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WORLD CITIZEN LETTER: 577
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WCL 577 Jan 2008
The road to plutocracy
It has recently been announced that the discrepancy in incomes in Britain, which 30 years ago approximated to 30 times the average to the greatest, has now rocketed. The wealthiest earner is now taking home in a year, about one thousand times what the average wage-earner does. It may be "earned" but acquired could be a more accurate term.
Roughly illustrating this fact is the news that last year the CEO of Barclays Bank collected some £23 million from various sources of income. And whether or not that particular fat-cat has presided over a successful year at the bank may be irrelevant. Most contracts for high-ranking executives nowadays appear to be framed so that win-or-lose for the company is still win-win for the bosses.
Already it is clear that the United States of America has progressed over the past century from democracy to plutocracy and Britain, eager to ape the material benefits showing in North America, is treading the same path. Until its conversion under the impact of Margaret Thatcher, the Labour Party provided some correction to this rush to plutocracy, but since the reign of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown the party has been neutralised, or castrated and has joined the rush. We are unlikely to see a political reversal, since no opposition parties are objecting.
What are the effects of this kind of inequality? Speaking nationally, within the bounds of the nation-state, they include for most sections of society and most individual citizens:
1. Lack of democracy
2. Warping of social goals
3. Destruction of necessary knowledge of other strata
4. Increase of social division
5. Weakening of social cohesion
6. Shifting of balance of society
Internationally this shift towards plutocracy has the same effects, confirming inequality and cementing divisions between rich and poor countries (disguised as 'developed' and 'developing'). By further accentuating existing divisions they ensure that the hostilities and enmities which keep our world on the edge of war and constantly preparing for future conflict will not be fundamentally altered.
John Roberts
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