The European Tribune is a forum for thoughtful dialogue of European and international issues. You are invited to post comments and your own articles.
Please REGISTER to post.
And neither does anybody else. However, only leftists think it's a BAD thing. And the reason for that is that most leftists have a collectivistic and hierarchical mindset and as a result wish only to have as few people people as possible that make more money then them.
That's where you have it wrong. We don't mind some inequality. We do mind when inequality is growing and incomes for those outside the top 1% are stagnating or declining.
We mind this gap:
And this one:
and this one:
All of these show that the overall income is growing, sometimes quite strongly, but that growth is going ONLY to the very rich.
THAT's what we're fighting. The totally skewed sharing of the fruits of growth over the past 30 years - which is the direct result of the neo-liberal, "greed is good", "the poor have what they deserve", "screw society" ideology.
Runaway neoliberalism is what we're fighting. Not capitalism per se. In fact, regulated (or social-democratic) capitalism is what made our countries rich and built the middle class. But it's not what we have now. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Growing from what level?
As always, you care more about relative things than absolute things.
That's what you really want to believe, but just look at the last graph I posted: the median wage is stagnating. There is no progress, in absolute terms (your own criteria) for the middle classes, despite fast growth.
So, according to your criteria (as long as the poor are better off, who cares how well the rich fare), the current system is a failure. It's not benefitting in any way to the vast majority of the population.
And the fact that people like you pretend that all is well ("GDP is growing! The economy is doing great!") does not go well with the middle classes who see the rich getting extravagantly richer while they themselves are working ever harder just to stay put.
Incomes are not growing for the vast majority. You can spin that like you want it, it's bad under any criteria. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
by Oui - Dec 9 7 comments
by Oui - Dec 5 10 comments
by gmoke - Nov 28
by Oui - Dec 97 comments
by Oui - Dec 820 comments
by Oui - Dec 620 comments
by Oui - Dec 612 comments
by Oui - Dec 510 comments
by Oui - Dec 44 comments
by Oui - Dec 26 comments
by Oui - Dec 181 comments
by Oui - Dec 16 comments
by gmoke - Nov 303 comments
by Oui - Nov 3012 comments
by Oui - Nov 2838 comments
by Oui - Nov 2713 comments
by Oui - Nov 2511 comments
by Oui - Nov 243 comments
by Oui - Nov 221 comment
by Oui - Nov 22
by Oui - Nov 2119 comments