- cross-posted to:
- collapse
- cross-posted to:
- collapse
This is more about growth and its folly in real time.
LONDON—One lesson from an unprecedented year of elections around the world is that voters in industrialized countries are particularly unhappy, ready to boot unpopular leaders out of office and making it more difficult for politicians in power to enact bold programs of change.
Rarely have the rich world’s political leaders been so widely disliked. No leader of an industrialized country other than tiny Switzerland has a positive rating, according to a survey of some 25 democracies by pollster Morning Consult. Ruling parties that went to the polls this year largely got a drubbing, including in the U.S. and U.K.
We are talking rich countries only. Those got hit from decades of neoliberal policies widening the wealth gap, weaker unions and globalization taking away certain jobs.
As for why long term effects of Covid namely inflation, reduced real wages for a lot of people, in Europe energy crisis and the Ukraine war, boomers are retiring everywhere, Trump having won in the US leading to spending on similar groups around the world hurting centrist governments, propaganda from dictatorships becoming more common and a bunch of other reasons.
The problem is that the way to solve it would be to tax the rich and hand over the money in form of more social spending. However that would require a war with the wealthy elites and that is risky for politicans.