The Common Good in essence

I am constantly drawn back to the concept of the common good which I think would make an enormous difference to our society if its principles were adopted. Here I present a modified and shortened version of my ideas about the common good that I hope will be more readable.

My understanding of the meaning of 'the common good' is the overall well-being, broadly defined, of all citizens. It involves the set of social conditions and public goods which enable individuals and groups to flourish. This includes psychological and moral components as well as material goods and services, the environment and expectations about the future. In its material aspects it includes what belongs, or ought to belong, to everyone.

Our society has been denuded of respectful values and trust is severely eroded. We've lost our way in economic and societal terms, to the betterment of the few and the detriment of the many. Also diminished are national self-respect and self-sufficiency, the contentment of citizens and expectations for the future. This is the state in which we'll remain so long as the moral foundations of corporate and individual behaviour are not rebuilt. There needs to be a focus on the common good.

The common good goes beyond questions of ownership narrowly defined and, for example, includes non-possessive attachments such as those which were felt by people for the Royal Mail or a historic firm such as Cadbury's. The common good therefore has as important elements of both local and national self esteem and so relates to social as well as individual fulfilment. It includes together people and the environment, present and future generations, their temporal, cultural and emotional needs and the legacy that one will leave for the other.

The way the common good is judged or measured is important. There's an obsession with the numbers that are supposed to measure economic activity regardless of how they're calculated and the distribution of well-being. If further economic expansion is sought, it must relate to the common good. Not all growth is desirable, particularly if the fruits are maldistributed, and not everyone would agree on what is sustainable. Any measure of the wellbeing of society should be multiplicative rather than additive so that very low values for some people have more impact on the final value. This is appropriate since the common good is a concept of mutuality.

Our political system should also serve the common good but what we have at present fails to do this. Also serving the common good should be businesses and other major social institutions such as voluntary and cultural organisations and the faith communities. Some, of course, do just this and all are valuable and honourable professions or vocations if operated with all of society in mind - making their decisions in 'the reasonableness of the common good'.

Attempts to enforce ethical behaviour on profit driven companies via external rules are doomed to failure. It's impossible to supervise everything, let alone what goes on in people’s heads. Cunning must be replaced with character in all economic activity. Morality cannot be suspended when we enter the office. It should become second nature to act in the right way in all that we do. Profound change is needed to achieve this, but it could be done. People are alienated by a selfish society, preferring one where we respect and help one another, strengthening ties and accepting that 'no man is an island'. We are interdependent and are moral agents as well as economic ones.

In a society of the common good each person can make a difference through their own abilities and personality and is encouraged and enabled to do so. A spirit of good citizenship liberates people's generosity, and clear roles for the family, cultural, educational and religious institutions make this possible. The major religions should interpret their traditions to create an 'autonomous space' for the common values of society. Secularists (the benign variant, not aggressive atheists) for their part should appreciate that religious sensibilities can give moral depth to enterprises and direct them away from perilous private adventures and towards the common good.

Good government at national, regional and local levels helps to achieve the goals of society and the replenishment of social capital and is proactive in this process. Equally important, prudent stewardship at all levels is essential for the common good and power and influence relationships, often secretive, need to be opened up.

An economic system fit to advance the common good requires new objectives for governments, large enterprises (public or private) and those who own them, run them and take profit from them. There will need to be changed approaches to economic management and new concepts of national well-being. Achieving all this requires action over a generational timescale.

We must begin this change at home by re-evaluating how we conduct ourselves in society and where the country stands in the world. There should be less foreign adventurism and more attention paid to the concerns of ordinary people. There needs to be more leadership by example and careful stewardship of values as well as institutions while conserving the natural environment. There must be ethical conduct by national leaders, both political and in business. Programmes should be set up to achieve this re-education, particularly for finance and big business. 'Human nature' is not an excuse, it is what we make it and how we ourselves choose to behave.

I envisage a kind of National Service applying particularly to holders of power, influence and wealth. Trainees would, outside moral re-education, perform simple tasks such as cleaning, preparing and serving food, providing personal care and taking night shifts. Food and accommodation would be as affordable on the national minimum wage. Courses on business ethics should be scaled up rather than down and citizenship education would have enhanced ethical content and a focus on the common good. All this would make our own Cultural Revolution.

