One of the noticeable aspects of the latest financial crisis is that the super rich are comparatively unaffected .... no bankers jumping out of windows in this collapse.
Oh no, in this crash the rich have carried on getting richer. For example in 1979, the top 1% of Americans took just 8% of the nation's wealth, but now the same group take 25%.
 |
| Steinbeck's 'The Grapes Of Wrath' |
Oh no, in this crash the rich have carried on getting richer. For example in 1979, the top 1% of Americans took just 8% of the nation's wealth, but now the same group take 25%.
I hate to say it, but that
is a direct result of 'Reagonomics' (backed up by Pres.Bush jnr), 'Trickle Down' economics is just so much bull-shine, that just makes the rich richer, and the rest of us very much poorer.
As a consequence of the rich taking an ever greater slice of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) pie, so there is less pie for the rest of us to share around - that's the thing about pies. The squeeze on well paid jobs in the West, where outsourcing under the guise of 'Globalisation' to places such as India, or Mexico, or even just mechanisation, have severely reduced the career areas where people may start rising up the wealth ladder. Eventually this will feed down into a reduction of taxes and in the funding for welfare state.
If the basis of class mobility in the Western post war society -i.e. "free" education, health and welfare, that allowed the poor to get their first leg up the ladder (if they chose to) - is eroding, then social issues will soon start rising .... the rise of the new serfs is under way.
Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Salazar et al, were creations of the 'Great Depression', and the social inequalities it produced. So with global unemployment the highest its been since the 1930's, surely if this continues for any time, then this is a recipe for revolution?
If the basis of class mobility in the Western post war society -i.e. "free" education, health and welfare, that allowed the poor to get their first leg up the ladder (if they chose to) - is eroding, then social issues will soon start rising .... the rise of the new serfs is under way.
 |
| Inequalities In The 1930's Led To Dictatorships |
Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Salazar et al, were creations of the 'Great Depression', and the social inequalities it produced. So with global unemployment the highest its been since the 1930's, surely if this continues for any time, then this is a recipe for revolution?
Today, April 2013, France and Spain both announced yet more increases in unemployment. France now has 3.2 million people seeking work, while in Spain its now over 6 million (or 27.2% of workforce).
ReplyDeleteIts hard to see how nothing will break in societies under such pressure.
We are now almost 2 years later on and despite threats, there have been no revolutions, not even in Greece or Spain, where youth unemployment is almost a permanent fixture of the labour market. You have to believe that fear of unemployment has stopped any social disorder. Maybe the rich have finally won, and the social unrest of the 1930s which led to socialist governments and wealth redistributions, will not happen again.
ReplyDeleteViva La Revolución!! or maybe not.
You are probably right. Fear of unemployment may be the reason why we all take this unbridled dose of capitalism. Wealth redistribution is needed badly as we are out of kilter now. Thanks for the comment.
Delete