Since 2020, the richest 1% have captured nearly two-thirds of the new wealth produced in the world, almost twice as much as the remaining 99%. Early last year, just 10 billionaires – men – were estimated to have six times as much wealth as the world’s poorest 3 billion people. In the United States, more than 70% of the country’s assets are concentrated in the hands of the wealthiest 10% of households.
Statistics like these are appalling, but they no longer surprise us. Since the Occupy Wall Street movement brought the issue of inequality to the forefront more than a decade ago, the subject has been on everyone’s lips. He was at the heart of the campaigns led by [le sénateur socialiste du Vermont et candidat à la présidentielle de 2016] Bernie Sanders reoriented research and public policy and continues to galvanize protest movements. The crisis of inequalities, although it certainly deserved attention, was not enough to change things.
To understand contemporary economic life, we must adopt a broader framework and think about insecurity. While inequality invites us to look up and down, to see the extremes – destitution and opulence – insecurity encourages us to look sideways.
“Personal and political” issue
While inequality is expressed in statistics, insecurity requires talking about feelings. To use a feminist expression, we could say that the issue is as “personal as it is political”. I have come to realize over time that economic problems also have an emotional dimension: the humiliation when you receive a call from a debt collector, the adrenaline rush when you have to pay the rent or the mortgage, apprehension when thinking about retirement.
And unlike inequality, insecurity is not explained only by the disparity between haves and have-nots. Its universality shows how widespread unnecessary suffering is, even among those who seem to be doing quite well. We are all, to varying degrees, overwhelmed and worried about what the future holds. We are on guard, anxious, incomplete and vulnerable. To get out of it, we struggle, we try to protect ourselves against potential threats. We work hard, we consume a lot, we hustle, we get diplomas, we save, we invest, we follow diets, we self-medicate, we meditate, we play sports and we apply exfoliating creams.
[…] Read more on International Mail
On the same subject :
2023-11-01 15:59:32
#Astra #Taylor #fight #manufactured #insecurity
