Mailbox: Up for debate – placing deckchairs on the Titanic

The story of the Titanic is well known. The ship that would never sink, which on its maiden voyage collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic ocean, plunging to the depths of the ocean. More than 1 500 people died, and it’s still one of the deadliest commercial maritime disasters in history. Biznews community member JJ van Wyk sees the global economy headed on this RMS Titanic voyage. On course to hit an iceberg unless something changes, and fast. And the first port of call is for healthy debate as Van Wyk sees the cancer of the problem ‘economic equality’. He’s also the author of the recently published book ‘The Wilberforce Option’, and wrote his response after reading Brian Kantor’s article looking at wheat’s price escalation. – Stuart Lowman

From Biznews community member JJ van Wyk

This article started out as an oblique comment on the article of Brian Kantor: A Marie Antoinette moment – let them eat more expensive bread. In introducing the article, Stuart Lowman referenced the Arab Spring. Together with the title, this raised a critical issue, to my mind the most critical of our time, one that will not be resolved by free trade, or protectionism for that matter: The growing global economic inequality, reflected in the incredible statistics regularly quoted by Bernie Sanders. We are indeed sliding back into a neo-feudal system with the super wealthy royalty, those who live off their patronage and the increasingly desperate peasants.

In Tunisia, where the Arab Spring began in 2010, much of the frustration was the lack of work for even the educated youth, along with all the other inequities. Avoiding the bloodletting of Syria, the chaos of Libya and the troubled succession of governments in Egypt, Tunisia now has a government that most in the Islamic world may envy. Four disparate Tunisians, a coalition of unionists, employers, lawyers and rights activists, were the joint recipients of the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize for their role in bringing about an inclusive, pluralist democracy with a government that set out to serve its people as best it can. Yet, there is renewed unrest because too many are still unemployed, underemployed or precariously employed, as is the case in even the developed countries.

Der Untergang der Titanic

In South Africa we have gross incompetence and blatant corruption in government. The recent findings of the Constitutional Court and the political furore have given us some hope of limiting the impunity, but I do not expect that the game will change fundamentally, only the players and the blatancy. I do not wish to minimise the damage that our ANC government has caused, or provide a rationale for continuing in the same way, but even good governance will not stop the economic inequality from growing. It may slow it down, but South Africa cannot escape the global economic realities.

Many of the ISIS recruits in Brussels, the supporters of Trump, those of Bernie Sanders, the EFF and many others all over the World are all reacting to the same inequities and the impotence of governments, regardless of their espoused ideologies and how truly benign their intent. Sanders and Trump agree that free trade is the problem, but disagree on fiscal policy. Yet it will not matter which one of them, or Clinton, or Cruz, becomes president. None of them have the solution. Perhaps none of them understand the cause of the problem…

Strangely, this issue is routinely glossed over by all the talking heads: Technology has benefited mankind in many ways and it can do much more in the future. However, most visibly since the early 1980’s, through mechanization, computerization and automation, technology (largely owned and controlled by the very wealthy) has progressively and irreversibly undermined the bargaining power of the workers. The wealthy get ever wealthier, reaping profits from low risk investments without there being significant growth in the production of consumable products and services – the real wealth of nations.

The growing unemployment, underemployment and precarious employment suit the wealthy. And there is no going back from here. No government policy can redress this power imbalance and the weakening global demand for labour – at least not in a world where the profit-seeking investment strategies of the wealthiest 2% direct – and limit the effective productivity of – the global economy.

Capitalism as a global financial-economic system is out of balance and beyond control, and it cannot be reformed. And I say this as someone who supported Reagan and Thatcher in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Taxation is not the solution either. We need to look beyond the left-vs.-right paradigm for the solution.

The extreme and growing global economic inequality will be the cause of a destructive revolution that has already begun. This revolution will be uncoordinated, multifaceted, and must be prevented urgently from building momentum. This must be our first priority. Else, it will surpass climate change as the major threat to the survival of our species.

I know that attempting to address this may appear too ambitious, impossible even, that most of us would rather focus on things closer to home, within our own domain of expertise and influence. However, debating the merits of free trade versus the protection of strategic industries, or the level and focus of taxation that would best serve the common good, or how to prevent people who have power in our current systems from abusing such power, is tantamount to debating the placement of deckchairs on the Titanic.

Many people are distressed, even outraged, by the economic inequality problem, but none that I know of have come up with a comprehensive solution. I believe that I have the beginnings of such a solution, one that is both feasible and desirable. Even the richest 1% will find it palatable, and infinitely better than the destructive alternative. It is set out in my newly published book: The Wilberforce Option.

My solution has radical elements, but is collectively gentle, humane and rational. It serves a values system that all good people will embrace and is based on the belief that the vast majority of people are good. Yes, there is a minority of sociopaths – the predators and parasites that are the bane of our society. And too many people have been de-humanized in our many hellholes. But most of those who are behaving badly do so because of the prevailing conditions that bring out the worst in people – and these conditions we can change.

The elements of the solution that I propose address the financial, economic and political/governance systems that represent or create prevailing conditions. The solution is comprehensive and cannot be properly explained in a limited article. After all, it is not a simple matter to re-engineer the systems that humanity has evolved over millennium, at least not if they have to be feasible, desirable and possible to deploy while maintaining order, remaining within the laws of the day.

I can only provide some highlights here: The core element involves the deconstruction of money itself, dispelling the myth of scarcity that serves only the wealthy. Another element is a collaborative economic doctrine that fully harnesses human energies, technology, knowledge and information for the wellbeing of all. Also key is governance in the best interest of the people – something that still eludes even the good people of the USA. Technology can now enable pure democracy, rather than having to rely on corruptible individuals as representatives, or worse – a self-serving ruling party cabal!

The elements of the solution are all debatable, but as interdependent elements of a system, not as a smorgasbord of would-be silver bullets. The proposed financial and economic policies and protocols will work best in a truly good-governance environment, with pervasive transparency where the people can trust government implicitly. Conversely, the financial policy and protocols will facilitate such good and clean governance.

Unfortunately, the solution cannot begin in South Africa, or any similarly-sized country. It is a global problem and the major nations would have to take the lead. However, we can all contribute. A major communication campaign is called for to foster understanding and build a groundswell of support for the solution. It can be done, but some privileged individuals and groups (present day counterparts of William Wilberforce, be they religious, spiritual or secular), must help set free the masses enslaved by poverty – unnecessarily so.

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