In Malta, like in most countries in the rest of the world, we tend to blame society, culture, the fact that we are a small country, institutions such as the Catholic Church or the Law Courts, the government and whoever else we can think of, for any problem that we have.
There is a lack of willingness of accepting to be empowered and to take responsibility for one’s actions. It is always someone else’s fault, for whatever happens.
We could take a practical example. I do not believe that any one of us blames oneself for the traffic problem that we have. We blame the way the streets are built, the lack of law enforcement, the way other persons drive, the public transport system, the police force, the government, large trucks, the bad planning, and various other things.
No one stops to think whether one is contributing to the traffic problem. And if someone has responsibility to address it, one is likely to think a hundred times before implementing an unpopular decision. And no one stops to consider whether one’s opposition to a decision is reasonable or not. As a last resort, we exclaim: “Why does it have to be me?”
It is indeed ironic that in a society that is becoming more liberal and democratic (and those who are defined as non-liberals are being told that they are on the wrong side of history), the attitude that it is always someone else’s fault is consolidating itself. People want their freedom but they do not want any responsibility or accountability for their actions which they commit freely.
An economy needs self-responsibility for it to be successful and sustainable
We need to accept, not grudgingly but happily, that society (that is the collective we) is responsible for the choices it makes and we are each responsible for the choices we make as individuals. We all make mistakes, even those who are considered to be more intelligent. But each person’s action or inaction represents a choice, and we choose freely. Moreover each person’s choice of actions affects others, whether we understand this or not. This is what empowerment and self-responsibility is all about.
In this sense the words of the late John Fitzgerald Kennedy, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country”, resonate loudly. It is important to note that Kennedy does not use the word responsibility but he did mean that each and every individual has a responsibility that goes beyond oneself, and extends to one’s family, friends, town or village, country, the world and even future generations.
This is a concept that needs to be applied to the management of a national economy as well. We cannot shift our responsibility to the State or who governs it. This does not mean that the State should not support those who make bad choices. Not doing so would be a mistake, because it is also our own individual responsibility to help those that make mistakes. Safety nets are required to care for the needy, the vulnerable.
However, from an economic perspective we cannot stop at this narrow and passive approach. For an economy to thrive, we also must shoulder our responsibility to act lawfully and not push the rest of society to meet our expectations.
Some practical examples to illustrate this point would be helpful. We all dislike paying taxes; however, we all have a responsibility to pay tax due in full. Attempts to evade tax is not only unlawful but harms the rest of society. No one should expect to receive a social benefit if one is not entitled to it. This attitude that some of us have to ask for such benefits on the off chance that one may be told yes, harms the rest of society.
My third example concerns building development. One may not be breaking the law to submit an application for a building development. Yet one is harming the rest of society when one expects an approval for a building development that would objectively be harmful to the environment, irrespective of what the law may or not say.
When we speak of a liberal economy and a liberal society, we refer to all those things that the State cannot do to us. We need to change the language. We need to include what we owe our country, the rest of society and future generations. An economy needs self-responsibility for it to be successful and sustainable.
Maybe it is worth remembering the quote from Peter Drucker who said that the purpose of any business “must lie outside the business itself. It must lie in society, since a business enterprise is an organ of society”.