Why do we blame individuals for economic crises?
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0:01 - 0:05It was a cold, sunny March day.
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0:05 - 0:08I was walking along the street in Riga.
-
0:09 - 0:12I remember the winter was slowly
coming to an end. -
0:12 - 0:15There was still some snow
around here and there, -
0:15 - 0:18but the pavement
was already clear and dry. -
0:18 - 0:19If you've lived in Riga,
-
0:19 - 0:25you will know that feeling of relief
that the first signs of spring bring, -
0:25 - 0:28and you no longer have to trudge
through that slushy mix -
0:28 - 0:29of snow and mud on the streets.
-
0:30 - 0:33So there I am, enjoying my stroll,
-
0:33 - 0:39as I suddenly notice a stencil
on the pavement in front of me, -
0:39 - 0:40a graffiti:
-
0:41 - 0:45white letters painted
on these dark grey bricks. -
0:45 - 0:46It says,
-
0:46 - 0:51"Where is your responsibility?"
-
0:53 - 0:55The question stopped me in my tracks.
-
0:56 - 1:00As I'm standing there
considering its meaning, -
1:00 - 1:05I notice I'm standing outside the Riga
Municipality Social Welfare Department. -
1:06 - 1:09So it appears that the author
of this graffiti, whoever it is, -
1:10 - 1:14is asking this question to people
coming to apply for social assistance. -
1:16 - 1:17That winter,
-
1:17 - 1:23I had been doing research on the aftermath
of the financial crisis in Latvia. -
1:23 - 1:28When the Global Financial Crisis
erupted in 2008, Latvia got hit hard -
1:28 - 1:30as a small, open economy.
-
1:30 - 1:32To balance the books,
-
1:32 - 1:35the Latvian government chose
a strategy of internal devaluation. -
1:35 - 1:40Now, in essence, that meant drastically
reducing public budget spending, -
1:40 - 1:43so, slashing public sector workers' wages,
-
1:43 - 1:44shrinking civil service,
-
1:44 - 1:47cutting unemployment benefits
and other social assistance, -
1:47 - 1:49raising taxes.
-
1:50 - 1:53My mother had been working
as a history teacher her whole life. -
1:54 - 1:59The austerity for her meant
seeing her salary cut by 30 percent -
1:59 - 2:01all of a sudden.
-
2:01 - 2:04And there were many in a situation
like hers or worse. -
2:04 - 2:09The costs of the crisis were put
on the shoulders of ordinary Latvians. -
2:10 - 2:13As a result of the crisis
and the austerity, -
2:13 - 2:18the Latvian economy shrank
by 25 percent in a two-year period. -
2:18 - 2:21Only Greece suffered
an economic contraction -
2:21 - 2:22of a comparable scale.
-
2:24 - 2:27Yet, while Greeks were out
in the streets for months -
2:27 - 2:31staging continuous,
often violent protests in Athens, -
2:31 - 2:34all was quiet in Riga.
-
2:36 - 2:39Prominent economists were fighting
in the columns of "The New York Times" -
2:39 - 2:43about this curious extreme
Latvian experiment -
2:43 - 2:45of this austerity regime,
-
2:45 - 2:47and they were watching on in disbelief
-
2:47 - 2:49how the Latvian society
was putting up with it. -
2:51 - 2:52I was studying in London at the time,
-
2:52 - 2:55and I remember the Occupy movement there
-
2:55 - 2:58and how it was spreading
from city to city, -
2:58 - 3:00from Madrid to New York to London,
-
3:00 - 3:02the 99 percent against the one percent.
-
3:02 - 3:04You know the story.
-
3:05 - 3:07Yet when I arrived in Riga,
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3:07 - 3:09there were no echoes of the Occupy here.
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3:10 - 3:12Latvians were just putting up with it.
-
3:13 - 3:17They "swallowed the toad,"
as the local saying goes. -
3:18 - 3:20For my doctoral research,
-
3:20 - 3:24I wanted to study how the state-citizen
relationship was changing in Latvia -
3:25 - 3:26in the post-Soviet era,
-
3:26 - 3:29and I had chosen the unemployment office
-
3:29 - 3:30as my research site.
