Guardian Unlimited: This vision of a good society can lift the nation out of social recession - by Hetan Shah and Jonathan Rutherford

For the complete report in the Guardian Unlimited click on this link

This vision of a good society can lift the nation out of social recession - by Hetan Shah and Jonathan Rutherford

Many of us have lives of unparalleled social stability and affluence. In the past three decades the size of the Western economy has doubled. Most people own their own homes. Millions take foreign holidays. Music, books and cinema are accessible to the majority. The media and internet provide a wealth of information, knowledge and entertainment. More people study at university than ever. And science is extending the realm of human possibility.

Unfortunately material prosperity has not brought increased satisfaction with life. We have become a more unequal and divided society. Levels of personal debt are unprecedented, and we are time-poor, working long hours either to make ends meet or to buy the ever-changing trappings of success. Alongside economic insecurity a new set of social problems has emerged - widespread mental ill-health, systemic loneliness, growing numbers of psychologically damaged children, eating disorders, obesity, alcoholism and drug addiction. Freedom to shop is poor compensation for the anxiety and insecurity we increasingly feel in our daily lives. The economy may be booming, but we are witnessing a social recession, its symptoms and pain concealed in our private lives. Unless we act now it will turn into a social depression.So far nobody in today's politics is offering a way out.

We need to replace the work ethic with a care ethic. The work ethic assumes individuals are free of each other and entirely self-sufficient. Care underpins our society, and we need it from cradle to grave. The good society would have free social care and universal childcare geared to the needs of children, not just the labour market. We should also protect our weakest workers by raising the minimum wage to a living wage.

We live in a turbulent international system and need to extend progressive principles into global action. This is the age of autonomy. People quite rightly want to become the masters of their own destiny. At the moment all they are offered is the chance of buying their way to happiness. If people want to shape the world around them, in their community and at work, it can only be as active citizens working collectively through a democratised state and civil society to create a different and better world. The main lesson which the true liberal must learn from the success of the socialists is that it was their courage to be utopian which gained them the support of the intellectuals and thereby an influence on public opinion. The good society is a vision for a new kind of politics and it must come before a free market.