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  • From: Nicholas Roberts <nicholas@themediasociety.org>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Inevitabilty of Revolutions
  • Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2009 19:08:37 +1100

The 'Wisdom' of the Global Wealthy January 31st, 2009

*By Sam Pizzigati*

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin delivered the opening keynote address
last week at the annual World Economic Forum high in Davos, Switzerland,
before an elite gathering that included a record 1,400 CEOs from around the
world and over 40 heads of state.

Putin fit right in. His remarks would strike all the right notes — and
anticipate the themes that would bounce around throughout the forum's five
days.

Only "mutual trust," Putin would assert, can bring the world out of global
economic meltdown, along, of course, with an ongoing commitment to making
the world safe for big-time investors.

"We are convinced that those who create attractive conditions for global
investment today," Putin
declared<http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-Davos2009/idUSTRE50R5ZC20090128>,
"will become the leaders in restoring the world economy."

The forum's endless panels and
speeches<http://www.weforum.org/en/events/AnnualMeeting2009/Programme/index.htm>systematically
ignored the impact of grand accumulations of private wealth
on the world economy. One session did promise a look at "Hard Lessons about
Global Imbalances," but the "imbalances" in question turned out to revolve
around currency reserves, not top-heavy concentrations of income and wealth.

Forum organizers titled another session "Threats to Society." Did inequality
count as a "threat"? Not quite. The panel looked instead at "illegal drugs
and counterfeit goods," the global increase in "illicit activities and
transnational crime."

This studied silence on the concentration of the world's wealth should
hardly qualify as any sort of surprise. That wealth, after all, has been
concentrating in the pockets of the same wealthy who drop in on Davos every
year. These exalted souls could hardly be expected to acknowledge the
consequences of their own fortunes — and how they've amassed them.

*But those consequences* remain the biggest hurdle to global economic
recovery. A world where wealth has tilted overwhelmingly to the top, where
average people must go deep into debt to get by, where grand fortunes
translate into the political power that stymies needed reforms, will forever
be unstable.

At Davos, the rich and their retainers did their best to fudge that reality.
They worked hard to strike a sober, problem-solving pose. They spent
less<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/davos/7854389.stm>on parties.
One top global public relations executive, Howard Rubenstein,
even suggested <http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8323323> that
business leaders should pay, out of their own pockets, for the half-hour
helicopter ride from the Zurich airport to the Davos snowy slopes.

"They should avoid anything that appears super fancy or super rich," the PR
expert explained, "or thumbing their noses at taxpayers during a time of
austerity."

On that score, the world's bankers and corporate leaders succeeded last
week. But they still face a more daunting task:
reclaiming<http://www.rferl.org/content/Business_Leaders_Face_Credibility_Crisis_At_Davos/1375490.html>their
credibility in a world no longer so easily vowed by riches and those
who hold them.

"The wealth creators of recent years,"
summed<http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/world/world/general/masters-of-the-universe-humbled-at-summit/1418992.aspx>up
two British journalists covering the Davos scene, Ashley Seager and
Larry
Elliott, "have suddenly become the wealth destroyers."

*Sam Pizzigati edits Too Much <http://www.toomuchonline.org/index.html>, the
online weekly on excess and inequality.*
presumbly the people of Mollisons promised land still reside on planet
Earth...
http://extremeinequality.org/?p=110
The Fundamental Problem with the Economy September 28th, 2008

By Dedrick Muhammad
As we wait to see if Congress will bail out the financial sector, it is time
to clarify what is the fundamental economic problem that faces this nation.
Our current financial crisis and the subprime crisis are both symptoms of a
larger economic problem: an economy that no longer sustains a middle class
and instead, allows the wealthiest elite to gamble massive fortunes
regardless of its possible impact.

Historically, what has made the US economy strong has been an economy that
fed and strengthened the middle class. Over the last 30 years we have seen
the American economy go in the wrong direction. Instead of a growing and
prosperous middle class, wealth has become concentrated in the hands of the
rich, leaving middle class and working class America cash poor.

--
Nicholas Roberts
[im] skype:niccolor



  • [permaculture] Inevitabilty of Revolutions, Nicholas Roberts, 02/03/2009

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