Oh. The. Horror.
One per cent holds half the world’s wealth
The combined wealth of the world’s richest 1 per cent will overtake that of the remaining 99 per cent by 2016 unless action is taken to curb “shocking extremes” of inequality, a new report warns.The richest 1 per cent currently own 48 per cent of all global wealth, Oxfam says. Next year that figure is forecast to exceed 50 per cent for the first time.
This isn’t functioning democratic capitalism, this is deregulated plutocracy. We have been conned into believing deregulated markets would provide the economic dynamism to provide for all, it hasn’t. Corporations have bought the political process, know which emotional buttons to push for the ignorant to respond to and pimp those values through their corporate media at all times.
John Key represents all that is wrong with the current system. Being able to borrow billions for tax cuts to the richest while cutting back on welfare for the poorest should have him kicked out of Office. It hasn’t. In a hyper individualised culture, the mythology of working hard and not believing there are any hegemonic power structures in society means success and failure are all your own responsibility. Key’s vacant optimism and empty promises is the cheese forever out of reach of the rat.
That we have been blinded by the inequality of it all is because over the last 6 years most media in this country has been hijacked by right wing pundits who have killed off public broadcasting so that these questions never get asked.
It’s not like Mike Hosking is ever going to challenge the status quo he benefits from right?
I’m not sure what is sicker, NZers blind acceptance of all of this or the fact Key will push through the TPPA ‘free trade’ deal which will be the final blow to our economic sovereignty so that we are forever enslaved by our Corporate Overlords.
NZers had a chance to change this inequality at the election. MANA/Internet Party stood for 20 000 new state houses, feeding every poor kid in every poor school, free tertiary education, ending mass surveillance and making access to the Internet a right. NZers however decided that Kim Dotcom was trying to ‘buy’ the election when it had already been bought by the National Party and their black ops team feeding the mainstream media Slater’s dirty politics bile for 6 years!
The sleepy hobbits of muddle Nu Zilind get the plutocracy they deserve.
That just 1% of the world’s population will hold over 50% of the entire world’s wealth by 2016 is appalling. This degree of inequality is sickening. Why? It means that while the elite are able to have food fights with their caviar entire countries remain starving. This is what they have wrought.
How to fix this? First, continued education, and I’m not talking about what they teach you at school. Individuals must continue to discuss this issue with others, their friends, their family, their workmates. The protests of the Occupy movement made this disgusting inequality ratio known, it’s up to us to make sure it’s not forgotten.
I wouldn’t mind if rich people had earned the money but they havnt its stolen from the people with their ownership of media, police, spy agency,etc etc , there is an article in Forbidden Knowledge about a mineral supplement in America,it would make you very worried indeed ,police raid innocent people for growing their own food , refusing vaccinations for children,kidnappingchildren and taken to hospital to be medicated with vile ingredients, the police state has gone stark staring mad ,what happens in America usually flows on to us, its mind boggling the control the likes of Monsanto , pharmacutecals, with complicity of FDA and medical profession etc.
google Forbidden Knowledge, whats happening is criminally insne
Yes martyn,
FJK has a job to do for the Fascist corporations as their messenger and he is now forced to complete his paid task before he leaves office and resides in the USA.
He is a Liar, a carpetbagger and a Judas priest.
Oxford English dictionary. – Corporatism.
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/corporatism
Definition of corporatism in English:
noun
[mass noun]
The control of a state or organization by large interest groups:
‘fascism was the high point of corporatism’
Fascism. – An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization.
I hear you CleanGreen …………. I 100% agree with you. Key is ‘Hungry Ghost’ working for the ‘Greed Machine’ ………. will people let him fulfill his orders/plans? Not if we band together and put the spot light on his smoke and mirrors tactics. Maybe the Greens could get together a Citizens Referendum to bring attention to the downside/truth of the TPPA.
According to Russell Brands book Revolution that one % richest people in the world fits into one bejewelled bus load of people they contain more wealth than the collective assets than half the earths population , thats how few they actually are compared to three and a half billion people. I think he got that from Oxfam. I recommend his book it’s actually really good. Also according to another book i read years ago called After The Clockwork Universe by SJ Goerner, funnel economies are designed to move wealth toward the richest persons. A little quote from that book, “We are on a tipping point in civilisation. This means we have to be ready to choose a good path”, Paul Ray.
Also mentioned in new BBC series ‘The Super Rich and us.’
Episode 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n06WlUJScTg
Episode 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xa8b9bm45M
1% is actually over 70 million people. I don’t see 70 million people sitting on one bus.
It’s basically the population of Turkey has the same amount of wealth as all the other nations population’s combined.
DANIEL,
Kate misquoted Russel Brand’s book. Here’s the actual quote from the book…
“Oxfam say a bus with the eighty-five richest people in the world on it would contain more wealth than the collective assets of half the earth’s population – that’s three-and-a-half billion people.”
Page 13 of ‘Revolution’
Whoops my silly, yes i did miss quote sorry, thanks YOGIBARE*
Nada, Kate.
I just hope Daniel realised 85 people having half the wealth of the world is even more shocking than 1% or 70 million.
TTPA
Abolition of RMA
It can and will get worse unless the sheeple wake up.
Sadly that doesn’t look promising.
Translate “we have been blinded by the inequality of it all” into “we don’t give a fuck about anyone else” and it becomes more accurate.
NZ has become one of what’s in it for me, on a micro level!
