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by Paul Buchheit January 08, 2018 from CommonDreams Website
more than tripling in value since the recession, repeatedly reaching record highs, with almost all of the gains going to the richest 10%."
(Photo:
NoHoDamon/Flickr/cc)
They're making it nearly impossible to reverse the deadly effects of an unnaturally unequal society, in part because they're no longer connected to the world beyond their estates.
There is ample evidence
for a growing inability of people around the world to maintain the
basic human needs of physical health and mental stability and a
living wage and a desire to live in peace.
They're making it nearly impossible to reverse the deadly effects of an unnaturally unequal society, in part because they're no longer connected to the world beyond their estates.
They,
The means to restore some
balance is steadily slipping away.
In the United States, where wealth inequality is extreme and getting worse (see analysis here):
Global inequality is similar in the degree of disparity:
Inequality Made Worse - Tax Havens and Tax Breaks and Tax Deferrals
Neoliberalism disdains government regulation, and one result has been trumpeted to the ends of the earth by the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers:
If researchers Saez and Zucman are correct (and they usually are), an incredible $14 trillion of global wealth is being hidden in offshore tax havens.
That's approximately the total wealth of the entire United
Kingdom.
Average working Americans, on the other hand, get almost no
interest on their meager bank accounts.
Life expectancy for the poorest classes is now equivalent to that of Sudan or Pakistan. After decades of progress in longevity, this stunning turnaround has closely paralleled the decreasing incomes and lack of job opportunities for American workers.
It's a similar story for infant mortality:
Americans at all income levels are experiencing higher levels of stress and mental illness compared to 40 years ago.
Even upper-middle-income
people suffer mental health problems when living or working around
people who make more money.
The FBI has found that
over half of murders are caused not by theft or drugs or money or
tainted love, but by a situation in which the killer has been
somehow disrespected.
In Yemen, for example, attacks by Saudi Arabia continue with American weapons, using American targeting data, and delivered by American jets. Power and water facilities have been destroyed.
Schools and
weddings and funeral processions
and hospitals have been bombed, and a cholera epidemic is raging out
of control. Signs of everyday life have disappeared, as the median
household wealth has been cut
in half in just the last two years.
In the U.S., a shockingly low 5 percent of the population believes inequality is a major issue, even as they suffer the physical and mental symptoms of a distressingly divided society.
Perhaps it's a matter of denial: the
International Social Survey Program curiously
concluded that
people still tend to think their society is a meritocracy.
...all of
which may sustain life for a
few years.
Says the author about the inevitable equalizing forces,
Even if the super-rich survive for a while in their bunkers, they may walk out into a world that can no longer keep them alive.
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