The rise of the overclass

[Stoatwobbler]

Interesting article from Peter Oborne in the Daily Telegraph.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9027846/The-rise-of-the-overclass.html

 

 

When Labour leader Ed Miliband used his conference speech last September to call for a fairer and more humane type of capitalism, he was greeted with widespread derision and mockery. But four months on, every leading politician in Britain is desperately trying to follow Miliband’s lead. What constitutes a fair society is no longer just a matter for academic theorists. Suddenly it’s the hottest subject in politics.

 

The reason is simple: growing public revulsion at a new class of super-rich who seem to be immune from the restraints that govern the lives of ordinary people. Senior bankers, private equity moguls and hedge fund managers appear cut off from the rest of us. They often pay little or no tax, increasingly live in heavily guarded enclaves, and some have little or no real allegiance to Britain. The sources of their wealth are often mysterious, and appear unrelated to merit. These feral rich pose, in their way, every bit as much of a danger to society as the rioters who stole and pillaged London streets last August.

 

Taxpayers spent £60 billion bailing out City bankers to save them from bankruptcy. Yet, rather than displaying contrition or gratitude, these bankers continue to pay themselves multi-million pound salaries, unimaginable sums of money to most of us.

 

The injustice is glaring – all the more so in a time of grinding national austerity, when living standards are falling and unemployment is rising. No wonder that, this week, David Cameron – who loves to claim that “we’re all in this together” – entered the fray with a speech trying to define what he called “responsible capitalism”. He senses that this is an issue where the Right is hugely vulnerable, as the experience of Mitt Romney, the leading Republican presidential candidate, proves.

[Mecky]

I wonder why the Daily Torygraph would say that? Quite clearly it's sabre rattling, they know this is the most unpopular government since Thatcher and are trying to influence public opinion. A media company trying to do that ... imagine

[Tony]

Is it because it is true?

[Mecky]

Is it because it is true?

 

What is true? True information for suspect data? Opinions can mean anything, Why would they pen such a story anyway. I love little people like you.

[FairDooz]

"What constitutes a fair society is no longer just a matter for academic theorists. Suddenly it’s the hottest subject in politics."[/Quote]

 

"David Cameron ... entered the fray with a speech trying to define what he called 'responsible capitalism'".[/Quote]

 

The economic and political system is on the verge of collapse due to derugulation and irresponsible capitalism.

 

I don't hear any political party putting forward an alternative to capitalism or the market economy.

 

However, I do hear just about every politician agreeing that the current system needs fixing.

 

Whether you define that as responsible, moral, fair, good or productive capitalism as opposed to irresponsible, immoral or predatory doesn't really matter, we all know that we're not just at the low point of a normal economic cycle, there's something seriously wrong with the current imbalances in the system.

[Funky_Gibbon]

David Cameron – who loves to claim that “we’re all in this together” – entered the fray with a speech trying to define what he called “responsible capitalism”. He senses that this is an issue where the Right is hugely vulnerable, as the experience of Mitt Romney, the leading Republican presidential candidate, proves.

 

Except his speech wasn't about curbing the excesses. I listened to it and he spent quite a lot of that speech talking, obliquely, about opening up the public sector to 'the Market' as if that would bring more 'responsibility'. About the only tangible thing in that speech was the pre-announced bit about shareholders having more say in deciding wages which many people have already pointed out as being ineffectual at best.

[Tony]

I don't hear any political party putting forward an alternative to capitalism or the market economy.

 

However, I do hear just about every politician agreeing that the current system needs fixing.

Do you mean "the system" (and what is that) or do you mean capitalism?

[FairDooz]

Do you mean "the system" (and what is that) or do you mean capitalism?

 

In the reports and debates I've read and listened to, all politicians, including those on the right, are agreed that there is a lot that needs fixing with the market economy and capitalism as it stands.

 

The inequalities, the concentration of power and the rewards that go to the few not only undermine trust in the economic system, but in the political system and the politicians who seem incapable of reforming it, or detaching themselves form the vested interests that support them.

[Tony]

Then you seem to have answered your own questions and shown why no political party is putting forward an alternative.

[green]

Oborne has written a fair few articles similar to this recently in the Telegraph.

 

Good for him.