Principles for a Virtuous Economy

I’ve often spoken of the desirability of the country benefiting from a Virtuous Economy rather than the exploitative, extractive, grotesquely unequal, cartelised, profiteering, shareholder obsessed and anti-citizen economy that we now endure.

I do not accept the view that base motives are acceptable and that the economy will automatically translate them into benefits for everyone. The worse the motive, the worse will be the outcome – either absolutely or relatively. This is the normal consequence of malign actions. A virtuous economy would see better motives and, I firmly believe an improved and much fairer set of outcomes to the immense benefit of the common good.

But while the general tenet of the social value of virtuous motivation should at least be appealing if not patently obvious, what should be the actual principles and the specific virtues that underpin a virtuous economy and by which companies, governments and individuals should abide? I suggest that they should include the following:

·     Loyalty – This is rapidly becoming a near forgotten corporate virtue. Loyalty to longstanding and decent principles, to the country, to the community, to fellow citizens as customers, to vulnerable individuals and to the workforce and, I almost forgot, to the shareholders.

·     Moderation – Meaning, for example, companies making good and useful products sold at fair and moderate prices for a reasonable profit to which no-one could object.

·     Respect – Companies, Governments and other organisations showing through their actions respect to all citizens, in particular their customers or electors, the workforce and the environment.

·     Truthfulness – Displayed, for example, by not promoting deceptive products or using confusing or concealed pricing, no ambiguous or misleading advertising (for example, as is so often the case with ‘health’ products). No breaking of promises. No claims for credit where it is not due.

These to be exhibited in place of the all too common current vices of disloyalty, contempt, greed, deception and selfishness. We are into the realm of misinformation and indeed conspiracy - for example with ‘industries’ acting, and being allowed to act, as cartels in respect of pricing, barriers to entry and much else besides.

Corporate disrespect involves treating customers, especially and inexcusably elderly and more vulnerable people, as profits fodder. There is also bribery by vested interests - for example, of political parties to adopt policies that intentionally inhibit legislative reforms which would be in the public interest but which would also decrease private profits.

When properly implemented, virtuous consequences could be thought of as being exhibited by the economy itself through its structure, but it is the actions, rules and, to link to another topic, the dispositions of the people that implement them that are ultimately responsible for the economy’s moral quality. So it is on these that we should focus our attention. What might these dispositions be? In my view they would certainly include:

·     Seeking to eliminate economic injustice, exploitation and unfairness. This relates to the classical virtue of justice.

·     Valuing the individual. Society consists, in the overwhelming majority, of individual people who are worthy of respect and who are entitled to freedom, security, useful employment and a good measure of happiness.

·     Beyond the individual and family, valuing community and nation through consideration to other citizens and seeking to enhance the common good, beginning with those who have least.

·     Valuing and respecting democracy, its institutions and its procedures. The most valuable 'institution' we have is democracy itself. If our version of democracy is constructed to deny the electorate proper choices, if it is manipulated and abused to further commercial interests there will be a lack of respect for it. And if democracy is undermined, so is the economy that operates within it, so also is society and the individuals that comprise it.

·     Being truthful, accountable and living with integrity. Integrity can be seen as honest self-accountability. More widely, accountability should be to the whole of society not just to particular groups (such as political party supporters, donors or co-religionists). Truthfulness, another of the classical virtues, would be rewarded by ordinary citizens far more often than is generally recognised, although it does call for considerable courage.

·     Respect and loyalty are integral to a virtuous economy. Respect and truthfulness are essential for a virtuous polity and for a healthy democracy.

·     Helping to create harmony and cultivating inclusion. A harmonious common life is the core of a unified society. Exclusion diminishes those who do the excluding every bit as much as those who are excluded.

·     Recognising the value of stewardship throughout society. Stewardship – helping to look after and preserve what is important to community and country - by all the members of a society can contribute more to the common good than most top down 'leadership' which, in fact, has much to answer for.

These dispositions along, no doubt, with a number of others, would be held by a ‘citizenry of good intent’ and put into practice in both their private and professional lives. They would also be reflected in the economic and social policies of government.

But all this, of course, we do not have in today’s society. The state of the economic and social system in this country is at root a problem in morals and morale and it is up to us, we the people, Everyman and Everywoman, to do something about it.

The political class that became established through this system and which clings to its power relationships and questionable practices (while pressing change on others) will never change itself or the system from which they profit despite their oft-repeated promises which, as we have seen, are all too easily broken.

And we should be clear that there is no magic 'invisible hand' of market self-regulation that we can rely on to steer us clear of the consequences of this value-free condition. There never was - this has been one of the biggest economic hoaxes of all time. To suppose there is some wondrous economic system that will transmute base motives - such as extractive greed - into golden benefits for all of society is a convenient fiction equivalent in truth to the medieval belief in Alchemy.

One is also reminded of the computer metaphor GIGO, Garbage In - Garbage Out in relation to the quality of data input and the worth of the subsequent output when the program has run. In the present context we will also have GIGO, read as Greed In – Greed Out or, in terms of notorious personalities, Geckos In – Geckos Out.

In view of the constant references to growth as the way out of our problems it should be understood that economic growth at any given percentage rate cannot be sustained indefinitely, as we should have known, since percentages are an exponential phenomenon. No economy can be above the natural order of things – nature abhors exponentials as much as vacuums.

And it should be clearly understood that the ‘market’ is not a part of the natural order either – the dominant western conception of which is not an absolute, it is an entirely human concept – one constructed by the private beneficiaries - rather than one that should have been shaped to serve wider purposes rather than frustrate them.

The economy should operate as a social market. A capitalist model will only operate in the general interest if, as Keynes pointed out, it is governed by 'gentlemanly codes of behaviour' rather than the exploitative culture that has been so evident in recent times. Nor should the pursuit of personal wealth be an end in itself. The end, as Keynes also said, should be to live 'wisely, agreeably and well' - qualities which, if not wholly describing it, are certainly consistent with a virtuous economy.

The economy should be at the service of society rather than a cosseted entity existing independently of it to which society is expected to bow the knee and take the consequences. It should be an honour system in which respect, trust and regard for the individual form the bedrock. Individual citizens, private companies, the public sector, voluntary organisations and Government, both national and local, should share a vision of the good of the nation and take personal, policy and commercial decisions accordingly, seeking to operate always within the Common Good to move towards a land of found content.

The virtues of Loyalty, Respect, Truthfulness and Moderation along with the associated dispositions, a citizenry of good intent, the concept of stewardship, commonly held and socially oriented values and even, with due consent, some ancillary ‘leadership of good intent’ in certain areas, will be the secure foundations of the Virtuous Economy and the basis on which it operates to enhance the Common Good.