Saturday, August 13, 2011

Rage!

Were the protests that brought down regimes in Tunisia and Egypt and threaten other Middle Eastern countries efforts toward democracy or simply angry people expressing hopelessness… people with no jobs, no future (some well-educated) looking at the power elites who seemed to have it all? I am constantly reminded of the political maxim, “It’s the economy, stupid,” that belies almost every aspect of political empowerment.


And as some nations slant towards preserving incumbent capital – even at the expense of the rest of society – minimizing the burdens on the wealthy and creating special access to further wealth and power in a small percentage of the overall population, the notion of “nothing left to lose” becomes the rising power dynamic. When Marie Antoinette responded to the shortage of bread among the massive lower classes of 18th century France with “Let them eat cake,” she paid for that hubris with her head. Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak is now on trial as he lies in a bed, caged, in a Cairo courtroom, and Tunisia’s President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, his daughter and son-in-law were convicted and sentenced in absentia for their greedy, violent and corrupt rule. But were the riots and protests that brought them down really moves for democracy or simply the rage of people impoverished to the bone forced to watch the conspicuous consumption of a power elite that only seemed to grow fatter?


The strange part of this growing movement is not a demand for democracy. In fact, it may even be possible that a benevolent dictator who bestows economic equality on the lower and middle classes might provoke vastly more joy across the planet than democratic societies that generate increasing concentrations of wealth in decreasing numbers of people. A confluence of a horrible global economy, pervasive socially-driven technology and an accelerating number of people with “nothing left to lose” is changing the planet.


Even take Israel, now facing its own assemblage of tent city protestors in Tel Aviv, where the economy is still relatively strong: “[T]hese days, the handful of wealthy families who dominate the Israeli economy are assuming a new role: one of the chief targets of the tent-city protesters who have shaken Israel in the past month… The ‘tycoons,’ as they are known even in Hebrew, are suddenly facing enraged scrutiny as middle-class families complain that a country once viewed as an example of intimate equality today has one of the largest gaps between rich and poor in the industrialized world… The tent-city protesters, who have shifted the public discourse by demanding affordable housing and other essential goods, issued a document …. calling for a new socioeconomic agenda. Topping their goals: ‘minimizing social inequalities.’


“‘What is keeping people on the streets is the question that if we are all having a hard time and we are all working and paying taxes, who is making the profits?’ said Daphni Leef, the 25-year-old filmmaker who began this protest movement with a Facebook posting and remains at its center. ‘We know there are certain families that have a lot of money and a lot of influence and there is no transparency. People feel deceived.’ … Those families — the Ofers, the Dankners, the Tshuvas, the Fishmans and others — account for the 10 biggest business groups in the country and together control some 30 percent of the economy.” New York Times, August 11th.


We’ve seen also riots and protests in high unemployment areas in Western Europe, particularly economically ravaged Greece and Spain, but the recent summer of rage sweeping through the United Kingdom is a solemn reminder of how close we all are to suffering for allowing a decreasing number of wealthy people own and control an increasing percentage of the wealth. What started out as reaction to a perceived wrongful death exploded across English cities, rapidly becoming a smart phone-coordinated explosion of economic rage, based on decades of deprivation damaged further by austerity measures introduced by the government in response to the recession. London was ablaze: “Streets of once-prosperous neighborhoods resembled a war zone – all across the British capital, gangs of youths had rampaged through the streets, smashing store windows, looting stores and carrying out goods including TVs, electronic equipment, mobile phones, clothes and cash.” Los Angeles Times, August 9th.


Tents in Tel Aviv, riots in London and other part of Europe, regime change in the Middle East? Could such violent dissent erupt here? The United States? “The highest incomes come from executive pay at top corporations. In 2007, the ratio of CEO pay to the average paycheck was 344 to one, lower than the record 525 to one ratio set in 2001, but substantial. [2009’s] ratio [decreased] to 317 to one. In the 60s, 70s and 80s, the average ratio fluctuated between 30 and 40 to one.” ConsortiumNews.com, July 4, 2009. Executive pay has continued to skew away from average pay since these numbers were reported.”


Add this set of statistics: “In the United States, wealth is highly concentrated in a relatively few hands. As of 2007, the top 1% of households (the upper class) owned 34.6% of all privately held wealth, and the next 19% (the managerial, professional, and small business stratum) had 50.5%, which means that just 20% of the people owned a remarkable 85%, leaving only 15% of the wealth for the bottom 80% (wage and salary workers). In terms of financial wealth (total net worth minus the value of one's home), the top 1% of households had an even greater share: 42.7%.” A study by G. William Domhoff (University of California, Santa Cruz, updated June 2011). Sociology.ucsc.edu.


After the Tea Party’s efforts to protect the wealthy from tax increases falls on its face, an inevitability, and after a Democratic administration’s effort to continue military expenditures overseas in the face of severe domestic economic issues generates even more anger, could we see the kind of “rioting by the disenfranchised” here in the United States? When those with nothing left to lose get angry enough at the power elite who seem to own it all…. What do you think? Maybe not tomorrow or next week………..


I’m Peter Dekom, and when folks say, “It can’t happen here,” I start to worry.



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