This is just an idea.<\/p>\n
I keep saying that neoliberal economics is broken.<\/p>\n
I keep explaining why it is broken.<\/p>\n
But suppose everyone already knows?<\/p>\n
They can see the evidence before them.<\/p>\n
The incomes that are flatlining.<\/p>\n
The inequality that is rising.<\/p>\n
The pubic services that are failing.<\/p>\n
The hope that is disappearing.<\/p>\n
The planet that is burning.<\/p>\n
The despair that is rising.<\/p>\n
What people don't need is to be told this is happening. They know it.<\/p>\n
What they know is that this is happening.<\/p>\n
What they want is an alternative.<\/p>\n
What they are being told is that there is no alternative.<\/p>\n
And what they know is that this must be wrong.<\/p>\n
There has to be an alternative.<\/p>\n
And what they hate are politicians who say that no such thing exists.<\/p>\n
And that no such thing is even possible.<\/p>\n
As a result, they look to anyone who offers change, even if they're a charlatan.<\/p>\n
That's how desperate things are.<\/p>\n
Our political choice has been reduced to despair versus the unpalatable.<\/p>\n
So what do we need?<\/p>\n
Talk of the alternative requires that every assumption be challenged.<\/p>\n
Markets are not all-powerful.<\/p>\n
We don't necessarily want choice.<\/p>\n
We just want things that work.<\/p>\n
We don't want to be told by the wealthy that we can't be like them.<\/p>\n
We aren't even sure what value the wealthy add.<\/p>\n
Or what gives them the right to preach to us.<\/p>\n
Or to hold us to ransom.<\/p>\n
Or to tell us that the books must be balanced, at cost to all the people who suffer as a result.<\/p>\n
But not them, of course.<\/p>\n
Because, instead we see all around us people who want to work.<\/p>\n
Who want to deliver.<\/p>\n
Who want to innovate.<\/p>\n
Who are capable of doing all those things, but who are denied the chance to do so.<\/p>\n
Who are denied by those 'balanced budgets'.<\/p>\n
Who are denied by top-down thinking that thinks it alone knows best.<\/p>\n
Wh0 are left with shit jobs because markets value productivity more than people.<\/p>\n
And which then condemns people for not working.<\/p>\n
And wants to sanction them for not trying hard enough.<\/p>\n
That does not understand that many give all they can, and are still told that is no good.<\/p>\n
But who are never given the chance to find out what might be better.<\/p>\n
Because all we want is the chance to be.<\/p>\n
To be in our own space.<\/p>\n
With our own friends and families.<\/p>\n
Each with enough to survive, and a bit more, so we can have some fun.<\/p>\n
We don't want to maximise.<\/p>\n
We don't think money is everything, although it helps.<\/p>\n
We just want the right to exist in peace and harmony.<\/p>\n
And would very much rather we were't screwed in the process of trying doing so.<\/p>\n
So, unsurprisingly, we resent exploitation by banks, landlords, energy companies and others.<\/p>\n
We just want a system that works.<\/p>\n
That's all people are asking for, when they know that what we have does not function now.<\/p>\n
Is that too much to ask for?<\/p>\n
And isn't it my job, and the job of all thinkers on the left, to explain how that might happen?<\/p>\n
Otherwise, why do we, as commentators, as thinkers, as bloggers, exist?<\/p>\n
Why, indeed?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"