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Working for the Few

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Next time you cry over your paycheck or you scrimp and scrape to find the extra few dollars to finish the month, remember that admittedly money doesn’t grow on trees…but it also serves no purpose when we slave away for someone else to strike it rich. Oxfam, the UK-headquartered charity, has just published a new report today and it shows that the world’s richest 85 people have the same quantity of wealth as 50% of the world’s population. Yes, there is a handful in this world that we have created that notch up more billions than half of the planet put together. Can it really be acceptable for the world to be working for so few?

Working for the Few was published Monday 20th January and its aim was to highlight the growing inequality in the world between the rich and the poor. The haves don’t just have, they have it all, it might seem and 3.5 billion people in the world are slaving away to keep them (more than) afloat.

• There are 210 people that have been made billionaires within the last year somewhere on this planet. 
• Those people now belong to the few (only 1, 426 individuals) that have a net worth together of $5.4 trillion.
• So, today the richest 1% on the planet has a combined net value of $110 trillion today. 
• That means that the top 1% have 65 times the total wealth of the poorest half of the world today.

The report mentions that “This massive concentration of economic resources in the hands of fewer people presents a significant threat to inclusive political and economic systems.”

The report has been published just in time for the World Economic Forum that will be taking place in Davos, Greece between January 22nd and 25th. There will be over 2, 500 participants, 100 countries and 1, 500 economic leaders and 40 heads of state. The subjects that are high up on the agenda will be:

• happiness and how to improve it (although if the WEF knew the answer to that question, everybody would be splitting their sides with laughter)
• research and knowledge 
• health, emerging economies
• the place of women in society and 
• Syria

Four days of heavy discussion. Let’s wonder exactly what the outcome will be.

Probably everyone will unanimously agree on the fact that happiness is a state of mind that is unattainable right now (just as long as the economies are nose-diving, as usual); it’s a concept that they sold to the world, but we didn’t have enough money to buy. Research and knowledge are also wonderful ideas in theory. We see people spending their entire lives searching and yet finding little. Health would be great if we could actually afford it. Even your health is up for grabs by the financiers these days. The place of women in society is currently pretty much at the bottom somewhere after the other hoards of slaves and drudges that have been employed historically and at the present time. We shall hear endless cases of how we need to provide women with equality and yet they will do nothing except vociferate and pontificate about why, where and how. Then Syria will be told it’s been a naughty boy and Al-Assad shall get his knee-caps spanked should he continue doing the dirty on his population. Then, he will stand for elections (because the people want him to?) and will be re-elected in true Supreme Soviet fashion.

The discussion on women is centered around the fact that ‘behind every woman there is a man’, which supposedly despite the obvious ambiguity, means that for every woman that gets into the board room and that manages to climb the executive ladder, there is a man that enters a profession of ‘caring for other people’. That’s, according to the WEF, what we should be doing turning men into care-givers and equally things out that way.

The WEF states “Profound political, economic, social and, above all, technological forces are transforming our lives, communities and institutions. Rapidly crossing geographic, gender and generational boundaries, they are shifting power from traditional hierarchies to networked heterarchies. Yet the international community remains focused on crisis rather than strategically driven in the face of the trends, drivers and opportunities pushing global, regional and industry transformation.”

Too focused on the crisis? Transformation?

The largest group of people that will be attending the Davos meeting are government officials (288 participants). They are followed by the banking and capital markets sector (230 representatives). Then, there are 225 media representatives.

In other worlds, are these the people that care about the world enough to improve it’s state and to make out happiness their goal?

No comment.

Originally posted: Working for the Few

You might also enjoy: USA:The Land of the Not-So-Free 

 

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Mon, 01/20/2014 - 17:51 | 4349231 Stuck on Zero
Stuck on Zero's picture

The outcome: the poor need to be put to work servicing the rich.  They're not doing enough.

 

Mon, 01/20/2014 - 17:56 | 4349227 Renfield
Renfield's picture

Careful with this 'inequality' theme. 'Income Inequality' (notice the cute alliteration?) is latest statist slogan. I'm just waiting for some political or media shithead to propose a War on Inequality.

Justin Trudeau, the likely next PM of Canada, is all about 'income inequality'. Statists love it. Like 'carbon trading', it's another empty slogan that suggests whole new realms of government meddling, waste, graft, and violent crime.

I hope we never ever have to live in a world where bureaucrats and politicians are expected to 'solve inequality'. No doubt we'll all be hearing more about this fucking 'inequality' nonsense over the next bloody year.

Crime is the problem, not inequality. Fraud is the problem, not inequality.

Inequality and injustice are not the same thing. Show me someone who opposes 'inequality', and I'll show you a career criminal.

Mon, 01/20/2014 - 17:10 | 4349098 kurt
kurt's picture

The amount of money off-shored and sheltered would exterminate world poverty three times over.

Mon, 01/20/2014 - 16:38 | 4349023 rustymason
rustymason's picture

Vanity Fair estimated a few years ago that, of the world's 100 richest people, about 70% were Tribal members. Pundits have said that the rest of that list worked directly or indirectly for the Tribe.

Our situation is simply this: rule by the International Money Changers, those greedy dwarves of the Middle East and southeastern Europe. They are the engines behind every murderous ideology of our time including Marxism, globalism, and neoconservatism. They have absolutely run the West into the ground. It is time for a real solution to rid our systems of this insidious parasite.

Mon, 01/20/2014 - 18:50 | 4349477 ILLILLILLI
ILLILLILLI's picture

The Riddle of the Jews Success

Much explained here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/117875599/The-Riddle-of-the-Jews-Success-Theod...

 

 

Mon, 01/20/2014 - 15:36 | 4348825 NoTTD
NoTTD's picture

Pretty sure Davos is in Switzerland, not Greece.   Could be wrong.  Maybe this is some new super broke "Davos" I've not heard of, yet. 

Mon, 01/20/2014 - 14:54 | 4348677 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

WTF is a WEF?

Mon, 01/20/2014 - 18:35 | 4349427 RafterManFMJ
RafterManFMJ's picture

It's what your lady friend does when she sits down to quickly after leaving the pool.

Mon, 01/20/2014 - 15:01 | 4348695 Ying-Yang
Ying-Yang's picture

The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

http://www.weforum.org/

 

Mon, 01/20/2014 - 15:08 | 4348710 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

Thanks,

I did not know that it used those initials as its name.

I thought RGATPHO (Rich Guys and their Prostitute Hangers On) was what they went by these days.

 

Mon, 01/20/2014 - 15:11 | 4348727 Ying-Yang
Ying-Yang's picture

Heh... they are The New World Order guys... chuckle

Global Agenda
World Economic Forum Annual Meeting
The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting is held every January in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, bringing together more than 2,500 business, government and civil society leaders from over 90 countries. It remains the foremost global gathering of business leaders, offering unparalleled access and opportunity to interact with the most important political leaders, heads of NGOs and international organizations, and experts from every field.

http://www.weforum.org/events/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2013

Mon, 01/20/2014 - 14:50 | 4348661 Tom_333
Tom_333's picture

What is the value net-net...or is everything leveraged x 40-60 , again ?

Mon, 01/20/2014 - 14:55 | 4348673 Bindar Dundat
Bindar Dundat's picture

Disgusting and  best argument for gold, bitcoin and guns I have seen yet.

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