Real People, Real Jobs, Real Homes

I came across the following quote in a Channel 4 business report (the italics are mine):

World credit has seized up from Tokyo to London, from Frankfurt to New York. Is the world on the verge of a global recession?

The London stocks lost 10 per cent in seven minutes this morning. It just shows that the markets have lost all confidence.

Bewilderment was suffused with sadness: sadness over the inevitable impact upon real people, real jobs, and real homes.

It's becoming as clear as the wart on an economic toad that even those most involved with the processes that have brought us to the edge of this abyss don't believe their world is real.

Perhaps this crisis will lead to the realisation of that good society Brown mentioned a couple of days ago.

I'm not sure if it's happening at the moment or if the assembled - and often contradictory - forces are simply regrouping. We clearly need a far greater number of people across all industries and sectors to recognise and take on board the fact that economies have to be fashioned around realities. We need people to believe it and we need people to want to do something about it. Instead of falling into the trap of playing by the rules of the unreal when it's convenient.

What are our charities and public bodies doing if not forming part of and perpetuating this game of illusion?

How can they take it upon themselves to do so? How did we get to such a situation?

The illusory cannot be usefully attractive any more. Graduate salaries must be sensible if we are not to create an insensitive world. If the bright are too often attracted to the fallen, who will be left to run the world outside the virtual?

Let the unreal continue to play their illusory games if they must - but not with our communities, livelihoods or living spaces.

Let the rest of us exist to protect the good - that is to say, that which we desire - from the consequences of the unreal's knowing foul play.

A recognition of evil or a definition of democratic socialism? These days, there would really not appear to be that much of a difference.

You can find the original story here.
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Further reading: background to Brown's good society | video of Brown speaking on the subject | Brown's podcast on the government's financial stability programme