On 9th of December Kate Forbes MSP delivered her 3rd Scottish budget. Its always a bit of an event in Parliament. People are walking a bit faster, pulses are quickened and the macaroni cheese in the cafeteria is a bit more chees
y.
But in amongst all the announcements about council tax, more money for the NHS and health care, changes to income tax there are bigger questions at work. Here at Logos it is our job to ask those bigger questions and say what kind of economy do we actually want to have in Scotland, and what should the underlying principles be.
I am currently listening to Ed Milibands book (I love a good audio book) “Go Big” he has a chapter in there on the economy and the measures that we use to judge success and make decisions. It all comes down to GDP, Gross Domestic Product. A quick google defines GDP as “the standard measure of the value added created through the production of goods and services in a country during a certain period. As such, it also measures the income earned from that production, or the total amount spent on final goods and services (less imports).”
It is all about production and income earned. There is nothing in there about fairness, distribution, environmental considerations or wellbeing. Our economy is purely judged on how much we produce and how much money that makes us as a country.
But we also know that money does not reach everyone in society that we have inequality. But while we have an economy based on GDP and present budgets based on economic performance those other, softer measures will not come into it. If we are not measuring them and valuing them then we won’t include them in our economic planning and thinking.
How can we have an economic policy focused on net zero if our measures are on on how much do we produce and how much money we make.
How can we have an economy based on making sure the vulnerable in our society are cared for if we are focused on goods and money rather than services and shared wealth.
What would a budget that is focused on how much we give look like rather than a budget focused on how much we make?
International aid goes right to the top of the agenda, supporting the third sector becomes more important. Ensuring that the tax system is fair and balanced, considering how business rates affect all of our businesses and that new businesses get a head start. What role would a social security system play in such a system, and where would the value balance lie between work and family.
When you change the way you look at things, change the way that you think about things and change the way you measure things then things really do start to get interesting.
Its all about asking the big questions and starting to dismantle the way that we have always done things. But if you keep doing what you have always done, you will get what you have always got. (or something like that).
Public services are expensive and of course we have to create wealth in order to pay for the services that we all want, but are we measuring the right things and is our focus in the right place. Are we measuring the pasta or the cheesiness of the pasta. One provides the sustenance but the other is the bit that we all enjoy and want more of. And a logos Blog is probably the only place today that you will get a comparison between the Scottish Budget and a plate of cheesy pasta….
What do you think?