Inequality

Neoliberalism crept into Europe wearing a sharp suit and talking about efficiency. It promised a leaner, meaner state, less red tape, more growth, and a brighter future. What it delivered was stagnant wages, crumbling services, and Jeff Bezos in a rocket. For Europe, the cost has been clear: growing inequality, weakened public institutions, and a sense that someone, somewhere, has sold the family silver—and is now renting it back to us with interest. ...

The Weimar Republic—that plucky little democratic experiment that popped up in Germany after the Kaiser buggered off and everyone else was too busy starving to argue. It’s become the go-do historical analogy for every hand-wringer who thinks the rise of the far-right in Europe or the occasional American political tantrum means we’re all doomed to replay the 1930s. But let’s be real: history doesn’t repeat itself. At best, it drunkenly stumbles into the same pub, orders the same drink, and then vomits on the carpet in a slightly different pattern. ...

Poverty is that charming social construct we can pretend isn’t entirely our fault. The greatest challenge of our time? According to The Spirit of Poverty, it’s gently coaxing the middle classes into understanding that the homeless man shouting expletives at them is, in fact, a fellow victim of the same system that keeps them comfortably numb. How terribly inconvenient. Debunking the Greatest Hits of Poverty Misconceptions Myth 1: “Poor people did it to themselves.” Oh yes, because nothing says personal responsibility like being born into a postcode with failing schools, zero job prospects, and a healthcare system that considers paracetamol a luxury. Poverty is absolutely a choice—if your choices are between starvation and indentured servitude. ...

Poverty isn’t just a lack of money—it’s a meticulously engineered trap (done mostly by “developed” countries). While the so-called “developed” world pats itself on the back for occasional charitable gestures, billions remain ensnared in systems designed to keep them poor, hungry, and powerless. The bitter irony? The very countries lamenting global poverty are often the ones perpetuating it through exploitation, climate destruction, and a stubborn refusal to address root causes. ...

As we huddle in our homes during this charming pandemic summer, Silicon Valley’s finest have apparently decided that what the world really needs isn’t a vaccine or functioning government - but a way for rich men to never die. Because billionaires clearly don’t have enough advantages already. Today several biotech companies, fuelled by Silicon Valley fortunes, are devoted to “life extension” — or as some put it, to solving “the problem of death.” ~ The Men Who Want to Live Forever, Dara Horn, New York Times, Jan 2018. ...