Spending our way out of the crisis

Strong objections have been raised by conservatives (eg Republicans in the US and Tories in the UK) about trying to "spend our way out" of the financial crisis by investing in huge programmes of public spending. They cite similar initiatives instigated in the 1920s to mitigate the Great Depression and point out that a prodigious increase in National Debt was the outcome. They worry that Obama and Brown, inter alia, are plunging headlong down the same route, not having learned from history, and that it is preferable for Governments to allow the Market to arrive at its own adjustment in its own time and that things would gradually return to normal. No doubt they would, eventually. However, I believe that there are some debatable points around this view:

1. Is what was, until so recently, "normal" or "business as usual" either desirable or sufficient for the future?
It is increasingly being realised that the pursuit of individual growth at the expense of others is unsustainable, both economically and ecologically. The past century has belonged to big business and big finance, to big government, and big oil.
The one truly vital legacy this "big" century bequeaths us is our newly "small" world: The communications systems which now tie humanity together - the www, mobile 'phones, world news coverage and, yes, global financial systems. The ironic lesson of globalisation is that a problem in one part of the world is now inevitably a problem for all of the world, be it bird 'flu, a little local difficulty in Gaza or financial meltdown. This dawning realisation cannot have been lost on most of us, surely?

Such a lesson cannot have been more timely, considering the truly staggering threats we and our children face from climate change unless we make some truly radical changes to the way we live and behave. The worry here is that, though the state of the planet is viewed with great concern, even alarm, in mainstream scientific circles, this concern appears to be reaching political and public circles much too slowly. It has to be said that the years of denial by the Bush administration in the USA have been an important factor in this. It is always easy to deny bad news and to shoot the messengers until the messengers are too many and the bad news is too evident to ignore.

2. Given that financial systems, of any kind, depend fundamentally on trust and the confidence such trust engenders, does it not behove us to create a climate of positive thinking?
Lifting the morale of the people is the single most important thing that can be done. Initiating public works which capture the imagination and foster a spirit of communal striving are a vital tool in doing this. Just make sure you are spending our money and our sweat on the right initiatives: Any doubt on that score and the money will be wasted and no morale boost will have been achieved. Political and financial mayhem will rage unabated. But get it right and you succeed in bringing in vastly needed change and of bringing the people behind you on that new path. Most of the people, most of the way.

3. Do we not need to balance the concept of absolute individual freedom with practices which guarantee the chance of freedom and sufficiency for all?
Whilst I am inclined to be a libertarian and I am an admirer of the natural world and of the balances of nature; and whilst I would concede that the planet itself will, in time, reach a new state of balance; as it has done throughout its long history, the vastness of which has passed without us; this instinct towards laissez faire is radically moderated by my humanity and my genetic investment in my children and, I hope, my children's children. I therefore view mankind not just as an ape in nature, but as an ape who is a gardener. An ape who MUST be a gardener. A species whose very survival depends on a sense of duty to intelligent husbandry. It is NOT enough to "let nature take its course". Nature's course may not, probably would not, include us.

In conclusion then, unlike many respected elders, I commend the ray of hope that is the Obama Presidency. This man has the stature, the strength and, what's more, the mandate to challenge the past. He has undoubtedly and, unusually in these times, the oratory to be able to get the mass of the people behind him. He appears to have a grasp of scientific principles and rational thought, in marked contrast to the previous administration, and to be prepared to act on them. He has grasped that diversified energy production and the replacement of Big Oil is the greatest challenge facing not only the US and the developed world, but the whole of humanity. He has made and will make many powerful enemies. Let us hope that no-one manages to kill him before he manages to get the juggernaut moving in the direction of the radical, and undoubtedly painful, "change" on which he was so convincingly elected.

Meanwhile, at our own individual and small levels, I think we must all make our own contributions to getting through this very difficult and indefinite period, not just by changing our lightbulbs and squashing down our plastic bottles but by engaging with each other.

There is no time like a crisis for forging a renewed sense of community and common purpose. Show trust, rather that the cynicism which is pushed at us. Think first but do take risks. Take responsibility: Apologise when you get it wrong; but feel a sense of achievement when you get it right. Don't let legal technicalities obscure the spirit of the law: It may be legal, but is it sensible or honourable? It may be illegal, but is it the right thing to do anyway?

Carpe diem! This great crisis may be our only chance to change enough and to change in time.