I picked up an issue of the New Statesman (7th November 2011) in the library today...i don't usually read it but there was a good article on the occupy movement in it.
It said the following:
'The compact on which a fair society is predicated- proportional reward for proportional contribution has broken down. Even as profits have fallen and shares have plunged, FTSE-100 directors have been rewarded with a mean pay increase of 49% in the past year, compared to a 2.3% increase in average earnings across the economy.'
However inflation is running at 5.2% so average earnings have gone down.
The article also made the point that the protests have moved the subject of inequality away from the political left and into the MAINSTREAM. This is true; unlike the 'Hard Hat Riots' of the 1970's where union workers beat up long haired anti-vietnam war protesters (mostly college kids facing the draft) the occupy movement has the support of the unions.
In the UK the unions are having a massive strike on the 30th of this month, the students have been striking in their tens of thousands and people are grumbling in pubs, work places and homes across the land about the effects of austerity, rising costs and bankers bonuses. Unlike with the anti-thatcher strikes in the 1980's many people are now questioning whether the current form of capitalism is working for most people.
One person who wrote into the letters page recited what the occupy london protesters had said to him when he asked them what their demands were. They said to him the following:
'We want a more ethical and socially responsible financial system and a representative democracy that looks after the needs of their citizens and does not give priority to wealthy bankers'
The writer goes on to say that 'their quarrel is not with capitalism per se but with the extraordinary excesses of the free-market model'
Another demand of the protestors is to 'democratise the secretive and unaccountable City of London Corporation' which a past Prime Minister Clement Atlee described, decades ago, as 'convenient shorthand for a collection of financial interests.....able to assert itself against the government of the country'
The current labour leader Ed Miliband has said that businesses can be divided into 'predators and producers'
The article then goes on to discuss possible solutions to this problem of predatory, influential and unaccountable financial interests. It suggests the problem is how to 'redistribute wealth when capital is so mobile and the rich are so adept at avoiding taxation'
It suggests: 'One possible solution is to ship the burden of taxation from earned to unearned income, from taxes on income and consumption to those on assets: inheritance, property, land and so on as such taxes would be harder to avoid (mansions cannot flee to Geneva!). This would reduce the distorting affect that property speculation has on the economy.
Another possible solution that has been suggested has been a 'Robin Hood tax' or the 'Tobin tax' on financial transactions. This would of course hit the financial sector hardest. In the UK we gutted our manufacturing in the 70's and 80's (a similar process occured in the states especially around chicago/detroit) and helped the financial sector to a 30% share of our economy!
Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket! The politicians told the public that by them supporting the banks there would be a 'trickle down' effect with the wealth so that the bankers would spend and the money would seep into the economy and benefit all of us.....metaphors about a rising tide lifting all ships etc
The reality is that 'trickle down' is a myth! What we have actually seen is trickle up, with the 1% gaining a greater proportion of the wealth and holding onto it and the wealth gap between the 1% and the 99% opening up drastically.
Inequailty has escalated to such levels that people are taking to the streets to protest the increasing hardship, loss of public services and increasing lack of job opportunites etc
The behaviour of the 1% has created this wealth disparity and because they have bought the politicians there has been no one to stop them doing it.....even when their actions are illegal!
The politicians deregulated the markets which has given the bankers virtual carte blanche to do what they want. It is clear that we need reform to the system.
If there is not reform then conditions are going to get harder for people and yes there will be break downs in law and order. The protests are not driving that process, the 1% are. The protests are protesting the process and warning people that the way things are going is not a good direction, so we had all better get together and put enough pressure on the 1% that they develop the political will required to reform the system and relieve the pressure on everyday people
Because the financial sector has so much power in the UK (it is the biggest financial funder of the Conservative Party, which is the major part of our current coalition government:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/sep/30/city-conservatives-donations) they are lobbying the politicians to prevent them from accepting a Robin Hood tax! So the UK is fighting this idea in the EU at the moment to protect the bankers!
Here's an article in the guardian newspaper about falling wages:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/nov/23/uk-household-earnings-fall
Here's an article in the same paper with some suggestions of how to fix the economy (its all food for thought):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentis...conomy-broken-how-fix-it?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
Bailout of single bank Northern Rock has cost the public