard-trained ballerina, she gracefully glides through farm life and beauty pageants beside her husband and eight children. She is also the involuntary head of the “tradwife” movement — an interest in a traditional lifestyle centered around home economic production.

Though the Neelemans differ from the average Utah family by income percentile, fertility rate and occupation, their lifestyle strikes a chord with many Utahns and millions of followers. I believe what resonates is a desire to live our economic lives on a smaller scale.

The truth is that since the advent of the Industrial Revolution, the economy has transformed from being centered in the home to being dispersed and connected on a global basis. In the past, most family members worked at home, laboring shoulder-to-shoulder in economic production either used directly for household consumption or traded locally. Families had to grow their food, fetch their water, construct their homes, sew their clothes and blankets, create their own music and make up the stories to tell their children at night. (Historically, this lifestyle was significantly harder and less glamorous than the Ballerina Farm feed, which shows similar living.)

By comparison, in today’s economy, each household supports and is supported by numerous outside jobs: farmers, factory and retail workers, truck drivers, meal shoppers and preppers, teachers, coaches, tutors, therapists, cleaners, landscapers, artists and authors who narrate the stories your children hear at night.

Today, most family members work in a specialized trade (or invest in their future ability to work) and acquire goods and services from others who have likewise specialized. With advances in technology and transportation, this economic exchange has spread worldwide with globalization. Our homes are stuffed with goods derived from complex global supply chains. We are dependent on strangers to sew our underwear and build our furniture.

This process of economic specialization and trade is the foundation of the wealth of nations. It is the economic miracle that has alleviated poverty and suffering for people all over the world. A cooperating group will always have a higher standard of living than one self-sufficient individual because humanity can pool its collective intelligence together.

However, there is a paradox to our economic system: As the time in our days and throughout our lives is spent in specialized economic tasks, we are increasingly separated from our families and local communities — who we used to work beside and do business with.

So I don’t just see technology or politics at play when I read about “tradwife” debates, isolation, estrangement or homeschooling. Rather, I also see a discomfort with the way we live our economic lives — subject to intense global competition, rapid technological change and increasingly disconnected from those closest to us yet dependent on others across the world.

The average person can’t acquire the land or capital to live like the Neelemans. But like the Neeleman family, I believe our culture must value families and local communities to offset the natural drift demanded by the market. In doing so, we can prevent excessive backlash to the economic miracle created by the global economy. To strengthen social bonds with those around us, we can:

• Spend time together as a family, even at the expense of extracurricular activities. Find something to work shoulder-to-shoulder on, such as a small business, yard work or household responsibilities.
• Be committed to your local communities and higher causes, whether they be religious, political, environmental or social. Honor local traditions, culture and places of gathering.
• Consider substituting some product you would buy impersonally online to a local business.
• Support businesses and government policies that support families.

These choices come with trade-offs, but they may be worth it. I am convinced that humanity only has hope for achieving peace at a macro scale, between nations, if we can figure out how to get along with those closest to us. The global economy can continue to uplift humanity — even if we decide to insource the production of sourdough bread.

Stephanie Barello is an economist, adjunct professor and consultant. She currently teaches at Utah State University. She previously worked for Congress and the federal government in Washington, D.C. She has lived around the world and has three daughters.