There should be a change of perception on what constitutes desirable occupations for young people to aspire to and on the respect in which worthwhile work at all levels is held. There would be enhanced status for careers in engineering and manufacturing and, in a remodelled economy, the real and lasting jobs to go with them and an end to the siphoning off of valuable young talent into the banking and finance morass.

Voluntary organisations with the common good at heart need encouragement and restored levels of funding with net increases following years of cuts and distraction from their proper objectives. Political parties should be less tribalistic and more confident in presenting constructive alternatives, including furtherance of the common good.

A government for the common good requires a fit-for-purpose democratic system that is less easily manipulated by the political establishment and not slanted towards rich and powerful vested interests that require their bidding to be done. Young people, who are yet to be shorn of their ideals and who are much less ingrained in their ways, could take the lead in much of this, taking advantage of modern technology with its scope for organisation.

Alongside the societal changes we need to re-cast the economy. A much longer view needs to be taken that is not constrained to the typical three years or less now usual in western businesses or five years or less in government. And in their turn each generation considers anew and acts on the question: 'What is required of us to promote the common good?'

There's been talk of economic rebalancing, but nowhere near enough action to this end. Just as it took decades to throw away our engineering heritage, so it will take a similar time to restore this sector of central importance to the common good. But this could be achieved if the will was there, if fashionable and convenient theories were set aside and a stop was put to the kow-towing to media and lobby interests.

What the country has now is an extractive capitalism which bore its most poisoned fruit in the banking catastrophe and the subsequent punishment of austerity meted out with callous unfairness. People have a lower sense of well-being and for all but the rich, less wealth. This is partly because of the unequal impact of austerity and  population growth. So what could be done to move towards a system promoting the common good? I won't go into my views on economic policy here (I've presented these on my blog)  but I will pick out a couple of other ideas.

Government should set up what I term public sector 'exemplar institutions'. These would have an ethos of public service rather than profit. Municipal banks would reintroduce simple services for citizens and 'help' private banks by taking business from them and prompting reform in their ways to the benefit of the common good. Society won't change for the better without restoring trust via demonstrated action. There would be fair interest rates for savers, no pressure to borrow or have paid-for accounts or other financial 'products' and above all they would be trustworthy. The same goes for power, water and fuel. Railways, in accordance with the public wish, would be gradually returned to the public sector as franchises expire. The movement of enterprises between the public and private sectors should be two-way traffic rather than the one way system we have now.

Future governments must escape the thrall of ‘markets’ which are often nothing of the kind, being at one extreme clubish, at the other herd-like and at either end uncompetitive - except for the scramble for profit - and rarely operating in the public interest. Corporate governance should be reformed to deal with executive excesses and bring in flatter pay structures. As part of the reforms there should be more employee and community share ownership and representation on company boards.

The bulk of the burden of present policies is born by young people and the less well off either seeking work, in work of some sort, 'employing' themselves or, through no fault of their own, unable to work. This is wrong both morally and in economic terms. There should be a mandatory living wage that isn't also a maximum wage. Zero hours contracts should be abolished - except possibly in boardrooms.

Loopholes left in the tax system encourage tax dodging and should be closed. Tax havens both close to home and further afield should be shut down. Those who can afford to pay more in direct taxation should do so - as socially responsible rich people here and abroad have already declared their willingness to do.

A government for the common good should take the lead on a revised international approach to the basis of trade, working with like-minded countries in a co-operative grouping that would ensure civilised employment conditions and respect for the environment. Globalisation is not free trade, rather, it is a license to exploit, extract, export jobs and destroy communities and young people's futures. So reform here is not 'protectionism' but stewardship.

Economic actions on a Keynesian basis should bring good early results and will help to enhance the common good. Ethical changes will take a lot longer to bring about and embed but they are equally important if we are not to revisit, time after time, the recent near catastrophes.

Is all of this an impractical dream? It is only a dream if you take the view that a country should not operate on the basis of ideals. It is just very different from what we've been told we must put up with. Change is possible, but it needs and expanded notion of 'self' and all of us to bring it about - not just 'leaders'. The country faces choices that can't indefinitely be postponed. Those in authority may not want to make them but, to deploy their own mantra, they should 'embrace' these changes. If we wish to put an end to exploitation, inequality of wealth, health and opportunity and restore our national self-esteem, then this is the path we must take. Such is the road to the realisation of the common good. The going will be hard, but I for one believe we are up to it.