DOBBIN: Downsize Democracy for 40 Years, Here's What You Get
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2015 9:47 amDOBBIN: Downsize Democracy for 40 Years, Here's What You Get
[ http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2015/01/26/Do ... -40-Years/ ]
New signs civilization is veering towards collapse.
By Murray Dobbin, 26 Jan 2015, TheTyee.ca
EXCERPT:
Careening towards collapse?
How far down the road to collapse are we? For my generation not so far that we will see the worst of it. But what is alarming is that all the signs are so dramatically obvious. And while the mainstream media isn't yet talking about the end of our world, the issue of grotesque inequality and unsustainable resource depletion are somewhere in the media almost every week. Indeed inequality in particular has been a hot topic ever since the Occupy movement briefly swept the planet. Yet if you monitor the political debate in this country the two most important trends in our society and the world are virtually never mentioned except rhetorically. There are no serious policy prescriptions. Mass denial reigns. Or, as Freud stated, we are "knowing without knowing."
Regarding income (and wealth) inequality, a 2010 study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives revealed that the top one per cent claimed close to a third of all income growth during the decade from 1997 to 2007. "That's a bigger piece of the action than any other generation of rich Canadians has taken," said Armine Yalnizyan, CCPA's senior economist and author of the report. "The last time Canada's elite held so much of the nation's income in their hands was in the 1920s. Even then, their incomes didn't soar as fast as they are today. It's a first in Canadian history and it underscores a dramatic reversal of long-term trends."
Internationally, the picture is just as bad or worse. Earlier this month Oxfam released a report revealing: "The combined wealth of the world's richest one per cent will overtake that of the remaining 99 per cent by 2016.... " The wealthiest one per cent -- amounting to 72 million people -- already owns 48 per cent of all global wealth. This trend continues to accelerate, flying in the face of all the evidence that it could ultimately be fatal for capitalism.
MORE:
[ http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2015/01/26/Do ... -40-Years/ ]
[ http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2015/01/26/Do ... -40-Years/ ]
New signs civilization is veering towards collapse.
By Murray Dobbin, 26 Jan 2015, TheTyee.ca
EXCERPT:
Careening towards collapse?
How far down the road to collapse are we? For my generation not so far that we will see the worst of it. But what is alarming is that all the signs are so dramatically obvious. And while the mainstream media isn't yet talking about the end of our world, the issue of grotesque inequality and unsustainable resource depletion are somewhere in the media almost every week. Indeed inequality in particular has been a hot topic ever since the Occupy movement briefly swept the planet. Yet if you monitor the political debate in this country the two most important trends in our society and the world are virtually never mentioned except rhetorically. There are no serious policy prescriptions. Mass denial reigns. Or, as Freud stated, we are "knowing without knowing."
Regarding income (and wealth) inequality, a 2010 study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives revealed that the top one per cent claimed close to a third of all income growth during the decade from 1997 to 2007. "That's a bigger piece of the action than any other generation of rich Canadians has taken," said Armine Yalnizyan, CCPA's senior economist and author of the report. "The last time Canada's elite held so much of the nation's income in their hands was in the 1920s. Even then, their incomes didn't soar as fast as they are today. It's a first in Canadian history and it underscores a dramatic reversal of long-term trends."
Internationally, the picture is just as bad or worse. Earlier this month Oxfam released a report revealing: "The combined wealth of the world's richest one per cent will overtake that of the remaining 99 per cent by 2016.... " The wealthiest one per cent -- amounting to 72 million people -- already owns 48 per cent of all global wealth. This trend continues to accelerate, flying in the face of all the evidence that it could ultimately be fatal for capitalism.
MORE:
[ http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2015/01/26/Do ... -40-Years/ ]