For most, the crumbs, 2023.
One of the meanings that the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language gives to the word "crumb" is: someone's waste or leftovers, which others take advantage of.
In the space of fifteen years, the West has witnessed three major economic crises[1]. This continuing economic instability has led to a widespread increase in poverty and a widening of economic inequality between social classes.
In its report "Survival of the Richest"[2] of 16 January 2023, the NGO OXFAM points out that extreme wealth and poverty in the world have increased for the first time in 25 years.
"In the last decade, the richest 1% have cornered 50% of the new wealth generated in the world. For every dollar of new global wealth earned by a person in the poorest 90% of humanity, a billionaire pockets $1.7 million. Billionaires' fortunes are growing at a rate of $2.7 billion a day, a golden decade for this 1% of the world's population.
Meanwhile, at least 1.7 billion workers live in countries where the growth of inflation is outstripping wages, and more than 820 million people worldwide (one in ten) go hungry."
In Spain, journalist and economist Javier Ruiz[3] points out that such widespread impoverishment of the population has not been seen since 1982. He notes that in percentage terms, the poorest Spanish people have to spend between 66% and 72% of their income on basic necessities, while the richest minority spend only between 15% and 17% of their income.
In the face of this widespread inequality, these economic elites continue —thanks to generous tax breaks granted for decades by political power— to disregard their responsibilities to the societies in which they live and, as mentioned above, continue to intensively extract and accumulate all available capital.
Their pathological greed has intensified economic inequality to such an extent that democratic systems are at risk[4].
Those of us who belong to the social majority are being deprived of sufficient economic power to be able to have a dignified subsistence. We are being forced into resignation and acceptance of the economic leftovers or crumbs of this inhuman social minority.
We are being condemned to a life of economic misery.
[1] First economic crisis: 2008, real estate crash. Second: 2020, economic recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Third: 2022, generalised increase in consumer goods prices due to the Russia-Ukraine armed conflict (Until 2022, Russia was the supplier of half of the natural gas and oil consumed in Europe and Ukraine was the leading exporter of wheat, barley and other cereals).
[2] VV.AA. (16 January 2023). Survival of the Richest. OXFAM.
https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/survival-richest
[3] Ruiz, J. (2022). Edifico España: El peligro de la desigualdad (pp. 115-130). Espasa.
[4] Fernández, A. (2 de septiembre de 2014). Desigualdad y democracia son incompatibles. elDiario.es
https://www.eldiario.es/agendapublica/nueva_politica/desigualdad-democracia-incompatibles_1_4671668.html
This text has been automatically translated by the Deepl app. Due to the nuances of automatic translation, there may be slight differences.
In the space of fifteen years, the West has witnessed three major economic crises[1]. This continuing economic instability has led to a widespread increase in poverty and a widening of economic inequality between social classes.
In its report "Survival of the Richest"[2] of 16 January 2023, the NGO OXFAM points out that extreme wealth and poverty in the world have increased for the first time in 25 years.
"In the last decade, the richest 1% have cornered 50% of the new wealth generated in the world. For every dollar of new global wealth earned by a person in the poorest 90% of humanity, a billionaire pockets $1.7 million. Billionaires' fortunes are growing at a rate of $2.7 billion a day, a golden decade for this 1% of the world's population.
Meanwhile, at least 1.7 billion workers live in countries where the growth of inflation is outstripping wages, and more than 820 million people worldwide (one in ten) go hungry."
In Spain, journalist and economist Javier Ruiz[3] points out that such widespread impoverishment of the population has not been seen since 1982. He notes that in percentage terms, the poorest Spanish people have to spend between 66% and 72% of their income on basic necessities, while the richest minority spend only between 15% and 17% of their income.
In the face of this widespread inequality, these economic elites continue —thanks to generous tax breaks granted for decades by political power— to disregard their responsibilities to the societies in which they live and, as mentioned above, continue to intensively extract and accumulate all available capital.
Their pathological greed has intensified economic inequality to such an extent that democratic systems are at risk[4].
Those of us who belong to the social majority are being deprived of sufficient economic power to be able to have a dignified subsistence. We are being forced into resignation and acceptance of the economic leftovers or crumbs of this inhuman social minority.
We are being condemned to a life of economic misery.
[1] First economic crisis: 2008, real estate crash. Second: 2020, economic recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Third: 2022, generalised increase in consumer goods prices due to the Russia-Ukraine armed conflict (Until 2022, Russia was the supplier of half of the natural gas and oil consumed in Europe and Ukraine was the leading exporter of wheat, barley and other cereals).
[2] VV.AA. (16 January 2023). Survival of the Richest. OXFAM.
https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/survival-richest
[3] Ruiz, J. (2022). Edifico España: El peligro de la desigualdad (pp. 115-130). Espasa.
[4] Fernández, A. (2 de septiembre de 2014). Desigualdad y democracia son incompatibles. elDiario.es
https://www.eldiario.es/agendapublica/nueva_politica/desigualdad-democracia-incompatibles_1_4671668.html
This text has been automatically translated by the Deepl app. Due to the nuances of automatic translation, there may be slight differences.