I think it's right about now that somebody tries to make sense of this, and in the attempt, loses all sense of perspective.
Something about wealth generation and trickle down and poverty being necessary for wealth to exist.
Servants of Mammon and servants of Moloch: literally, figuratively or spiritually? Take your pick folks.
those richest 85 people across the globe share a combined wealth of £1tn, as much as the poorest 3.5 billion of the world's population.
The wealth of the 1% richest people in the world amounts to $110tn (£60.88tn), or 65 times as much as the poorest half of the world, added the development charity, which fears this concentration of economic resources is threatening political stability and driving up social tensions.
Never understood this 'trickle down' argument. It's obvious to anyone that it's 'trickle up'.
It most certainly is. In fact it is rapidly becoming a suction up. But as you rightly point up: the wealth is taken from the poor and middle earners and given to the richest small percent.
And this had been continued since Thatcher by New Labour.
Both abroad
Abroad, behind a facade of liberal concern for the world's "disadvantaged", such as waffle about millennium goals and anti-poverty stunts with the likes of Google and Vodafone, the Brown government, together with its EU partners, is demanding vicious and punitive free-trade agreements that will devastate the economies of scores of impoverished African, Caribbean and Pacific nations.
And at home
As events have demonstrated, Blair and the cult of New Labour have destroyed the very liberalism millions of Britons thought they were voting for. This truth is like a taboo and was missing almost entirely from last week's Guardian debate about civil liberties. Gone is the bourgeoisie that in good times would extend a few rungs of the ladder to those below. From Blair's pseudo-moralising assault on single parents a decade ago to Peter Hain's recent attacks on the disabled, the "project" has completed the work of Thatcher and all but abolished the premises of tolerance and decency, however amorphous, on which much of British public life was based. The trade-off has been mostly superficial "social liberalism" and the highest personal indebtedness on earth. In 2007, reported the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the United Kingdom faced the highest levels of inequality for 40 years, with the rich getting richer and the poor poorer and more and more segregated from society. The International Monetary Fund has designated Britain a tax haven, and corruption and fraud in British business are almost twice the global average, while Unicef reports that British children are the most neglected and unhappiest in the "rich" world.
And that was written 7 years ago.
Since then Obama and Cameron and the "crisis" have plunged that trend into overdrive
I strongly suggest giving this an hour when you have one spare
Thanks - I've watched most of John Pilger's documentaries, but not sure I've seen this one. Always had great amount respect for Pilger.
That 'at home' paragraph was pretty shocking, even though I know it. What surprised me is that it was written 7 years ago. If thats the case where are we now? I despair for my children and grandchildern sometimes I really do. Life seemed so rosy in the 50's & 60's even though my parents were poor they had optimism, and high hopes for thier kids. But I don't see the same for mine. Don't get me wrong, they are doing ok, 4 out of 5 are married and two have children, but I don't see them thriving - I just see them struggling on the treadmill from week to week - more pressures on them all the time.
Call me nieve, but when I was younger I had visions of a Star Trek type future where technology eased our burdens and hunger, war and povery were abolished and everyone thrived by working and contributing to society doing things they loved and were good at. Even if it never happened in my lifetime I thought that I would see society moving more and more in that direction. How wrong I was!
Anyway cheers for the vid - definitely watch this later
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85 richest people as wealthy as poorest half of the world
26 Jan 2014 08:22 #5
Call me nieve, but when I was younger I had visions of a Star Trek type future where technology eased our burdens and hunger, war and povery were abolished and everyone thrived by working and contributing to society doing things they loved and were good at.
That is not naive. That was called the social contract. It got torn up by, as Larkin called, "a cast of crooks and tarts."
That 'at home' paragraph was pretty shocking, even though I know it. What surprised me is that it was written 7 years ago. If thats the case where are we now?
Sadly that was the case ( www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/dec/18/labour.politics) and things have deteriorated even more rapidly since the 2008 "crisis" and the austerity introduced by Osbourne. Add to that the measures right across the EU and beyond and the whole firesale of public assets into the private sector which is now dominated by a handful of corporations. Leaders of which are ideologically driven to make Austerity permanent. (Cameron announced this at the Mayor of London's dinner: www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/d...rmanent-8933539.html). The picture is looking bleak.
Saw this written by a poster called ScorpioRisingAgain. He kinda addresses the issue that has cropped up: the next generation
Sid bought his council house on the right-to-buy during the Lawson Boom and made a killing. Bought a bundle of shares in the utility companies around the same time. He moaned a bit about how his fuel bills kept on going up but blamed it on the unions and the government and the Arabs.
He wasn't happy about his grandkids struggling to pay rent to immigrant landlords, nor was he happy that his grandkids were paying exorbitant student loans, but he was proud that his generation knew the benefit of thrift. Sid had worked for what he'd got, and if house prices were rising and rising, it wasn't for him to question whether interest rates and inflationary prices were robbing his grandkids of any opportunity to become part of the property-owning democracy.
Sid wasn't a fan of zero-hours contracts necessarily, but he was living on a pension so was more interested in Tesco or Asda selling him stuff cheaply. He was fatter than his parents and grandparents, obviously, ate better and drank more than they had done, and for far less outlay, but he never recognised that his comfort was at the expense of the grandkids who came and went for six quid an hour, every hour, at his convenience.
Sid was always a union man, and was a Labour voter all his life.
Sid got fat, comfortable, greedy and selfish. Sid bought into the Thatcherite idea that there is no such thing as society, and sold the shares in that idea at a profit as soon as he could.
Sid's grandkids, meanwhile, are fucked. And Sid blames the immigrants and has switched his vote to Ukip.
Meanwhile... Meet David Cameron's dinner pals who have helped his party
to the tasty tune of £43million
Jan 24, 2014 13:22 By James Lyons
David Cameron has pocketed more than £43million for the Tories from a secretive dining club, it was revealed yesterday.
City fatcats, property tycoons, oil bosses and rich peers have been wined and dined by the PM and other top Tories in return for cash.
Donors have to stump up at least £50,000 a year to join the elite Leader’s Group and get direct access to Mr Cameron and ministers.
Meanwhile... Meet David Cameron's dinner pals who have helped his party
to the tasty tune of £43million
Jan 24, 2014 13:22 By James Lyons
David Cameron has pocketed more than £43million for the Tories from a secretive dining club, it was revealed yesterday.
City fatcats, property tycoons, oil bosses and rich peers have been wined and dined by the PM and other top Tories in return for cash.
Donors have to stump up at least £50,000 a year to join the elite Leader’s Group and get direct access to Mr Cameron and ministers.
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