One of the most crucial things we will be deciding in the polling booths is who we want running our economy and with what economic policies behind them.
But a recent poll suggests that millions of us don’t feel we have the information we need to do so. As many as 55% of us feel the information we receive from the media about the economy during election time is not useful enough to allow us to cast our vote with confidence. Furthermore, 54% feel uncertain about what impact the economic stories we do come across will have on us.
You only need to look at Wednesday’s election debate to see how many abstract metaphors and jargon-filled phrases make their way into political campaigns at election time.
Take Amber Rudd’s incessant repetition of the phrase “We need a strong economy”. If an economy is simply the collective result of the efforts of our workers and the resources we have available for the goods and services we need to survive, the adjective “strong” does little to clarify how the Conservatives will improve it. Beyond a nod to “good wages for public servants”, Rudd did little to shed light on the precise policies her party proposed, despite asking viewers for their trust and their vote.
Jeremy Corbyn’s response to a question on how Labour would handle Brexit was no better at explaining in clear terms what the British people could expect from his government. His exact words were that Labour would ensure “tariff-free access for a growing economy” – a phrase likely to mean little to the vast majority of the country. Tariffs are simply taxes added to goods and services being sold abroad. British businesses are understandably concerned about whether exiting the EU will harm their ability to sell goods to European markets. For the majority of people, the question of Brexit is not about achieving a “growing economy” – a 2015 survey on economic understanding showed that 60% of the population doesn’t know what GDP is, let alone think about it day to day. Assuring Britons that their businesses, jobs and wages will be protected by Brexit is a far more important message than what it means for “growth”.
It’s not hard to see how this has happened. Young people are not taught economics at school, and few economists are taught to communicate with the public. Meanwhile, journalists work under challenging time pressures to unpick and translate obfuscating messages from politicians, complex reports from thinktanks and financial institutions, and jargon-tastic analysis from economists.
But research shows people want to feel equipped with the tools to engage. A YouGov poll for the Economics Network and ING last month showed that over 75% of the UK public think economics should be taught to all children in schools. A poll in 2015 for the Post-Crash Economics Society revealed that among those who speak about the economy no more than two or three times a month, only 1% see it as unimportant.
“It just doesn’t grip you,” said one participant in a recent focus group convened by Economy, a charity I work for that tries to make economics more accessible. “You have to, sort of, break yourself into the news, find all these words out, find out what they mean, go back to the news, read it again and then you might have a full understanding of it,” says another. Another says: “They don’t seem to speak in English, they don’t seem to speak in terms that I can understand.”
People directly connect this sense of confusion about the language surrounding economic policies to a feeling of powerlessness in the political system. When asked how much power they felt they had in relation to the economy, another focus group member responded: “Not powerful at all. I feel my vote is not worthy… They never explain how they’ve reached the conclusion they have, or why.”
The next generation of economists is increasingly aware of the need to learn better communication skills. Economics undergraduates have formed the global student movement Rethinking Economics to challenge their lecturers to debate how the subject should be taught; they aim to take it away from the dry mathematical formulae that dominate teaching, and include discussions about the financial crisis and more down-to-earth areas that affect the public.
My charity has spoken to everyone from 10-year-olds to 65-year-olds about what they want from economics, and from the politicians, economists and journalists who communicate about it in the public sphere.
It’s on all of us to start talking about the economy in a clear way, so that everyone can get involved in the conversation. It is the single most repeated request in every focus group we convene – “Just tell me how it all affects me, in my language”.
We’ve got a week left until the election. That’s plenty of time for everyone to make sure that messages on the economy are engaging, accessible and empowering.