We read at the guardian.com, that “Fewer than 60,000 people – 0.001% of the world’s population – control three times as much wealth as the entire bottom half of humanity,” which is an astonishing statistic, and which seems to say, when we look around the world, that no matter which country a given citizen is a denizen of, the wealth disparity between those at the very top as compared to a significant portion of the population at the bottom is massive. This strongly suggests that though the terms have changed, and the politics have appeared to change, that we are in many respects and in many countries, living something akin to that of a feudal society, in which, the superrich have their vassals that provide them with the infrastructure to not only maintain what they have but to continue to augment such, in exchange for those vassals having a decent and fairly fulfilling life, all built in an extreme hierarchical structure in which those that are at the bottom of the pyramid are ruthlessly exploited, directly or indirectly for the betterment of those at the very tippity top.
The fact that this is the case in country upon country reflects that our political leaders are not independent from those that have very deep pockets but rather have effectively been captured or compromised by such, to serve not the people, in whole, but rather to serve those that help them to be in a position in which they personally benefit and are accorded a degree of power which thereby suits and satisfies them.
It would be one thing if the trendline was in the direction of more equality of wealth, or at least some sort of direction in which the middle class remained resilient and had their say, but in reality, the superrich have gamed the system to such an extent, that they are not only gaining ground but the security of their wealth and position is getting ever stronger. Indeed, to a certain extent, we can put a significant amount of the blame on why this is so on those who essentially serve the superrich, who are themselves compensated at a fairly generous rate; that thus provides the infrastructure and muscle to protect those who have helped to make them quite satisfied with their lot, all though at the expense of the masses which are, in essence, voiceless and powerless.
It really doesn’t matter what alleged form of government is supposedly in charge, for every form of government worldwide appears presently to be controlled, hidden or not, by those that are the superrich and the well-positioned, of which, we know this by simply drilling down as to who does or does not benefit the most, of which we find that the laws of the land and the legislation so passed, doesn’t appear to be typically relevant, because nothing much changes for those that are the commoners of society, who are constantly exploited so that their blood, sweat, and tears can continue to fill through their labor the coffers of those that have it all and care not to put themselves in the position that what they have can ever be taken from them.