(Newswire.net — January 27, 2015) — By the end of the 18th century, a vast majority of the French people were living in poverty and misery. When they decided enough was enough, they rose and killed the King and almost every rich feud, by decapitating them on the guillotine. This marked a new epoch called France’s Bourgeois Revolution.
Due to the globalization at the beginning of 21st century, 1 percent of the rich control 99 percent of the planet. With growing inequality and the civil unrest all around the world, the world’s super rich are already preparing for the consequences, The Guardian reported.
At the World Economy Forum in Davos, former hedge fund director Robert Johnson revealed that worried hedge fund managers are buying properties in remote countries preparing for ‘rainy’ days.
“I know hedge fund managers all over the world who are buying airstrips and farms in places like New Zealand because they think they need a getaway,” he said.
Managing director at Soros, Johnson said societies can tolerate income inequality if the income floor is high enough. “There is a wicked feedback loop. Politicians who get more money tend to use it to get even more money,” he said.
Income inequality is fast moving up the Davos agenda, The Guardian reported. Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners said in Davos, that he believes what happened in Ferguson will prove “a catalytic event” which has already changed the conversation in the US, bringing a message from those who previously “didn’t matter”. Anti-police riots in Ferguson sparked riots in other US cities, sending a clear message to the government and demonstrating in fact how easily people could gather in a chain of events.
On the other hand, former New Zealand prime minister and now UN development head Helen Clark told The Guardian, recent examples suggest the Ferguson movement may soon be forgotten.
“We saw Occupy flare up and then fade like many others like it,” Clark said. “The problem movements like these have is stickability. The challenge is for them to build structures that are ongoing; to sustain these new voices.”
Clarke told The Guardian, the problem is the lacking of political will. “Politicians do not respond to those who don’t have a voice in the end this is all about redistributing income and power,” she said.
“Seventy five percent of people in developing countries live in places that are less equal than they were in 1990,” Clarke said.
The panellists were scathing about politicians, Wallis describing them as people who held up wet fingers “to see which way the money is blowing in from.”