We are all in it together....

[wilts rover]

An interesting piece here to show how we are all coping with the gobal crises together not.

The feral rich

For too long we’ve problematized the poor and overlooked the wealthy. It’s time to turn the tables, argues Vanessa Baird.

 
Now here’s a puzzle. The world economy is in a fix. Most people are getting poorer. Household income is down by more than five per cent on last year. That’s the global average; in some countries it’s much worse. We need 80 million new jobs to get us back to pre-crash employment levels. And the progress on reducing world hunger has stalled, leaving one in seven people without enough to eat.

But for one group of people life just gets better, no matter where they live. Known as HNWIs – High Net Worth Individuals – this global élite’s fortunes just keep rising.

In the past year, the 400 richest Americans have seen their wealth grow by $200 billion – enough to provide every student in the country with free education, except, of course, it isn’t spent that way.

During the same period, the 1,000 richest Britons have watched their fortunes swell to record levels – to $667 billion – a nearly five-per-cent increase on the previous year.

India’s ultra-rich increased in number by 30 per cent in 2012. Sri Ram Khanna of the Delhi School of Economics observes: ‘The better-offs continue to prosper in a slowdown and are largely immune to it… The lower your income, the more you are at risk. It is a global phenomenon.’6

How did we get here? How did members of this new plutocracy manage to peel themselves off from the rest of humanity, to feed off the crisis?

http://newint.org/features/2013/01/01/feral-rich-keynote/

[BillyStubbsTears]

Wilts.

Nails and heads.

This is what 35 years of the neo-liberal politico-economic experiment has brought us. (And New Labour were just as much a part of that whole philosophy.)

We threw out the post-War concensus where we really WERE all in it together. We got intensely relaxed about the rich becoming mega-rich. We were assured that trickle down would make us all richer and that the economy would grow faster.

It was all piss and wind. We were hoodwinked as a revolution took place. Growth carried on at exactly the same rate as before. But the proceeds went disproportionately to a tiny percentage.

In the mid 70s, for every £1 increase in GDP, median wages went up by 90p. By 2008, the figure was 57p.

Where did the rest go...?

Into yachts and mansions, that's where.

[BobG]

I will never, ever, forgive Milton Friedman, that bloody woman and that sodding cowboy. Between them they've sown seeds that are nowhere near fully grown yet.

BobG

[ponte_ricky]

society is just too greedy. I work in a shit sales job and the backstabbing that goes on just to get one or two quid extra commision is ridiculous and the lying that we have to do to customers make profits for the company so the people at the top can sit in their ivory towers and shit on the rest of us. it makes me hate myself everytime i step into the building. I'm studying Marketing but have already decided i would only ever want to use the skills in a non for profit environment because there is too much wasted money on such a small amount of the population that could be put to such better use.

makes me sick

[ponte_ricky]

"Economist Angus Deaton has shown that the richer you are the more covetous you become. Millionaires control 40 per cent of the world’s wealth. But Fidelity, a consultancy firm that regularly surveys millionaires, finds that whatever their wealth, they generally say they need double that amount. A recent survey of 1,000 millionaires, with an average net worth of $3 million, revealed that a quarter felt they needed an extra $5 million to feel wealthy."

Ridiculous 

[jucyberry]

Years ago, before I got rid of him , my ex husband used to have the bailiffs round to visit him with depressing frequency..

Mr Pryor (bailiff) once told me that it is and will always be better to have very little because you manage things better.. the moment you get extra money that is when you slip into trouble if you are going to, The more people have, the more they want and the less satisfied they are with their lot.

I have to say from personal experience, he was right. Me, I'm not materialistic, never have been never will be. As long as I don't have holes in my shoes, and I have food in the cupboards I really don't need anything else..

We live in a greedy world, the rich are getting ever richer and sadly they seem to be wanting to squeeze every last drop out of those with very little.

[ponte_ricky]

I'm also really concerned about how the rate of innovation in technology is affecting children. I'm only 25 but when i was a kid i used to get home from school and go out and play football, climb trees, skate and just generally prat about. nowadays all i see young kids doing is sitting around on Ipads n lacking imagination. makes me question whether i should ever have kids.

[BobG]

That is a really big issue Ponte. It's going to grow ever bigger too. I have an almost 12 year old son. He's a bloody good cricketer - in the Gloucestershire Under 12 squad for this coming season. And he's not stupid by any means either. But  the hours that get spent on effing playstations and ipods not only drive me crazy but they also seriously affect his fitness and they seriously affect his learning.  It's a major, major task for parent s now to keep on top of the time spent on these damn things. This is an issue we are going to hear more and more about in the coming years.

Don't buy your future children a bloody playstation. Let them feel isolated from their friends. It may hurt at the time, but it'll be a damn sight better for them in the long run.

BobG

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

I'm also really concerned about how the rate of innovation in technology is affecting children. I'm only 25 but when i was a kid i used to get home from school and go out and play football, climb trees, skate and just generally prat about. nowadays all i see young kids doing is sitting around on Ipads n lacking imagination. makes me question whether i should ever have kids.

Exactly, I'm 25 and wonder the same, I have a job meaning I'm in offices all day, but I tend to go for a run each evening first thing I do, bit of a legacy from the old days at school where it was school then sport, bit of tv then maybe homework.

[The L J Monk]

It's not all bad though. Interestingly, the advent of games consoles is actually allowing the quality of surgery to improve. Hand-eye coordination amongst young people has improved significantly over recent years, meaning that newly qualified surgeons now tend to be far more adept when using new surgical technology (mostly in non invasive techniques)

[BobG]

Oh cool! Brilliant. I suppose I should have thought of that for myself.....

BobG