Should government have a Plan B; or, the inclusion of people in society?

Abstract

It sometimes helps to take a break for a minute. Sit back, turn off the phone, and think: where were you and what were you doing between summer 2008 and 2009? Here are a few diary entries from the life of a man christened Alistair.

Notes

The more socially aware amongst the world's top footballer know this (Osborne, 2009). On the happiness derived from holidays, or lack thereof, see Ballas & Dorling (2007).

In 1759, Adam Smith wrote on the linen shirt and shoes and has been endlessly quoted thereafter. In 1847, Karl Marx wrote on how homes appear as hovels if a castle was built nearby. In 1901, Seebohm Rowntree wrote on the necessity of being able to afford a stamp to write a letter to a loved one.

Karl Polanyi's writing of 1944 quoted in Magdoff & Magdoff (2005).

Page 11 of the GLA summary reports some 20% of children as living in families that could not save £10 a month nor afford to take a holiday other than visiting and staying with family.

Raymond Baker, Director of the Global Financial Integrity and an expert on money laundering (as quoted in Mathiason, 2007).

This essay draws on Dorling (2010, ch. 4).

Remarks made on 27 April 2009 at the National Academy of Sciences Annual Meeting. Available on-line at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-at-the-National-Academy-of-Sciences-Annual-Meeting/.