-
3:31 - 3:34And as I arrived there
in that autumn of 2011, -
3:34 - 3:38I realized, "I am actually
witnessing firsthand -
3:38 - 3:40how the effects of crises are playing out,
-
3:40 - 3:44and how those worst affected by it,
people who have lost their jobs, -
3:44 - 3:46are reacting to it."
-
3:48 - 3:53So I started interviewing people
I met at the unemployment office. -
3:54 - 3:59They were all registered as job seekers
and hoping for some help from the state. -
3:59 - 4:03Yet, as I was soon discovering,
this help was of a particular kind. -
4:03 - 4:05There was some cash benefit,
-
4:05 - 4:09but mostly state assistance came
in the form of various social programs, -
4:09 - 4:12and one of the biggest
of these programs was called -
4:12 - 4:14"Competitiveness-Raising Activities."
-
4:15 - 4:17It was, in essence, a series of seminars
-
4:17 - 4:20that all of the unemployed
were encouraged to attend. -
4:20 - 4:23So I started attending
these seminars with them. -
4:24 - 4:27And a number of paradoxes struck me.
-
4:27 - 4:29So, imagine:
-
4:29 - 4:32the crisis is still ongoing,
-
4:32 - 4:34the Latvian economy is contracting,
-
4:34 - 4:37hardly anyone is hiring,
-
4:37 - 4:38and there we are,
-
4:38 - 4:41in this small, brightly lit classroom,
-
4:41 - 4:43a group of 15 people,
-
4:43 - 4:48working on lists of our personal strengths
and weaknesses, our inner demons, -
4:48 - 4:51that we are told are preventing us
from being more successful -
4:51 - 4:53in the labor market.
-
4:54 - 4:57As the largest local bank
is being bailed out -
4:57 - 5:01and the costs of this bailout are shifted
onto the shoulders of the population, -
5:01 - 5:07we are sitting in a circle
and learning how to breathe deeply -
5:07 - 5:09when feeling stressed.
-
5:09 - 5:11(Breathes deeply)
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5:13 - 5:16As home mortgages are being foreclosed
-
5:16 - 5:18and thousands of people are emigrating,
-
5:18 - 5:22we are told to dream big
and to follow our dreams. -
5:24 - 5:25As a sociologist,
-
5:25 - 5:29I know that social policies
are an important form of communication -
5:29 - 5:31between the state and the citizen.
-
5:32 - 5:33The message of this program was,
-
5:34 - 5:36to put it in the words
of one of the trainers, -
5:36 - 5:37"Just do it."
-
5:37 - 5:39She was, of course, citing Nike.
-
5:39 - 5:44So symbolically, the state was sending
a message to people out of work -
5:44 - 5:47that you need to be more active,
you need to work harder, -
5:47 - 5:51you need to work on yourself,
you need to overcome your inner demons, -
5:51 - 5:52you need to be more confident --
-
5:52 - 5:56that somehow, being out of work
was their own personal failure. -
5:57 - 6:00The suffering of the crisis
-
6:00 - 6:03was treated as this
individual experience of stress -
6:03 - 6:05to be managed in one's own body
-
6:05 - 6:07through deep and mindful breathing.
-
6:10 - 6:14These types of social programs
that emphasize individual responsibility -
6:14 - 6:17have become increasingly common
across the world. -
6:17 - 6:21They are part of the rise
of what sociologist Loïc Wacquant calls -
6:21 - 6:24the "neoliberal Centaur state."
-
6:24 - 6:26Now, the centaur, as you might recall,
-
6:26 - 6:28is this mythical creature
in ancient Greek culture, -
6:28 - 6:30half human, half beast.
-
6:30 - 6:35It has this upper part of a human
and the lower part of a horse. -
6:35 - 6:37So the Centaur state is a state
-
6:37 - 6:42that turns its human face
to those at the top of the social ladder -
6:42 - 6:45while those at the bottom
are being trampled over, -
6:46 - 6:47stampeded.
-
6:47 - 6:49So top income earners and large businesses
-
6:49 - 6:53can enjoy tax cuts
and other supportive policies, -
6:53 - 6:55while the unemployed, the poor
-
6:55 - 6:59are made to prove themselves worthy
for the state's help, -
6:59 - 7:01are morally disciplined,
-
7:01 - 7:04are stigmatized as irresponsible
or passive or lazy -
7:04 - 7:06or often criminalized.
