Whose future is it anyway? - Policy is about what is right
in the long-term not what is liked in the short-term.
I enjoyed your article “ Whose future is it anyway” [Connect
magazine page 48] and feel motivated to contribute to the discussion.
The implication of the title is that the future belongs to
the young. Certainly there is a view that Brexit has greater implications for
the younger generation who will live with the consequences of a decision
substantially made by older generation who have previously enjoyed the benefits
of those arrangements.
RE-THINKING AGE AND PLANNING HORIZON
More and more of us will live to 100 and our economic life
is not over at 50. Nor is the valuable contribution that we can make to society
ended when we retire. With changes in demographics and health there may be significant
future challenges for the older generation who either need care or are not
ready to be replaced by the educated and adaptable bright young challengers.
There are real problems for the young including student
debt, high house prices, a gig economy and the reluctance of the generations
before them to relinquish opportunity and power. However projecting forwards
20, 30 or 50 years the challenges are likely to be climate change (raised sea
levels & insurance premiums), health (costs and services), homes
(availability and price) and employment (jobs and pay).
The short-termism of fixed-term, part-time, zero-hours, and
temp contacts makes planning difficult for all generations. It creates
uncertainty albeit that some may see this as opportunity, others will see it as
risk.
The concept of planning horizon which is touched upon in the
comments like “too many cars” and “not enough variety” and “too expensive” are
all factors which are difficult to change in the short term, and relatively
easy in the long term.
This surely is the purpose of politics and policy. The
ability to make decisions now which will have far reaching and far sighted
impact. Nobody is going to be elected for advocating “one car per household” in
2019, but is it not possible to commit to a series of emissions targets
supported by no petrol and no diesel cars by 2030?
The challenges you highlight are not going to be addressed by
businesses pre-occupied by short-term cash flow, production and profit. The
role of government is not to be a business, nor to compete with business, but
to address the issues that business cannot. In short business is about profits,
government is about policies.
POLICY V PERSONALITY
What worries me about recent referendum, elections, and with
an eye towards Jersey’s forthcoming elections, is that politics nowadays is a
combination of celebrity and sales with style often being more important than
substance.
People vote for personalities not policies. I think a
valuable service to the future will be fact checking and a bias away from
personality toward policies.
“Can't decide who to
vote for? Find out whose policies you prefer for the election. It’s quick, fun,
and sometimes surprising! ” https://voteforpolicies.org.uk/
Current debate is largely short-term and popularist. The
debate should not be about the price of a service or the value of an asset now
but what we need, want, expect for the next 50 years. Make the decisions based
on long-term fact not short-term personal interest.
Some might argue that the price of rejecting a park at the
site of the Hospital in order to preserve People’s Park is a short-term
decision made by a cohort of well-meaning petitioners. This may have
implications for a whole generation who in the future may lament not having a
health service in town and a park stretching from parade gardens to the
waterfront.
I highlight this not to take any side, but because it is both
controversial and unpopular but policy is about what is right in the long-term
not what is liked in the short-term. The existing stalemate benefits nobody.
The same is true for the issues raised in the page48 jerseypolicyforum
article Connect magazine. To deliver a different future we need to be
architects with a vision not bricklayers doing an extension. More of what used
to work in the past does not build a future. Henry Ford said “If I asked people
what they wanted they’d have said faster horses”
A ROLE FOR JERSEYPOLICYFORUM
I realise that jerseypolicyforum.org will not want to become
embroiled in politics in the months leading up to Jersey’s elections. However
now more than ever I believe there is a need to discuss and fact-check policies
(independent of whoever espouses them).
https://www.bailiwickexpress.com/jsy/connect/issues/february-2018/#.Wpz4SbhbkdU
