The greed-fest is over, now let's get back to humanity
Maybe it was all just a dream . . . two women joking as they passed by a Ferrari in the Brown Thomas department store in Dublin yesterday. The Celtic Tiger may be long gone and tough times lie ahead, but a good dose of reality could end up being the making of us
Wednesday October 15 2008
THIS Budget just might be a chance to redeem ourselves. Not as patriots, as Brian Lenihan suggested, but as human beings.
It could be the turning point that forms us into a community -- because at the moment we're nothing but a collection of Flash Harry clones who happen to occupy the same island.
With a bit of luck, the lifestyle cutbacks it imposes might remind us about the worth of values we set aside as irrelevant; values such as modesty, restraint, sharing, living within our means.
I've been wondering for some time whether we possess the capacity to be a civilised people. We seemed to believe it was enough to live in an economy and not a society.
This Budget, despite its limitations, offers us the opportunity to show we're more than just an economy. Greed dropped us in this mess, let's see if solidarity and selflessness can extricate us.
In recent years we've outed ourselves as a nation which prized little beyond bling and brass neck. Now is our chance to show there is more to the Irish than materialism, ostentation and self-indulgence.
In such a context, the Budget is not only about penance but the possibility for deliverance. And that's the silver lining in the economic storm clouds raining down on us.
Naturally we'll suffer in the process. Nobody is going to be left unscathed by this new percentage-based levy on everyone's income. I foresee blood on the walls with that scheme.
I buy into the idea of shared pain, but not for those on lower incomes; these people are already struggling to meet increases in grocery and utility bills. They can't take another hit here -- not on a minimum wage amounting to only €8.65 an hour.
However, it is right and fair that those on middle and higher incomes, who were among the beneficiaries during Ireland's years of economic success, should stump up now. It's payback for the SSIA bounty, among other perks.
And perhaps while tightening our belts we'll pause to reflect that greed wasn't good after all. It was downright dangerous -- and it imploded.
Never have we worshipped money as fanatically as in these past 12 years. And now we have significantly less of it, thanks partly to Brian Lenihan's tough love Budget. Yes, I do mean thanks.
We didn't deserve so much disposable income: we squandered it with the moderation of a four-year-old splashing about in a chocolate fountain.
The Government frittered our tax revenues, but we were no way hesitant about splurging either.
Conspicuous consumption became our defining characteristic. Multiple holidays, luxury cars, designer clothes, state of the art gadgets -- people squandering in a single restaurant visit what others could not earn in a week. "Why choose? Have both!" should have been emblazoned across the tricolour.
And we became nauseatingly self-regarding. We touted ourselves as playing in a global market and forgot about living in neighbourhoods.
That's why I see this as a Budget with the potential to be the making of us. I know it involves suffering.
But we've been shallow and avaricious, and there's no point in blaming bankers, politicians and property developers. We were all infected by communal trashiness to a certain degree.
Fortunately there has been a palpable mood swing in the country. Nobody wanted to wake up this morning with less money in their pockets, but any sensible person has recognised its inevitability.
You only had to walk around yesterday, past cars queuing in forecourts to buy petrol in advance of tax hikes, to know the hatches were being battened down.
Off-licences displayed handwritten signs for the first time in 20 years reading 'Beat the Budget -- stock up now'. People were buying cigarettes as though a tobacco shortage was imminent. But the mood was resigned rather than feverish.
And everyone understood the small amount of stockpiling they could do amounted to no more than finger in the dyke measures.
At this stage, most of us know someone who has lost their job or is braced for the worst. I continually hear people discuss emigration, a spectre we had thought was banished.This Budget was an unparalleled opportunity for the 'Two Brians' to usher in cutbacks and a mood of self-discipline, because people are reconciled to the ouch factor.
But there is some nervousness -- justifiably so -- as we wonder whether the measures are sufficient. A 'what if' hangs in the air.
What if the decisions taken haven't been merciless enough?
What if we're in such a pickle Brian Lenihan has to come back to us and ask for more?
If this proves the case, his Budget is a lost opportunity and the failure will be an indefensible one because there has never been a better time to invite our citizens to make sacrifices.
Lost opportunities already glare in the timidity with which the minister addressed amalgamating government bodies -- why only 41? -- and the kid gloves he pulled on to approach public sector reform.
I was ready for more ruthlessness there. It would have cheered me up.
Still, headway has been made overall. We were an unbalanced society but now we have a chance to regain some of our equilibrium. And reclaim our common humanity in the process.
mdevlin@independent.ie
