Bourgeois of Britain Unite!

Inequality. Inequality. Inequality.

We may see a charismatic leader standing on a podium emulating Thatcher in the not too distant future. But they'll be preaching a message which is the polar opposite to our 'Aunty Margaret'. Now I'm not saying that she got everything completely wrong; she did some much needed modernising and restructuring. However when she said that she was 'rolling back the frontiers of the state' she didn't know how far to go. Her deregulatory policy made it much easier for large corporations to restructure the market. They made it so that instead of the market serving us (the masses), we serve the market.

Karl Marx observed that history is defined by class struggle, he stated that there is a constant battle between the Petit Bourgeois (average middle class), Bourgeois (upper middle class) and the Proletariat (working class). However I would argue that this model doesn't really apply anymore. It is broadly accepted that we've got a system where we don't have the traditional working class. But we have a mobile middle class and then a large jump up to the super-elite at the top of the food chain. Plato stated the ratio between the highest earners to lowest earners in society should be no more than 6:1 and in 1923 JP Morgan stated it should be 20:1. Income inequality is at the point where those with the highest wages (the Bourgeois) are paid up to between 100 -1000 times more than the average wage. This is in one word: unsustainable.

 

We may not see it now when we are able to afford Sky subscriptions and can buy iPhones and other cheap consumer goods. But the storm is coming. It may take until the illusion of growing wealth ceases to have an effect. People may take this as mere hyperbole but I kid you not, this is a very real problem.

1. The richest 10% of households own 850 times the wealth of the poorest 10%
2. UK inequality has risen by 42% since 1977 (according to the Gini Coefficient, the standard measure of inequality) 
3. The wealthiest 100 people in the UK have as much as the poorest 18 million people
4. I don't really like this one but: it costs the UK £31-33 billion per annum in productivity and tax losses (why don't the Tories care more?!)

Some of you reading may think "hang on, I (or my parents) make almost double the average wage and way more than the poorest 10% so how does it effect me?". Well it effects you because eventually either you or your parents will be experiencing the same difficulties that the poor are. What will the breaking point be? When couples with a combined salary of £40,000 a year are unable to get onto the property ladder? When the goods and services which we actually need start to become unaffordable for many? Will it come when we finally accept that we have gone back to a Marxist hierarchy with the definitions for each class are redefined? 

We can see that the 'horse and sparrow' economics  doesn't work. If it did, the statistics above wouldn't exist. The idea that if we feed the horse oats (money), then some of the seed will eventually pass down to the sparrows is inherently flawed. In reality, we the sparrows are left eating horse s*** with no oats in sight. By the time we end up getting whatever oats we can they've lost their nutrients. The money which we get has lost it's purchasing power therefore, we need to borrow money in order to buy the goods that we want and need and that is when the black hole of debt starts to form. 

It is only a matter of time before we start to realise that we're being cheated and manipulated by those of a 'higher order'. This may seem like conspiracy but it really isn't. It can be observed that throughout history great empires must end, and this empire of neoliberal capitalism needs to end. I'm not proposing a return to Keynesian Collectivism (public ownership) or a Marxist State. I'm calling for a government by the people, for the people and with the people not just for big business; and an economic market which serves the masses and not just the select few. 

Sources:

The Telegraph

The Guardian

The New Economics Foundation

Four Horsemen

Oxfam Report