There is so much going on at the moment in the political sphere with our attention being drawn in many directions. Some important matters are being ignored in the process. One of these, in my opinion, has wide ranging implications and connections with many of the 'big' stories of the day. I'm talking about the increasing concentration of wealth in the hands of a small minority, and the associated power and influence.
In 2023, the world’s richest 1%, defined as those with more than $1 billion, owned 47.5 percent of all the world’s wealth – equivalent to roughly $214 trillion. This inequality has only continued to grow. The world’s richest individuals are experiencing a rapid and historically unprecedented surge in their wealth, with the top 1% accumulating nearly twice as much new wealth as the rest of the world combined since 2020. In the UK, billionaire wealth has grown over 1000% since 1990, with the top 50 families holding more wealth than the bottom 50% of the population.
This massive inequality is, I would contend, incompatible with a properly functioning democracy. It is not a coincidence that the super-rich hoovering up an ever increasing amount of the world’s wealth has been associated with a rise in the far right and a marked rightwards shift in the centre of politics in Western countries. A shift also seen in the Labour Party, which has moved so far to the right that the original founders of the Labour Party would be expelled from it and which now occupies roughly the same political ground as the Conservatives did before Brexit drove them insane.
The super-rich, and the super-powerful, have worked assiduously to capture the political parties through a system of donations to both parties and individual politicians. They have also established a network of supposedly independent think tanks which formulate and promote policies which are beneficial to the wealthy, who are marketed as “wealth creators and the source of trickle down economics” and not as what they really are, “wealth hoarders and obscene spenders”. But above all, the rich perpetuate the conditions which permit them to keep enriching themselves through their control of the media, both the traditional media and the digital media. These outlets favour and promote a narrative that societal problems are created by immigrants, benefits claimants, asylum seekers, people of colour – particularly Muslims – women, transgender people, disabled people, or protesters - the “other”. Anyone and everyone must be blamed for society’s problems, except those who are really responsible.
In the UK, a recent YouGov poll has revealed that 75% support a wealth tax of 2% on fortunes above £10m, while only 13% oppose it. Yet despite this, very few politicians have voiced their support for a measure which an overwhelming majority support. Our politicians have become tame creatures of the robber barons from whom they are supposed to protect us and are too afraid of the media which promotes its owners’ viewpoints.
As wealth becomes ever more concentrated in the hands of a few, the right wing press and parties become increasingly shrill and hysterical in their demonisation of minority groups. This dehumanises entire sections of the population, stripping them of any right to empathy, compassion, or understanding. Asylum seekers are described as fighting age men with the implication that they are an invading force. They’re never described as working age although that’s perfectly accurate. They are never described as possibly offering skills and expertise that the country needs.
All this serves to divert attention from the real root cause of the failure of public services and the inability of an entire generation to find secure well paid jobs and affordable housing - the insatiable greed of the billionaires. Hyperbole? I don’t think so.
That our political class has turned into clients of the wealthy is incompatible with democracy. Root and branch reform of the system of political donations is long overdue. This system has given us the ascendency of the far right. Nigel Farage would not currently be tipped as a future prime minister if the system of political buying which prevails in the UK did not allow millionaires to funnel massive donations into his political vanity vehicle. They do so because they know Farage and his minions will enact policies which enable the rich to profit even more at the expense of the rest of us.
The purchasing of political influence by the rich goes hand in glove with ownership of the media by the wealthy. As campaigner George Monbiot pointed out in an article recently, you cannot have both a free market in media ownership and a free market in information and ideas. The oligarchs who dominate the sector stifle inconvenient thoughts and promote the policies that protect their fortunes. And it suits them that the spotlight is kept away from their activities. Where are the politicians brave enough to take them on? Where can such politicians air their views?
The Epstein files do not just reveal perversion and criminality, they also shine a light on the shadow power structure I'm talking about, operating far beyond the reach of ordinary democratic control. They reveal how rich and powerful men – and they are almost all men – help each other to become even richer and more powerful. They reveal how the wheels of power are greased; how information is traded; how favours are handed out. Suddenly, in fact, in reading the files, it is hard to escape the overwhelming sensation that most of us are naively clinging to outdated ideological convictions and assumptions about how the world operates, even as they are disproved. Maybe, maybe, the Epstein files might bring about some radical changes in some unexpected places.
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