Tuesday 8 January 2008

I was reading in The Guardian an article by Oliver James about Selfish Capitalism...

"The scary thing is that since 1982 the top 1% of British earners have doubled their share of the national income from 6.5% to 13%. In 1980 the FTSE 100 Chief Executives earned 20 times the national wage and now it is an obscene 133 times. Over the years of the Labour Government the richest 0.3% grabbed over half of everything increasing their share of the wealth by 79% over the last five years.

Add to this that 23% of Americans, British, Australians, New Zealanders and Canadians sufferred mental illness during the last twelve months compared to only 11.5% of Germans, Italians, French, Belgians, Spanish and Dutch,

In our 'Big Brother/It Could Be You' society the combination of inequality and materialism creates unrealistic aspirations, stimulates consumerism and creates needy, miserable people who are somehow suckered into perfectionistic, competitive workaholism.

Before long Oliver James predicts we will get a passionate, charismatic leader, probably a woman, who advocates the unselfish capitalism of our neighbours or even the Scandinavian countries... giving us all reduced consumerism and greater equality, more ecological sustainability and halving the incidence of mental illness within a generation."


I can't wait!
Chris

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