Dickson Igwe. Photo: Provided

Revolutions can be non violent. The predicted revolution against wealth inequality that has started in the USA and Western Europe, with that critical mass of resentment coming from the working and lower middle class is an example of non violent revolution: and it may spread.

Now, Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, Jeremy Corbin and Marine le Pen are politicians who herald the start of a new social and political revolution by a frustrated 90% of the population in their countries. The global establishment is slow to recognise this new phenomenon. Why: because the super wealthy elite are isolated from the reality of the lives of the working and middle class.

Jeb Lund, writing in the UK Guardian of February 24, 2016, described anger as, “being pretty easy to miss when it is something pretty difficult to feel. When you sit at the centre of the world and are unlikely to ever lack for the basic materials of self-sufficiency, the idea of blind, gnawing resentment – let alone of feeding that resentment even with irrational aims – is ineluctably beyond your ken. It’s harder still to understand that there are millions of people in America whose ambitions for a life of steadily improving conditions cratered sometime around nine years ago and have never recovered.” This group is the breeding ground for revolution.

The elite believe that the middle class are contented. The economies of the USA and UK are in good shape, according to metrics driven by the financial and economic elite. But economic gains of the last three decades have not gone to the 90%. These gains have gone to the top 1%. In the USA especially, there is acknowledgement by a growing number of economists that the system is rigged to the benefit of the 1%.

How? American workers see a link between power and wealth that is making the American Dream just that: a dream. They believe that it is a dream that is no longer obtainable for them or their children. Crony capitalism has created a world of declining wages. On the other hand, CEO pay has soared. The US is becoming an oligarchy, and swiftly. Globalisation is one major reason for this inequality. But tell that to the working poor!

Most Americans feel insecure and are burdened by debt of different types. Median family income is lower this early 2016 than it was in 2000. Economic gains have all gone to the top. Furthermore, the gains have been transferred into political power.

Robert Reich, the world renowned economist, writing in SALON on February 24, 2016 described how political power rigged a system with bank bailouts, corporate subsidies, special tax loopholes, trade deals, and market power that pushed wages down while pulling up profits.

“Since 1995, the average income tax rate for the 400 top earning Americans has plummeted from 30 to 17%. Those 400 Americans have accounted for a third of political campaign contributions. This amounts to a political takeover by the super wealthy, and Americans are not happy.”

Who is this group that has taken over the American way and turned the country into a plutocracy? Reich names the major corporations, their top executives, the biggest Wall Street banks, their top officers, traders, hedge-fund and private equity managers, lackeys in Washington, billionaires who invest directly in politics, the political leaders, political operatives, and fundraisers.

The 90% sitting on the outside of the prosperity bubble could care less about economic growth. They have not experienced the benefits of the greatest creation of wealth ever known. This creation of wealth that began post World War 2 has gone to about 100 families that today own three quarters of global wealth. On the other hand workers in the USA have lost jobs, seen a reduction in their wages, and experienced economic insecurity.

CRONY CAPITALISM sits on the Supply Sided economic idea that tax breaks for the rich, public spending cuts, deregulation, corporate welfare, and political power for the 1%, is good for the rich. In turn, the wealth created for the top percentile will trickle down towards the middle and working class. The opposite has been the case. 

Crony Supply Side capitalism has been copied throughout the world. A super wealthy class has been created in many countries. It buys political power and has politicians in the pocket. In some places there is no differentiation between politician and super wealthy. In fact, the US Congress is made up of a millionaire class. The result is that the average voter, apart from at election time, is disenfranchised in terms of real power. Wealth and social inequality continues to climb.

So, the long expected backlash is here.

In the west there is great frustration against the establishment. In past times there may have been bloody revolution. Today, frustration is channeled into extreme politics. Socialism is no longer a bad word in the USA. And ultra nationalism allows the frustration of the masses to be placed on foreigners.

The rise of nationalists and demagogues in the west is a direct result of social and wealth inequality.

However, the 1% continues on its odyssey to fully own 100% of the world. It may not even realise it, not until it is too late.

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