-
7:07 - 7:11In Latvia, we've had
such a Centaur state model -
7:11 - 7:13firmly in place since the '90s.
-
7:13 - 7:17Take, for example, the flat income tax
that we had in place up until this year -
7:17 - 7:20that has been benefiting
the highest earners, -
7:20 - 7:23while one quarter of the population
keeps living in poverty. -
7:24 - 7:29And the crisis and the austerity has made
these kinds of social inequalities worse. -
7:29 - 7:34So while the capital of the banks
and the wealthy has been protected, -
7:34 - 7:35those who lost the most
-
7:35 - 7:39were taught lessons
in individual responsibility. -
7:40 - 7:44Now, as I was talking to people
who I met at these seminars, -
7:44 - 7:47I was expecting them to be angry.
-
7:47 - 7:48I was expecting them
-
7:48 - 7:51to be resisting these lessons
in individual responsibility. -
7:51 - 7:56After all, the crisis was not their fault,
yet they were bearing the brunt of it. -
7:56 - 8:00But as people were sharing
their stories with me, -
8:00 - 8:02I was struck again and again
-
8:02 - 8:06by the power of the idea
of responsibility. -
8:08 - 8:10One of the people I met was Žanete.
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8:11 - 8:14She had been working for 23 years
-
8:14 - 8:19teaching sewing and other crafts
at the vocational school in Riga. -
8:19 - 8:21And now the crisis hits,
-
8:21 - 8:24and the school is closed
as part of the austerity measures. -
8:24 - 8:30The educational system restructuring
was part of a way of saving public money. -
8:30 - 8:33And 10,000 teachers
across the country lose their jobs, -
8:33 - 8:35and Žanete is one of them.
-
8:35 - 8:38And I know from what she's been telling me
-
8:38 - 8:41that losing her job has put her
in a desperate situation; -
8:41 - 8:45she's divorced, she has two teenage
children that she's the sole provider for. -
8:45 - 8:47And yet, as we are talking,
-
8:47 - 8:52she says to me that the crisis
is really an opportunity. -
8:53 - 8:56She says, "I turn 50 this year.
-
8:56 - 9:01I guess life has really given me
this chance to look around, to stop, -
9:01 - 9:03because all these years
I've been working nonstop, -
9:03 - 9:05had no time to pause.
-
9:05 - 9:07And now I have stopped,
-
9:07 - 9:11and I've been given an opportunity
to look at everything and to decide -
9:11 - 9:13what it is that I want
-
9:13 - 9:15and what it is that I don't want.
-
9:15 - 9:19All this time, sewing, sewing,
some kind of exhaustion." -
9:20 - 9:24So Žanete is made redundant
after 23 years. -
9:24 - 9:26But she's not thinking about protesting.
-
9:26 - 9:30She's not talking about the 99 percent
against the one percent. -
9:30 - 9:32She is analyzing herself.
-
9:32 - 9:35And she was thinking pragmatically
of starting a small business -
9:35 - 9:37out of her bedroom
-
9:37 - 9:40making these little souvenir dolls
to sell to tourists. -
9:40 - 9:43I also met Aivars
at the unemployment office. -
9:43 - 9:45Aivars was in his late 40s,
-
9:45 - 9:50he had lost a job at the government agency
overseeing road construction. -
9:50 - 9:54To one of our meetings,
Aivars brings a book he's been reading. -
9:54 - 10:01It's called "Vaccination against Stress,
or Psycho-energetic Aikido." -
10:02 - 10:05Now, some of you might know
that aikido is a form of martial art, -
10:05 - 10:08so, psycho-energetic aikido.
-
10:09 - 10:12And Aivars tells me
that after several months -
10:12 - 10:15of reading and thinking and reflecting
while being out of work, -
10:15 - 10:21he has understood that his current
difficulties are really his own doing. -
10:21 - 10:23He says to me,
-
10:23 - 10:25"I created it myself.
-
10:25 - 10:28I was in a psychological state
that was not good for me. -
10:28 - 10:31If a person is afraid to lose
their money, to lose their job, -
10:31 - 10:34they start getting more stressed,
more unsettled, more fearful. -
10:34 - 10:36That's what they get."
