The invisible threat to all our futures

By Neil Patrick

I started this blog because I am convinced we babyboomers are in a period of unprecedented danger. And not only us, those that depend on us too. Like our kids. And our parents. And because no-one seemed to have any idea what to do about it.

Just about everything we grew up believing about jobs and careers and how our lives would unfold has been swept away in a perfect storm of recession, global economic power shifts, financial crisis, government failure and transformation of the workplace.

Our education in the 1960’s and 70’s was a reflection of a different world. This was a world in which the US and the western economies still held sway. And the education system was geared to providing a workforce which fed that economic machine with the human labour and skills it needed.

Only scraps remain of that world. Just look at Detroit and any other examples of the old world which are now little more than derelict monuments to a bygone era.

As a group, we are extremely poorly equipped to respond to changes of this magnitude. If you have a job, you may consider that all this is irrelevant to you. You may consider yourself lucky. In some ways you are. But do you genuinely believe you will still have a job in five or ten years’ time?

Whatever your answer to the question, the fact is you are almost certainly going to need one.

Today, we have governments that still do not accept that this collapse is irreversible. They cling to electoral manifestos which regardless of policy or position on the political spectrum, argue that their policies are the right ones to restore the situation to something resembling what we all grew up in.

Well, I believe that’s all hogwash. It is never coming back.

The reason politicians tell us that they know what to do to restore the old world order, is simply because saying anything else would make them unelectable.

Moreover, there is a cosy alliance in place between government and big business which maintains a status quo and is a perfect mechanism for protecting the personal interests of the political and business elites.

We are actually partly to blame for this. We abdicated our responsibilities wholesale to our governments many years ago. We put our faith and trust in them. You want education for your kids? Fine we’ll provide that. You want defence against real or imagined enemies? Fine, we’ll protect you. You want doctors and hospitals? No problem. Free education for your kids? Check. You want care for the elderly, and roads and railways and waste removal and a justice system and food hygene and pensions? Don’t worry, we give you all of these. The list is endless.

And that’s the problem. Because every government has attempted to provide all these things to ensure it retains or attains power, we have asked for and they have accepted a magnitude of tasks which they are almost bound to fail to deliver. Not only that, we have to pay for it.

So on the one hand we have an almost endless and growing list of government service obligations to citizens. On the other, we have to figure out how we can pay for this. And yup, you’ve guessed it. We can’t. The money (or more specifically, the credit) has run out. You can only borrow and tax so much before you reach breaking point.

And if your economy isn’t growing, your tax receipts are falling. But you’ve still got to pay for all those promises you made to the electorate.

That’s why the promise has become impossible for governments to keep. The promise was predicated on the belief that western business and economic growth could continue to outpace the rest of the world.

Western governments have dug themselves so deeply into debt that no amount of economic improvement will get us back to where we all want to be.

Yesterday I was sent a viewpoint from someone who I won’t name, but who has had many dealings with the political elites, which I think sums up perfectly the hidden nature of the forces at work in government – and underpins my belief of one of the key reasons we cannot expect to see significant change if we look to politicians (of ANY party) to be our saviours.

The tone is heavily ironic and talks about the UK system, but is broadly relevant to the governments of all western economies, so read with that in mind.

Why do we need a new political philosophy when we already have a perfectly good one? The trouble is that people don’t understand it so let me explain.

We have a democracy. This means that we choose from among a small cadre of hereditary leaders who select a head from amongst themselves. They are in a unique position to do this: they have been trained from secondary school (usually but not only Eton) to understand their entitlement. They are then trained at university (usually Oxford or Cambridge) how to exercise it, for the most part on Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) courses.

They understand as none of the rest of us do that political leadership has nothing to do with purpose other than itself and nothing to do with us. They are not interested and, more to the point, experience has taught them that for a relatively small outlay in highly skilled lying we can be conned into anything. And if the worst comes to the worse they can find scapegoats for us to blame for any consequences that fall upon us. The workshy are blamed for unemployment, the homeless for shortage of housing, the poor for poverty, immigrants for almost everything.

They are pragmatists above all. They recognise that real power in the world lies with money and globally organised money in particular. So they look after the interests of “business” which really means very big business and finance. In return business looks after them. The price is very high: the lies with which to justify the upward distribution of power and wealth become increasingly transparent but it is not a real problem. We must after all select from among their number if we can be bothered to engage in the process at all.

So there you have it. A perfect system already exists. To oppose it creates the danger of instability which makes you a terrorist. Relax and enjoy.

You may think that what I have said so far is unduly cynical and pessimistic nonsense. You may even think it smacks of paranoia. After all I have presented no facts to support my opinion. Worse I have presented no practical alternative. Without facts and a real alternative, how plausible is my argument?

Those criticisms are all fair and reasonable. And that’s why I’ll be returning with more on this topic over the coming weeks.

For now though, I’ll just leave you with this question. Do you sincerely believe your government, or its opponents, really have a realistic chance of delivering anything resembling the sort of lifestyle we all grew up expecting over the next 20-40 years?