As argued in the previous post, the current sub-prime crisis is not simply a ‘sub-normal’ functioning of our economy, it is a sign that the way we have ordered our economy is ‘sub-human’. This is, I suggest, an incredible irony. Isn’t capitalism’s promise that through the exercise of personal freedom of choice in the market we will achieve progress and enter our future? Capitalism promised us this freedom yet it has led instead to stagnation, despair, and ultimately increasing enslavement.
The current attempts to resolve the crisis, from stimulus packages to bank bailouts, should make us feel that as a society we have not yet got to grips with the difficult questions that we need to grapple with. While some of the actions being taken are necessary to prevent an even worse catastrophe, they are merely attempts to prop up the system, to return as soon as possible to business as usual.
Even the most thoughtful commentators seem just to reiterate the tired solution of ‘more government’: a global system of state regulation to deal with a global problem. This solution not only suggests that not only are we not dealing with our own lack of self-control but we are asking the state to act as our conscience. This will lead to yet more enslavement.
One thing that is clearly evident in the comments from politicians and economic Lettings Salisbury regarding the crisis is that there is a sterility of imagination pertaining to how a society might function differently. As such, the problem is not simply an absence of saving but the absence of a vision of the future that would lead us to believe saving was worthwhile.