-
10:37 - 10:38As I ask him to explain,
-
10:38 - 10:43he compares his thoughts poetically
to wild horses running in all directions, -
10:43 - 10:46and he says, "You need to be
a shepherd of your thoughts. -
10:47 - 10:49To get things in order
in the material world, -
10:49 - 10:51you need to be a shepherd
of your thoughts, -
10:51 - 10:54because it's through your thoughts
that everything else gets orderly." -
10:55 - 10:57"Lately," he says,
"I have clearly understood -
10:57 - 10:59that the world around me,
what happens to me, -
10:59 - 11:03people that enter in my life ...
it all depends directly on myself." -
11:03 - 11:08So as Latvia is going through
this extreme economic experiment, -
11:08 - 11:11Aivars says it's his way of thinking
that has to change. -
11:11 - 11:16He's blaming himself for what
he's going through at the moment. -
11:17 - 11:22So taking responsibility
is, of course, a good thing, right? -
11:22 - 11:24It is especially meaningful
-
11:24 - 11:26and morally charged
in a post-Soviet society, -
11:26 - 11:30where reliance on the state
is seen as this unfortunate heritage -
11:30 - 11:31of the Soviet past.
-
11:32 - 11:35But when I listen to Žanete
and Aivars and to others, -
11:35 - 11:38I also thought
how cruel this question is -- -
11:39 - 11:40"Where is your responsibility?" --
-
11:40 - 11:42how punishing.
-
11:42 - 11:46Because, it was working as a way
of blaming and pacifying people -
11:46 - 11:48who were hit worst by the crisis.
-
11:48 - 11:52So while Greeks were out in the streets,
Latvians swallowed the toad, -
11:52 - 11:55and many tens of thousands emigrated,
-
11:55 - 11:58which is another way
of taking responsibility. -
12:00 - 12:03So the language, the language
of individual responsibility, -
12:03 - 12:06has become a form of collective denial.
-
12:06 - 12:09As long as we have social policies
that treat unemployment -
12:09 - 12:11as individual failure
-
12:11 - 12:15but we don't have enough funding
for programs that give people real skills -
12:15 - 12:17or create workplaces,
-
12:17 - 12:20we are blind of the
policymakers' responsibility. -
12:20 - 12:24As long as we stigmatize the poor
as somehow passive or lazy -
12:24 - 12:26but don't give people real means
to get out of poverty -
12:27 - 12:28other than emigrating,
-
12:28 - 12:32we are in denial of
the true causes of poverty. -
12:32 - 12:34And in the meantime,
-
12:34 - 12:35we all suffer,
-
12:36 - 12:40because social scientists have shown
with detailed statistical data -
12:40 - 12:45that there are more people with both
mental and physical health problems -
12:45 - 12:49in societies with higher levels
of economic inequality. -
12:49 - 12:55So social inequality is apparently bad
for not only those with least resources -
12:55 - 12:56but for all of us,
-
12:56 - 12:58because living in a society
with high inequality -
12:58 - 13:02means living in a society
with low social trust and high anxiety. -
13:03 - 13:04So there we are.
-
13:04 - 13:06We're all reading self-help books,
-
13:06 - 13:08we try to hack our habits,
-
13:08 - 13:10we try to rewire our brains,
-
13:10 - 13:11we meditate.
-
13:11 - 13:14And it helps, of course, in a way.
-
13:14 - 13:17Self-help books help us feel more upbeat.
-
13:17 - 13:22Meditation can help us feel
more connected to others spiritually. -
13:23 - 13:25What I think we need
-
13:25 - 13:30is as much awareness of what connects
us to one another socially, -
13:30 - 13:33because social inequality hurts us all.
-
13:33 - 13:36So we need more
compassionate social policies -
13:36 - 13:40that are aimed less at moral education
-
13:40 - 13:44and more at promotion
of social justice and equality. -
13:44 - 13:45Thank you.
-
13:45 - 13:48(Applause)
- Title:
- Why do we blame individuals for economic crises?
- Speaker:
- Liene Ozoliņa
- Description:
-
In 2008, the global financial crisis decimated Latvia. As unemployment skyrocketed, the government slashed public funding and raised taxes, while providing relief to the wealthy and large businesses -- all without backlash or protest from struggling citizens. Sociologist Liene Ozoliņa examines how Latvian officials convinced their people to accept responsibility for the country's failing economy -- and highlights the rise of similar social policies upholding inequality worldwide.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 14:02
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