Coping skills learned from past recessions

COMMENT:MIDDLE-CLASS morality, George Bernard Shaw wrote, consists in living "for others, not for myself". Independence, in contrast, he described as "middle-class blasphemy" because "we are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth".

Shaw’s idea makes sense in terms of self-interest alone; the middle classes have a modest stake in society and therefore an interest in preserving both the stake and the society. In contrast, the wealthy are often mobile and indifferent to economic vicissitudes while the poor have, as the song goes, “nothing to lose”.

There is an undoubted sense of betrayal among middle earners that the system has failed them. However, it would be wrong to underestimate the resilience and adaptability of the middle classes in the face of economic adversity.

Decades spent in the economic doldrums exacted a terrible toll on Irish people, but it also taught them coping skills which are required once again today.

During the 1980s, middle-class families adjusted to recession by adjusting expectations downwards and investing in the education of their children. Less admirably, tax evasion and the black economy grew as a response to high taxation rates. Emigration also soared but many of those who left later returned to lay the foundations of the boom.

Emigration is again featuring as an escape valve in the current crisis, along with debates over whether it is enforced or a lifestyle choice. But arguably the biggest challenge is the related problem of unemployment and, for those on middle incomes, the disappearance of traditional middle-class jobs in manufacturing. “The curse of the squeezed middle is that jobs are being parcelled out and outsourced to Asia,” says Ictu economist Paul Sweeney, picking up on a theme that is causing major concern in the US.

There, numerous studies have shown that while there are still options in elite careers such as law and medicine, and employment in low-paid service jobs continues to grow, there is increasingly a dearth of reasonably well-paid, secure jobs offering longer-term career prospects and security. In effect, the middle is being squeezed most acutely in employment.

The trend isn’t as pronounced in Ireland yet, because the public sector is bigger and many multinationals are based here, but things are moving in the same direction.

Economist Finola Kennedy says balance is needed in the debate on financial hardship. The squeezed middle, she says, is a broad church. Some in the middle class “went mad” borrowing, but others were more cautious.

Many middle-class people receive handsome support from the State, she also points out. “Free travel for pensioners, free education at third level, State grants for private companies – they’re all paid for by the fellow in Ballymun buying a packet of cigarettes.”

It’s easy, while picking over the entrails of our economic disaster, to forget the positives. Ireland still ranks highly on international measures of quality of life and human development. We regularly top the polls when citizens of various countries are asked how happy they are.

Statistics in relation to suicide and alcohol consumption are going in the right direction.

As economist Prof Brendan Walsh has pointed out, despite the widespread impression that our suicide rate is soaring, the rate peaked in the late 1990s and then fell.

While it rose significantly in 2009, it fell the following year to the level recorded at the turn of the century.

Deaths from violent causes are all down during the recession, along with other serious crimes. Per capita alcohol consumption has fallen 20 per cent in a decade.

Walsh says there is no evidence of a surge in the prescription of psychoactive drugs or in admissions to psychiatric hospitals. He also points to the stability of the birth rate as evidence of the vote of confidence Irish people are making in their future. Notwithstanding our gloomy economic standing, Ireland’s fertility rate is now the highest in the EU.

“Ireland is now a different country than it was during the recession of the 1980s,” he says. Personal wealth is twice what it was, and social welfare payments have kept pace. Housing standards are vastly improved and even though unemployment has soared, 60 per cent of adults are employed compared to less than 50 per cent in the late 1980s.

“These factors undoubtedly help account for the picture of resilience and adjustment rather than breakdown and despair that emerges from the available evidence on how the population is bearing up in the face of our current economic hardships.”

Kennedy acknowledges the widespread sentiment that things are unfair, but says the situation becomes more complicated upon examination. Ultimately, “society is what binds us together”, she says. Just as government has choices to make about spending and cutbacks, people can choose how to spend their money to benefit their community.

They can holiday at home or go abroad, and choose to divert money from imported goods.

“It was said of Parnell that he gave us back our self-respect. Well that’s at stake now again.”

See also Maureen Gaffney's guide to coping with the recession: Positivity is no trivial pursuit, on irishtimes.com/squeezedmiddle