A Primer for a Prime Minister

It's almost impossible to discern how much our prime minister really understands about globalism and the neoliberal order. He claims he gets it but that's far from clear. The prime ministerial confusion was manifest in his interview today in The Guardian.

It was with some relief that I came upon a helpful treatise on neoliberalism by Sandra Waddock in today's Christian Science Monitor that explains not only how it has failed us but how we might get out of this disastrous rut. Waddock, the chair in corporate responsibility at Boston College contends the way out begins with a new narrative. Hint: sacrificing national sovereignty to a parallel corporate power structure simply in pursuit of endless growth and unfocused wealth creation is not on.

Memes are, I recently argued, an overlooked and vitally important aspect of system change. Recognizable memes form the basis of today's dominant economic narrative: free markets, free trade and globalization, private property, competition, individual but not shared responsibility, and maximization of company and shareholder wealth.

The success of these memes speaks to why business students so readily identify the purpose of the business as maximizing shareholder wealth and with the language of free markets and trade. They are simple, identifiable and based on laudable values like freedom and individual responsibility, after all: things that Americans in particular, with their individualistic orientation, can readily identify with.

Their power to convey the underlying economic "story" illustrates why change that seems to astute observers to be necessary – change toward more sustainability, dealing with climate change and fostering greater equity – is so difficult. Neoliberalism's pursuit of endless growth, efficiency and free trade have led to setbacks in curbing climate change, enhancing sustainability and reducing inequality, all of which are potentially existential crises for humanity.

...What is needed, as happened with the creation of neoliberalism's core narrative, is that a new set of memes framing a new economic and societal narrative needs to be established. An emerging group called Leading for Wellbeing and composed of global organizations, universities and newspapers is attempting to do just this, built on the notion that the world's major institutions and businesses should "operate in service of well-being and dignity for all."

Tomorrow's narrative needs to be framed very differently from today's. It needs to recognize that economies are part of societies and nature but not the only important thing. A new narrative should frame the purpose of business very differently, taking different stakeholders and the natural environment into account. It could also provide a more reasonable and effective basis for resolving the key crises of our time, such as the warming planet and the growing gap between rich and poor.

Dignity and well-being can be enhanced, for instance, by emphasizing job creation and stability, fair wages and fair markets, rather than financial wealth, efficiency and growth. Measures like the Genuine Progress Indicator would incorporate well-being and individual dignity into the measure of an economy, as opposed to merely its activity, making it a great substitute for GDP or GNP.

If we hope to overcome this tide of populism and nationalism sweeping the West, a new, more powerful narrative is desperately needed – a new story that proves more compelling than the one that brought Trump and populists in Europe to power.

For those despairing whether there would ever be a way out of this neoliberal morass, Waddock's essay is a shot in the arm. Just to be able to imagine a society not enslaved to an obsession with wealth, efficiency and growth regardless of the devastation that unbalanced pursuit has created is really quite wonderful.

What she discusses in many ways echoes the basic precepts of early 20th century progressivism. Maybe that's where our future lies.