Doing better? The goal must be Sufficeincy

 There seems to be a general expectation, at least in the “developed “ world, that each generation can and should “do” better than the one before it.  Parents expect that their children will have a “better time of it” than they had.

At first sight  that seems to imply  a higher physical quality of life – more “stuff ”  -  bigger house, kitchen refitted every five years, bigger cars changed more often,  more foreign holidays, more gadgets, more bread and circuses. 

The more leisure that Keynes anticipated doesn’t seem to have caught on,  (other than more phone time).

As I don’t have any children I can’t be said to have a dog in the game, but If I had I think I should be reasonably happy if they had the quality of life that I’ve had: never been hungry (in spite of being brought up during the war;) a free primary and secondary education which, for the time, were regarded as “good quality;” several stints of higher education either free or with token fees; never been unemployed; have been privileged to work in three of the five continents and visited a fourth; enjoyed   good health with free or only token payments when treatment needed; never homeless; plenty  cultural activities to my liking; vigorous engagement with the political system, and a comfortable retirement.

 What strikes me about that list is that most of what has contributed to my ”good life” has been provided by the public rather than the private sector.  Not all, course. The private sector has provided  some bouts of employment,  food, housing, transport, cultural activities, all largely paid for out of my own pocket.  But the key features of my “good live” have been provided by the public sector.

 At the top of the list of our desires for succeeding generations must be “peace in their  time” and  a planet on which people can live comfortably and in harmony.  These will not be provided by the  private sector.

Succeeding  generations in the UK will not have such easy access to housing as mine has.  The Tories, following Mrs Thatcher turned it over to the private sector and we see that the private sector has not provided.  Some ideas on what to do about it are dealt with in the previous post.

 Beyond that we must surely recognise that the health services, the educating, the community harmony and the liveable environment  we want for future generations rely largely on the public sector.

But in the UK we resolutely refuse to pay the taxes necessary to finance their future

The World Inequality Lab, co-directed by the French economist Thomas Piketty, published  a Global Justice Report (rhttps://globaljusticeproject.wid.world/global-justice-report) which outlines a viable way forward. 

The report criticises  our over-materialistic  emphasis on our ambitions  and suggests how we (and that incudes everybody, not just the already rich world,) can enjoy a prosperous and healthy lifestyle without constantly striving to accumulate more material possessions that degrade the natural world on which all life depends. 

They report calls it  “sufficiency.”

Among their suggestions are that :

We halve our average working time;

Eat less red meat;

Refocus our economies  towards low-consumption activities.

 The “Nanny State “ taunters  will have a field day.

 But these are the areas we should be discussing if we want a decent future for the next generations..

And there’s not much sign of in  Britain’s political debate as yet.