An appropriate maxim for these uncertain times could be Douglas MacArthur’s classic quotation: “There is no security on this earth; there is only opportunity.” The US general knew about economic recovery: he commanded postwar Japan while that shattered nation reconstructed itself. Massive reform and incredibly hard work by the Japanese spurred one of the most remarkable revivals in modern history.
Something of the same approach could usefully be adopted now across the west. The truth is that all sorts of comforting assumptions we have taken for granted in recent decades have revealed themselves to be false. A job for life is now a rarity; nine-to-five careers are history; defined benefit pensions are an unaffordable relic that will disappear from both private and public sectors in due course. A university degree is no longer a passport to an unassailable future; while virtually all political parties agree that “Big Government” can’t deliver, and that new solutions must be found to the challenges society faces.
Meanwhile, asset classes that were taken as safe are proving vulnerable: property and even government bonds are now questionable for those who wish absolute preservation of capital. Many of the old assurances about savings and retirement are no longer valid. And structural unemployment appears to be taking hold in many advanced societies, as the world continues to adjust to an extra 2.5bn capitalists in Asia.