Notes on the Front

‘ . . . some people are saying that the economy is ruined.  Anyone who says that knows nothing about nothing.’

Thus, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern responding to the growing concerns about the economy. Of course, a straw-person is being employed here – no one is saying that the economy is in ‘ruins’. But it is probably unfortunate for him that his comments were front-page news following the first installment of David McWilliams’ new RTE series, ‘The Generation Game’. Mr. McWilliams took us on, yet again, a whirlwind tour of the Irish economy, repeating his warnings about an over-cooked property market and an overdraft life-style. Mr. McWilliams is a know-nothing. In fact, any economist, analyst or thoughtful citizen who considers the issues – regardless of their political orientation or prescriptions – will eventually come to be labeled the same thing. Yes, we know-nothings are growing in numbers.

Mr. McWilliams irritates a lot of people: his relentless use of social labels, his grand, simplified narratives that gloss over important and inconvenient details, his sometimes class-blinkered view of society, his Cassandra mantra that goes back years and the fact that he’s never far away from an RTE studio. There’s much to complain about. I’ve done it in the past. But if it takes Mr. McWilliams, with all his baggage, to popularise the very real issues of our economy to a wider audience, then we are the better for it. Indeed, given that all political parties are living in denial about the fundamentals of our economy, Mr. McWilliams is providing a credible political service (there are others, of course, who are doing the same, if better, job but they are not ‘econ-entertainers’).

Mr. McWilliams thesis is simple: we don’t, as a nation, make and sell things. Multi-nationals do it for us. We, as a nation, don’t invest in enterprise; we throw our money into property. We, as a nation, don’t plan or shape our economy; it’s done for us – by forces outside our control. We are maxed-out, overdrawn and involved in a lot of financial juggling to make ends meet. What we think is real is not. What we think is sustainable is certainly not. And what we think is the good life is merely a faded ad in a Sunday magazine supplement.  Nothing new you might say.  Well, that’s that point. 

On his way through this tour de force, he says some curious things. The argument that Gulf state sheiks and Bin Laden are taking our money at the petrol pump and forcing up our asset prices is peculiar (I remember the panic in the US following the creation of OPEC when solid citizens believed that Saudis would buy out McDonalds and force us all to eat falafel). The phenomenon of petrol money has been with us for decades. The demise of the Uruguay economy only works as an example if it can be argued that Ireland is a single-commodity dependent economy (maybe Mr. McWilliams had the chemical/pharmaceutical industry and, of course, construction in mind). And the ‘Irish job-for-life culture’? Where did he come up with that one? Until the mid-90s the only culture many had, with some very temporary exceptions, was one of emigration, poverty and unemployment.

Still, this is television and it did give Mr. McWilliams a chance to check out the craic in Montevideo. Despite the ridicule he receives the central thesis he puts forward – by no means earth-shattering – is uncontestable. The fact that political parties are not addressing it – while people in pubs and dinner parties, on the sidelines of under-12 GAA matches, even the pit bulls on Dublin local authority estates, are all talking about it – is one more indication of the surreal detachment that the political establishment has from Planet Ireland.

What do we get instead? Mr. Ahern, addressing reporters following a Fianna Fail Parliamentary Party meeting, congratulated himself on the housing market: 

‘We were trying to get supply and demand in equilibrium. Thankfully, it is happening.’

Geez, I missed that operation.  Here is a party that only recently was still pump-priming demand in the market – through cutting stamp duties and increasing mortgage interest relief. But in Bertie’s little world, shutting down hospital wards are not ‘cuts’ but rather a ‘realigning of resources’.

As for Fine Gael, I honestly don’t know what they have to say about these fundamental issues that isn’t just Fianna Fail-lite. Please e-mail me if someone out there can enlighten me.

And the Left?  Here is where we could shine. We could produce a critique which is qualitatively different than that served up by the Government, even if the proposals are yet to be fleshed out. Unfortunately, the new Labour leader, Eamon Gilmore, TD, didn’t give us (yet) a lot to look forward to. Appearing on Questions & Answers immediately following Mr. McWilliams, he referred to the fact that we have a ‘strong economy.’ He has stated that before. I don’t know what impact that would have on those who had just finished watching the Generation Game.

Why does Mr. Gilmore continue with this line? It’s not out of loyalty to his predecessor who spoke of a ‘strong economy but a weak society’. On two occasions he distanced himself form Pat Rabbitte, TD (on the issue of Labour’s ‘branding’ and the past reluctance to criticise Mr. Ahern’s financial explanations). It certainly would be unreasonable to expect anyone becoming Labour leader to launch a comprehensive economic policy the next morning. But that hasn’t stopped Joan Burton, TD – candidate for Deputy Leadership – from criticising the party’s past failure to take on economic issues. Mr. Gilmore could have taken this lead.

Of course, if Mr. Gilmore had attacked the economic record of the Government he would have had John Bowman harassing him about what he would do different and here’s the problem – the Left hasn’t worked it out yet (besides, if the argument deteriorated to the level of Mr. Bowman’s knowledge of Labour’s electoral history it wouldn’t have been very informative).

Still, that is no excuse for continuing the ‘economy is strong’ argument when clearly it is not. We can work out some other, better breathing-space phrase than the one that cedes the policy ground to the Government and the Right. What might that phrase be? I don’t know but a good starting place might be to pilfer some of Mr. McWilliams’ lines – he is, after all, the phrase-meister.

And that’s not being flippant. Many on the Left are suspicious of Mr. McWilliams’s analysis. They shouldn’t be for that analysis leads, or can lead, to a largely progressive end. I was struck by Mr. McWilliams summing up – that people are dogged by over-crowded schools, inadequate health care, and high childcare and pension costs. To me, that tees-up a Left programme of educational investment, universal health insurance, public service crèches and a state earnings-related pension.

But more to the point – the failure to plan our economy, our over-reliance on multi-nationals, unproductive investment, and a neo-liberal ideology of market self-selection; all these cry out for a different, modern, social approach – one in which only the Left can and, hopefully, wants to expouse.

I, for one, look forward to the next installment of the Generation Game. I look forward to reading the book. I look forward to being frustrated, exasperated and, more to the point, being provided with any material that can be put to progressive good. For McWilliams and I are, if only temporarily, allies of a kind.

We are both know-nothings.