The only thing more sickening in this climate is those ghastly Victorian like charities run by elites spouses so they can feel good about themselves. Keep your false caring for someone who gives a damn!
Apathy. A lot of people just don’t have the fucking energy to fight this shit anymore, and that’s what malignant parasites like Key rely on.
The song Passive by A Perfect Circle was written as a way of venting against an American populace determined to sleep-walk into the abyss, and we’re not so different.
http://youtu.be/4kpn3V_Cnhg
“The commentary on Passive seemed very apropos for this album,” says Keenan. ”The song is very much about apathy. I think a lot of the problems in this country have to do with people willingly staying asleep. They’re allowing this administration to manipulate their decisions without actually getting involved in those decisions.”
Sorry to be off topic but one for the crony watch AND corruption…
“Greetings Valued Clients I have a very limited time opportunity to find a buyer for a 3.6HA lot in Hobsonville, with a draft subdivision plan for 58 sections of 400 sqm or more. Fixed price $4.5m. The catch is that the subdivision cannot proceed until certain infrastructure improvements have taken place. So the land bank could be for 3 or 4 years. The potential retail of the sections in today’s dollars is around $400,000 a section. So there is significant upside potential. The other catch is that the buyer would need to be unconditional by Thursday 29 January and settle a month later. If these dates are not met, the land will go to public tender by the Crown. Contact me if you are looking for such a land bank and can work quickly (no date extensions are possible) and I will provide details and a site visit as required. Kind Regards – this is a hard one – but with a serious upside.
Ian Ian Revell Senior Sales Consultant Prestige Real Estate Ltd MREINZ”
“Mr Revell was the National MP for Northcote when allegations that he threatened to get rid of a police chief after being issued with two parking tickets cost him his high-ranking job in the House in 1999.”
This so wrong on so many levels….
Why is crown land being sold?
Why is crown land not being tendered to get the best price?
At $400k a estimated retail section, some crony is obviously going to benefit significantly from the RMA reform…..
Oh National you are such hypocrites going on about affordable housing!
And to top it off, It’s so good to have friends from the crown giving disgraced ex National MP’s those listings!
Save NZ, that is so very interesting. Where did you find this?
How close to home is the National Party to all this land banking, one of the reasons we are given for a mere 20 houses being built since Nationals bullshit housing accord solution.
The turmoil in the Middle East, the Ukrainian war against Russia, the Charlie Hebdo false flag, the Trans Atlantic Partnership and the TPPA are the last ditch attempts by the USA to hold its empire together. Easy enough when economies were booming and everyone who made an effort was able to prosper but very difficult now the whole edifice is clearly working for the benefit of the 1% and very few others. It requires blind patriotism, toady politicians in vassal states and a compliant media. Russia and China and the other BRIC countries have realised the “problem” in world affairs and it is only a matter of time before the scales tip in many western countries. Joining the TPPA would clearly be a retrograde step for NZ. A few corporate exporters may profit but NZ would lose jobs and our sovereignty.
Glad someone else acknowledges Charlie Hebdo was a false flag.
It was just the excuse for world surveillance ,and it practically happened overnight . Media hyped it up , so that people came out in protest, “terrorists” buried in secret graves. The cartoon business sold millions of copies of the cartoons that so offended muslims. Don’t know if people died ,they probably did , the false flag perpertrators would class that as collateral damage.
They are so blatent now pulling out all stops to control and the Key government is assisting by trying to enact TPP ,why are people blind ,its not a conspiricy theory anymore.
Maybe its fear and stubbornness, National supporters hate to admit they were wrong about Key. There was a march on sat 24th not a thing in media .We are being treated like moles kept in the dark and fed S##t.
This publication is not being read by anyone but the people already aware of problem ,with the exception of a few Nat supporters, who are always “right” in their view.
Maybe TDB needs to do something as Whailoil did to get the message out there ,if an evil toad could make such a difference so could an upfront publication who at present is called “alternative media”.
It would hard, none of the objects of bile such as Sabin, Key, etc never respond to accusations, they all keep quiet hoping the story will die down,while less ingeneous people like David Cunliffe apologise for a red scarf. National party polititions must take a course in subterfuge.
@save NZ – once upon a time a journalist would have picked that up and exposed this story…now we have journos with their hands tied and mouths shut, and nothing serious, as what you have shown, is brought to light anymore. So much for the freedom of the 4th estate ‘A’ John. What a crock!
The game is so rigged in favour of the uber wealthy at this point that the only way to stop the international banks and corporate interests would be an armed insurrection, and that’s never going to happen in the Western world because we’ve all grown complacent and apathetic.
I fear inequality is just going to get worse and worse over the coming decades, to the point that we’re living in a neo-feudalistic society, with serfs living under the heel of the noblemen at the top (Hell, one could argue we already have that kind of society now!).
TL;DR–“Game over, man, game over!”
Twenty years ago to be in the 1% you had to be able to live for 30 days without income and, pay your bills without sacrificing your standard of living – that was most of us.
Last year Oxfam reported that the 1% owned 49% of the wealth, this year it’s 50%. The trickle up financial theory is working well and in a few years, the 90% will have nothing.
So what happens when the 1% owns 100%?
We can see the warning signs in Syria and Paris. The dispossessed are fighting back. The Charlie Hedbo attack had nothing to do with Islam, it’s a symptom of social injustice and a warning that we are living in a failed civilization.
Lets remember that capitalism is only a glorified game of monopoly and it’s time to call game over and begin again.
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