Repairing Society: Beyond Economics

Marc Coleman

Issue 393, vol.99, Spring 2010

It can be further argued that plain stupidity inured the ordinary punter to the false promise of a bonanza. But what cannot be argued away is the reality that, if the antennae of those charged with official oversight had been fine-tuned to their ultimate social responsibility, they would have shouted ‘Stop’. The failure went beyond economics.

This failure can be traced to an imbalance in the national psyche : we are strong on the social-network front [kinship, ‘contacts’, Gesellschaft], but weak on the civic-responsibility front [on the claims upon us of a functioning body-politic, of society : Gemeinschaft]. In order to steer our course by the common good, the entire nation will have to acknowledge the binding-force of a set of rules and norms. But in Ireland the public interest is too often set aside in favour of local, class or personal interests. State financial regulators (and rating agencies) fail to intervene, in case they are seen as spoil-sports; church officials turn a deaf ear to an abused child, in case their reputation suffers; national authorities leave secondary roads untreated, and local authorities leave water-conduits un-inspected [in case kudos-driven short-term spending on some amenity might have to be postponed ?]. This flouting of collective responsibility was originally a learned behaviour of colonial times [when we prided ourselves on being ‘agin the Government’].

It is the requirements of a functioning society that must dictate which precise economic remedies are indicated. A central bank will need to re-calibrate long-run average interest-rates back to sensible levels (perhaps 4% in nominal terms and 2% in real terms). Banks in general will need to overhaul their management cultures, and pay and bonus systems. ‘Social partnership’ will need to include consumers and tax-payers. Our electoral system will need to be reformed, so that politicians are disincentived from electoral pump-priming of the economy. And we will need to be strong enough as a society to impose sanctions on those in breach of basic norms.

For all its flaws, the religious ethos of the Irish people (Protestant and Catholic) still provides a strong potential underpinning for a functioning society. Granted, religion in Ireland is today criticised for some high-profile failures. To the point where this is motivated by concern for those who have suffered, this is just and proper. To the point where this constitutes an agenda to dispense with religion totally, however, the proponents of that agenda need to set out the alternative mechanisms by which a cohesive, widely accepted and effective set of ethical norms can be sustained. Were the restraining and pacifying influence of religion to disappear completely, one might have fears that in the event of some future economic downturn there could ensue unprecedented social unrest – threatening even the institutions of the state.

Marc Coleman is Economics Editor of Newstalk 106 to 108fm, presenter of “Coleman at Large”, columnist with the Sunday Independent. His latest book “Back from the Brink” is on sale now www.marccoleman.ie