| Labour Party leader Ed Miliband appears to have recognised, at least at rhetorical level, that the present neoliberal economic system is busted. He and the Trades Union Congress have asserted that a new way of doing things must be found. The TUC of course has gone much further in mapping out real alternatives to bring about change. This position is in stark contrast to the coalition government which, in a strange contortion, appears to be trying to address issues like the deficit with another dose of the same neoliberal orthodoxy that helped to create the problems in the first place. Deregulation, privatisation and the sanctity of the market were all rubrics of neoliberal economics as promoted in the first instance by Thatcher's government but then continued by successive Conservative and Labour administrations. Quite how the destruction of the public sector to the benefit of the privateers is supposed to address the question of the deficit is a question that remains unanswered. The current situation simply cannot continue for much longer. The clouds of an economic storm are gathering in Europe and the United States. Talk of a return to the banking crisis of 2008, when the world was said to be hours away from the cash machines stopping, now abounds. Incidentally, if such a scenario does ever happen, the riots and looting seen last August will seem as nothing in comparison. There is plenty of evidence that the present economic system is just not working and needs to change. Yet strangely the government carries on in the same way. As recession bites deeper, the amount that people have to pay towards pensions increases. The train operating companies are given a free rein to increase their prices, operating in the sort of bubble only previously seen in relation to banker's bonuses. A similar attitude is prevalent when it comes to the energy companies, which are forcing up prices and increasing fuel poverty. When it comes to constructing a new economic system, the first thing that needs to change is the emphasis on vested interests and greed. At times over the past 30 years it has seemed that policies have been totally premised on a few people making a profit to the cost of everyone else. Just think of the privatisation of the railways and energy or the private finance initiative systems of funding for building new hospitals and schools. A new way of doing things must put morality and the common good at its centre. The treatment of people and the environment in which they live must be a main pillar of policy-making, as must an inclusivity that recognises the inherent worth of every human being from the baby in the cradle to the elderly person at home. This would mean the workers who produce products and services, whether it be boiler components or the education of a child, must be put first. Part of this construct must be decent wages and terms and conditions of work. No more bosses being paid 100 times more than the workers. The role of the parents must be respected and remunerated in the society. The role of parent needs to be set alongside that of a job, not taken, as it is now, as some make-do-and-mend add-on that apparently everyone knows naturally how to do. In terms of the type of economy we need, there must be a major move toward green technology. This is where the future lies. There must also be a return to the land, with people producing more of their own food. This helps create self-sufficiency but it is also a vital part of every human being's education to be in touch with the earth. There are steps to provide more spaces so that people can grow more of their own food, such as allotments and shared gardens, but there needs to be more. There should also be more time for leisure and education in a new economic model. This would mean less time needed at work, allowing more time with family and friends, as well as on education. The concept of education in its most basic sense needs to be recaptured from the bastardised version that now seems to dominate in educational establishments around the country. Exam factories have little role to play in expanding the mind. There are some nascent signs of a debate developing in terms of what a new economic model should look like. But this needs to be accelerated, with a wide coalition of interests including the unions, the Labour Party, environmentalists, progressive employers, faiths and others all having a part to play. Change would be better implemented in a peaceful and equitable way rather than coming as a phoenix from the ashes of a devastated economic meltdown. For more of Paul Donovan's writing visit www.paulfdonovan.blogspot.com |