By Shazia Anwer Cheema
The Report titled “Survival of the Richest” prepared by Oxfam was published on January 16 and placed at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting. This Report has pointed out that the super-rich outstrips their extraordinary grab of half of all new wealth in the past decade.
Billionaires’ fortunes are increasing by 2.7 billion USD a day and at least 1.7 billion workers now live in countries where inflation is outpacing wages.
A tax of up to 5 percent on the world’s multi-millionaires and billionaires could raise 1.7 trillion USD a year, enough to lift 2 billion people out of poverty.
Planet earth is heaven for one percent of billionaires and hell for the rest of the population. The accumulation of the world’s wealth to 1% creates an ever-increased ridge between rich and poor. The world is crumbling with poverty mainly because the system is not willing to take the money back, in form of taxes from the rich, richest are not even pay a 3 % tax and the system is so flawed that no one is courageous enough to fix it. The ones who are supposed to fix it, are rich enough not to bother their bands of brothers. The politicians’ policymakers are from the privileged 1%, and the courage I am talking about starts from their own pockets.
Societies are designed to help the rich earn more and deprive the poor of any earning possibility at all
So instead of working on a revolutionary plan of equal distribution of wealth why not talk about climate change, world peace, the future of IA, etc? Capitalist societies are cursed with the capitalist ideology, where individuals are supreme over society, where this is mine not yours because I have earned it, is the biggest mantra of life. Even though these societies are designed to help the rich earn more and deprive the poor of any earning possibility at all. Money attracts money and wealth accumulates wealth and the end and starting point of the circle of poverty is poverty, there is no pit stop in between which can change its course.
53% of recent college graduates are unemployed or underemployed
The irony of the situation is that in this poverty-trodden world wealthy are selling instability in the form of war and conflict and making even more money as a result.
Inflation, unemployed youth, hunger, unreachable medical care, and poor living conditions are today’s reality. A Report “Key College Graduates Unemployment Rate Facts and Statistics” indicates that around 53% of recent college graduates are unemployed or underemployed. Basic household needs are out of the common man’s capacity and urban slavery is the new normal.
Strangely and strongly this club of riches not only controls physical as well as production resources but the soft power of the world— the sources of communication
Overqualified individuals are forced to compromise on lesser paying menial jobs and for that even if they pay 40% tax a billionaire is not eager to pay 3% tax and the great debate about this is the trickledown effect which will make the poor the poorer. I never find this argument logical that in order to run a county its elite must be un-touchable and if billionaire will shift their money elsewhere after getting unhappy with any government decision the state will be in trouble so better keep making them happy in order to keep them and let them make more money with money they already have and this multiplication of money needs not to stop. On the contrary, the idea of putting more tax on the non-wealthy always seems the best choice.
How can we get true democracy when democratic institutions are under the control of the same who subjugates our economic well-being?
Strangely and strongly this club of riches not only controls physical as well as production resources but the soft power of the world— the sources of communication. Owners of Artificial Intelligence (AI), cyber-security, cyber-communication, social media platforms, cellphone producers, super and normal computer producers, software owners, media czars, and even opinion builders like anchorpersons are members of clubs of riches globally, particularly in South Asia. They are almost the same who own and operate real estate businesses in developing countries and control not only public opinion rather the states.
Television screens cover protests being held for so-called “true democracy” but hardly cover any event where protesters are on street against a mill owner or demanding laborer rights
In developing countries or the so-called third world, we find protests for democracies, for supremacy of parliament, against one or another religion (reference War on terror, etc.) but we hardly find protests against over-night increases in prices of medicines, edibles, and living costs although these are directly linked with livelihood and survival of everybody. This club of riches by using its communication tools keeps a common man away to protest against what this club is doing with him or her future.
Wealthy decide what issue is important, and what must be discussed and propagated
Television screens cover protests being held for so-called “true democracy” but hardly cover any event where protesters are on street against a mill owner or demanding laborer rights because communication tools are indoctrinating us that issues like labor rights, uncontrolled price hikes, poverty, and marginalization of resources for poor are “petty issues” while raising voice on religious issues, ethnic issues, the supremacy of so-called democracy are “bigger and important issues”.
Have we ever seen protests on television screens or read articles on Op-ed pages against delay in providing justice by the judiciary? Have we ever seen any protest against a system that is producing billionaire army Generals who are also controlling real estate businesses?
How can we get true democracy when democratic institutions are under the control of the same who subjugates our economic well-being? Have we ever seen protests on television screens or read articles on Op-ed pages against delay in providing justice by the judiciary? Have we ever seen any protest against a system that is producing billionaire army Generals who are also controlling real estate businesses? We can see a charged mob burning the flag of a country in protest of something happening against their faith in the country of the flag they are disgracing or burning but the media do not cover the effectees of any housing society protesting in the streets after losing billions of USD in real estate scams. The misery of the poor is that even being in the majority they don’t have a voice.
We have seen the media discussing the horror of religious beliefs but we never saw the horror of the corporate sector in the media
Their voice is controlled by the 1% rich just like their lively hood. Wealthy decide what issue is important, and what must be discussed and propagated. Media is controlled by the 1% elite and is a puppet in their hands. From advertisements of unhealthy drinks to surgery products, they decide what the rest of the population must like or dislike.
We never see the media condemning the capital mafia or corporate dons
Morality has become subjective and the truth is a relative phenomenon, good and bad, moral and immoral all decided by the rich elite. They are the ones who decide what is a new normal, what is humanity, and what is civic anymore.
We have seen the media discussing the horror of religious beliefs but we never saw the horror of the corporate sector in the media. We never see the media condemning the capital mafia or corporate dons, but we have plenty of information about the mental illness of young kids and gun control without any discussion about gun manufacturing.
One percent is filtering and throwing that information on the rest of the population. Poverty and misinformation have numbed the human senses and make them prone to every new experimentation. It is easy to wage a war on them, declare them terrorists, rouge, mentally ill, etc.
In fact, 90 % are stuck in the labyrinth of deceit and lies wrapped into faulty promises and imposed truth. Neither do they have the resources nor the courage to question the rich because the web of survival has entangled them and they even consider themselves responsible for all the misfortune they are enduring.
Note: Writer Shazia Anwer Cheema is an author, columnist, and foreign affairs expert who writes for national and international media. She is a doctoral student and researcher in semiotics and philosophy of communication at Charles University in Prague. She can be reached at her: Twitter @ShaziaAnwerCh Email: shaziaanwer@yahoo.com
Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this article/Opinion/Comment are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the DND Thought Center and Dispatch News Desk (DND). Assumptions made within the analysis are not reflective of the position of the DND Thought Center and Dispatch News Desk News Agency.
