For hundreds - even thousands - of years the lot of the working classes in the western world was one of survival and nothing more. They lived in poor conditions, short of food, laboured long hours and lived short lives. Always there were the very rich who lived in comfort in grand houses and with armies of domestic servants to look to their every whim. Nothing changed very much until the coming of the Industrial Revolution. Technology and mass production improved the lot of everyone but after the struggles of the Victorian era it was the working classes that gained the most. We still have many old world rich people but the lives of the working classes in the western world are not, generally, ones of deprivation. There is very little variation in life expectancy between rich and poor
But have the efforts of the masters of high finance in the banks and hedge funds actually been working to reverse the progress of the last 150 years and create a new class of super-wealthy supported on the backs of ordinary people? It certainly seems that way Are we prepared to let them carry on collecting vast pay packets while the rest of us just stump up the cash when things go wrong?
I am going to think a bit more about this and see what Eric's mum thinks.
No comments:
Post a Comment