hvactec
VIP Member
Oct. 19, 2011, 7:12 a.m. EDT
Commentary: Rich world’s social discontent will result in restored trade barriers
JERUSALEM (MarketWatch) -- “The basis of our government is the opinion of the people,” said Thomas Jefferson. A novelty when it was said in 1787, that insight now goes without saying, provided that one knows just what “the opinion of the people” is.
However, as the world followed recent days’ social protest in 70 cities from New York and Frankfurt to Tokyo and Sydney, and as rioters in Rome left a trail of carnage reminiscent of the Barbarian invasion, the mystery grew bigger yet: What do they want?
Expectedly, some now lump together all recent social flashpoints, from Cairo through Tel Aviv to London and Wall Street, as if the so-called Arab Spring’s spirit has gone global. Well that’s unfounded. The Arab upheaval, itself a confusion of civil, tribal, ethnic and religious wars, is about political freedom, while the free world’s upheaval is about social opportunity.
Socially, too, the upheavals have been inconsistent. Egypt’s was sparked by the educated elite, Tel Aviv’s engulfed the middle class, and London’s unleashed the underclass. The turnouts also render all analogies absurd, as Cairo’s rallies attracted millions who paralyzed Egypt and debilitated its economy, while the rich world’s protests, sit-ins and tent camps seldom involved more than several thousand people.
The protesters’ agendas also vary greatly. In Chile they demand education reform, in Israel cheaper housing, and in Greece they decry the austerity that curing their debt crisis demands.
And while each of these protests at least had its own focus, in New York signs ranging from “Tax Wall Street” and “Eat a Banker” to “End the Fed” and “Stop Wars” suggest the protesters share little more than the desire to scream, a la Peter Finch in the movie “Network,” “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore.”
And yet the rich world’s protesters do have several things in common: They feel economically insecure; they feel cheated; and they are beginning to move. As the protest grows, leaders will have to produce something more insightful than another aid package for a reckless borrower and something more inventive than another stimulus package for a slumping economy.
And they will conclude that what their societies’ young and restless need is a return to the 1950s economic stability, when today’s near-borderless commerce had yet to emerge.
Rapid and massive change
A lot has happened since the days when Americans and Europeans spent entire careers in one company without ever worrying about it getting bought, downsized, spun off, outsourced or shut down.
read more Occupy Wall Street signals end of utopia economics - Amotz Asa-El's View from Jerusalem - MarketWatch
Commentary: Rich world’s social discontent will result in restored trade barriers
JERUSALEM (MarketWatch) -- “The basis of our government is the opinion of the people,” said Thomas Jefferson. A novelty when it was said in 1787, that insight now goes without saying, provided that one knows just what “the opinion of the people” is.
However, as the world followed recent days’ social protest in 70 cities from New York and Frankfurt to Tokyo and Sydney, and as rioters in Rome left a trail of carnage reminiscent of the Barbarian invasion, the mystery grew bigger yet: What do they want?
Expectedly, some now lump together all recent social flashpoints, from Cairo through Tel Aviv to London and Wall Street, as if the so-called Arab Spring’s spirit has gone global. Well that’s unfounded. The Arab upheaval, itself a confusion of civil, tribal, ethnic and religious wars, is about political freedom, while the free world’s upheaval is about social opportunity.
Socially, too, the upheavals have been inconsistent. Egypt’s was sparked by the educated elite, Tel Aviv’s engulfed the middle class, and London’s unleashed the underclass. The turnouts also render all analogies absurd, as Cairo’s rallies attracted millions who paralyzed Egypt and debilitated its economy, while the rich world’s protests, sit-ins and tent camps seldom involved more than several thousand people.
The protesters’ agendas also vary greatly. In Chile they demand education reform, in Israel cheaper housing, and in Greece they decry the austerity that curing their debt crisis demands.
And while each of these protests at least had its own focus, in New York signs ranging from “Tax Wall Street” and “Eat a Banker” to “End the Fed” and “Stop Wars” suggest the protesters share little more than the desire to scream, a la Peter Finch in the movie “Network,” “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore.”
And yet the rich world’s protesters do have several things in common: They feel economically insecure; they feel cheated; and they are beginning to move. As the protest grows, leaders will have to produce something more insightful than another aid package for a reckless borrower and something more inventive than another stimulus package for a slumping economy.
And they will conclude that what their societies’ young and restless need is a return to the 1950s economic stability, when today’s near-borderless commerce had yet to emerge.
Rapid and massive change
A lot has happened since the days when Americans and Europeans spent entire careers in one company without ever worrying about it getting bought, downsized, spun off, outsourced or shut down.
read more Occupy Wall Street signals end of utopia economics - Amotz Asa-El's View from Jerusalem - MarketWatch
