Irresponsibility is too costly to the economy

By XN Iraki

Parents long for the success of their offsprings. They do anything to ensure they will be better off than themselves, from paying extra tuition to buying material things, often as dictated by adverts and peers.

Worldwide, the most admired families have tried to ensure every succeeding generation is better off than the previous one. Unknown to the public, most of the world’s wealth is in private hands, in families.

This success is often measured in monetary terms. H ow much more wealth does the next generation have, over and above what it inherited? Some economists could argue this is the most objective measure, but we can add, not the best.

Today, a new measure is emerging, philanthropy. Have you noted how foundations have become prevalent in Kenya, not just among big firms, but also among individuals?

Could the fear that the next generation will squander through irresponsibility the accumulated wealth be driving us into philanthropy? By dispersing that wealth, you increase the chances of some successful investment. It cannot all fall on "rocky ground"

But a better measure of parental success should not be financial, but how responsible the next generation becomes.

Responsibility is hard to measure, but it has taken nations and individuals from rags to riches.

Responsible people have long-term objectives, are self-driven and some argue persuasively can be trusted with money and other people. Nothing makes parents happier than responsible children.

But regrettably, many parents worry about the next generation because of irresponsibility.

Geoffrey Griffins, the late Starehe Boys echoed this worry in 1991, observing how families have moved from rags to riches and back to rags in three generations courtesy of irresponsibility.

While current parents (generation X) grew up doing as much as possible for themselves, taking as much responsibility as possible, it is the opposite for their children.

They want to do as little as possible. The parents never had private tuition, yet they read all the way to university. The younger generation has books, but do not want to read.

It is surprising how many parents bring their children to campus on the reporting day, and how many more apply for their admission to graduate school.

For the older generation, parents came to school only on the graduation day, there were even no visiting days.

Nowadays, graduation days start from nursery, with children clad in real gowns and caps.

Dream job

Parents, particularly of generation X took care of their brothers and sisters, the current children must have a house help derogatory called "Auntie".

Today, parents organise their children’s lives including weddings. At the work place, work is a necessary evil and quite a number of youngsters see nothing wrong with staying home waiting for a "dream job" from their parents.

When the whole country is worried about political impunity, I am worried about the next generation and how responsible it shall be.

Talk to your family friends about responsibility or lack of it and the story is likely to be the same.

Some might say I am an alarmist, but keen observation will bear me out. It does not mean we do not have responsible young people, but we need a critical mass.

What is surprising about current irresponsibility is that it cuts across regions, ages, and classes.

For a long time, poverty was the greatest motivator to social mobility. Most of the successful professionals and entrepreneurs today were running away from poverty, getting their first pair of shoes in high school and using "boom" to pay fees for their siblings.

Talk to teachers in high schools today and a paradox emerges, some of the most irresponsible children nowadays are from very poor backgrounds. The traditional stereotype was that irresponsibility is the preserve of the wealthy.

The economic cost of this irresponsibility is enormous and eventually comes out through the national statistics; low productivity, low economic growth and low GDP.

In the long run, individual failures become national failure, individual irresponsibility become national irresponsibility.

Responsibility leads to economies of scale, irresponsibility leads to diseconomies of scale.

How did we get ourselves into this rut and how can we get out of it?

Some will quickly argue irresponsibly that irresponsibility is part of development, as we become economically better off, we wean ourselves off from drudgery; examples, we start using "canned" gas to cook instead of walking long distances to fetch firewood. We use Internet to get information instead of reading big textbooks.

A better explanation is that parents, guardians and even teachers have become "very understanding". The younger generation is innocent. They have realised they can get away with anything, and there is someone to take care of their problems, from the house help to private tutor to parents.

More ominous is that institutions have "passed" their responsibility to each other and therefore to nobody.

Teachers expect parents to make their children responsible, parents expect the teachers to do that, even paying for extra tuition.

Other observers note that religion, which gives us long-term views of life has its influence wane, replaced by commercialism.

The traditional rites of passage, which forced young people to become responsible, are now becoming cultural curiosities.

The importation of western values without internalising them is another culprit. Despite the impression created by Hollywood movies and soap operas that young men in the West can get away with anything, including irresponsible sex.