THE RICH GET RICHER
"The US's richest tycoons increased their personal wealth in the past
year, with the top 400 worth $1.13 trillion (£640bn), says Forbes
magazine.... To make this year's
list of the top 400 fortunes in the US a minimum net worth of $900m was
required - up from $750m last year." (BBC News, 23 September) The old
popular song "Aint We Got Fun" cynically stated "The rich get rich and
the poor get children", but it is no laughing matter.
YOUR TWO CENTS WORTH
An analysis of the gap between the rich and poor in Manhattan by Dr
Beveridge of the City
University
of New
York is
revealing.
"Income
Disparity in
City
Matches
Namibia.
Trump
Tower on
Fifth Avenue is only about 60 blocks from the Wagner Houses, a public
housing project in East Harlem, but they might aswell be light years
apart. They epitomise the highest and lowest earning tracts in
Manhattan, where the disparity between rich and poor is now greater
than any county in the country. ... The top fifth of
earners in Manhattan make 52 times what the lowest fifth make -$365,826
compared with $7,047 - roughlycomparable to the income disparity in
Namibia. ... Put another way, for every dollar made by households in
the top fifth of Manhattan earners, households in the bottom fifth made
about 2cents." (New York Times, 17 September)
BIG SPENDER
"The minute he walked in the
joint, they could tell he was a real big spender. ... By the time
he left the Aviva bar in the fivestar Baglioni Hotel in Kensington,West
London, on Thursday night, he had spent
nearly £36,000. He bought 851
cocktails, emptied the place of
|
|
|
Louis Roederer
Cristal champagne, and gave a waitress a £3,000 tip. (Times,
1October) This hedge fund manager from
New York spent £16,500 on champagne and £6,000 on a variety
of cocktails. It can be safely assumed this high-roller does not live
in the Wagner housing project in East Harlem.
DOUBLETHINK
According to George Orwell in 1984,doublethink is the power of holding
two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting
both of them. This spectacular mental gymnastic
feat seems to have been accomplished by Karen Hughes, a public
relations spokesperson for President Bush in her recent trip to the
Middle East. Trying to sugar the pill for her Turkish listeners she
came out with this classic of Doublespeak.
"To preserve peace, sometimes my
country believes war is necessary."
(Observer, 2 October)
PROGRESSING BACKWARDS
Some years ago the press and TV was full of conjecture about the
wonderful leisure-based life we would have inside capitalism.
Futurologists and other media
pundits speculated that with the advance of technology we would all be
working fewer hours and fewer days per week.
The big problem of the future would be how to spend all our leisure
hours. Such scenarios have proven completely wrong
with many of us now working longer hours and now it seems probably
working for
many more years. "The state pension age should be raised to 70, the
Confederation
of British Industry says in light of new figures detailing extended
life expectancy."
(Times, 4 October)
THE DIGNITY OF LABOUR
In an edited extract fom Maxwell's Fall: An Insider's Account by Roy
Greenslade we learn something of the contempt the owning class feel for
the working class. When Maxwell took over The Daily Mirror he wanted to
speak to
Kelvin MacKenzie then the editor of The Sun but his secretary reported
that MacKenzie would not accept his call. "Maxwell demanded that the
secretary relate the conversation in full, but she
|
|
|
was hesitant.
"No, no, no,"
screamed
Maxwell. "Tell
me everything
he said." She said she would prefer not to,
but Maxwell shouted: "You
will not get into trouble,
Patricia. But if you refuse, you will be in
trouble. "Well, Mr Maxwell, he said, "I
don't want to speak to the fat Czech
bastard." Two weeks later Patricia left in
tears, escorted from the building by a security man (Times, 6 October).
THE DECLINE OF RELIGION
It used to be an argument of supporters of
capitalism that socialism was impossible
because of the working class's adherence
to religion. A recent article by the
columnist Magnus Linklater sems to give
the lie to that notion. "Whereas in 1851
between 40 and 60 per cent of the
population went regularly to church, today
that figure is less than 7 per cent. In
recent years the trend has accelerated -
by 28 per cent in the last 20 years for the
Catholic Church, and 24 per cent for the
Anglican Church; in Scotland, the fall has
been so dramatic that the once allpowerful
Kirk reported recently that it
could well be extinct as an organisation
within the next 50 years." (Times, 13 October) Any other arguments
against socialism?
|
|
Contents