01-04 Social Stability

In 1967 I took my family for a tour of Northern Ireland, which is part of Britain; and the independent state of Ireland, which was referred to as Southern Ireland. Northern Ireland because my father had “cousins by the dozens”, and southern Ireland because of Donegal and Galway Bay.
Lots of social stability in Southern Ireland, but nothing but instability in Northern Ireland. It was Catholic this and Protestant that. Neighbourhoods, schools, resorts, pubs, and even whisky. Couldn’t find any Irish Buddhists who could have shown the warring factions what social stability looks like.
And societies like the two Irelands everywhere are dealing with the Coronavirus in different ways. For some, religion, colour, sexual orientation, geography and wealth will not be an issue when it comes to personal and public support. All of us will find out what kind of societies we live in.
In Canada we have the provinces working cooperatively with the federal government. In the US, the President, facing an election, wanted to make all the announcements re turning the economy back on. Even though the power to do this is a state’s right. It’s a typical US conflict.
I have spent 30 years of my life studying the role of social stability and individualism in economies. One can reinforce the other, but it depends on how we design programs and the nature of our politics.
Japan’s development model in the 1970’s was a special study. They did not pay welfare, but kept weaker sections of the economy working by subsidizing every form of small scale enterprise. They claimed their system was cheaper than the welfare state. I never forgot watching a little old lady selling hats in a market stall, and coming out from behind a curtain where she lived.
And it was hard to call Brazil, Indonesia or Mexico nations enjoying social stability when the more affluent people lived in homes with 12 foot walls, and you were warned not to leave your hotel in the evenings.
During a class in graduate school, we got into Aldous Huxley’s 1932 classic, Brave New World. It was a warning about societies that are so determined to ensure social stability that all individualism is destroyed. The classroom message was to watch out for the way governments respond in a crisis.
Today, we should anticipate every government in the world using the pandemic for its own political purposes. The world changed after WW1, the Spanish Flu, the Great Depression and WW2. So expect the world to change after the Coronavirus pandemic.
Anticipate a slow private sector recovery everywhere, and governments getting bigger everywhere. More public spending on health care, income support and education. More public debt. Less spending on consumer goods, especially from China. And, societies everywhere selling patriotic bonds and levying patriotic taxes.