Struggling to make ends meet makes people less tolerant and less supportive of one another. Inequalities in wealth and lifestyle cause people to blame each other. When there is enough for everyone, people share without any problems. When there is unemployment and insufficient wages, people resent each other. Civil servants against private sector employees, whites against blacks, young people against old people, men against women, etc. Politicians stir up differences, defending one side one day and the other side the next. This allows them to divert attention away from those who really benefit and who are responsible for their low standard of living: the ultra-rich, the ruling elites. Politicians use precariousness to control the population, to make the population more docile. If you don’t have enough money to cope, you can’t travel, you accept your working conditions, you don’t go out to protest, etc. After the protests that peaked in the 1960s and 1970s in Western countries, politicians grew wary and no longer wanted a population that had enough, because then people mix, travel, discuss, and have more time to think. Then they demand more. Permanent crises allow politicians and the elite to remain in power and justify these declines in quality of life ⸺when in reality these declines are due to their monopolization of wealth. The fear of a crisis like that of 1929, the fear of being destitute, and the fear of losing social status are very strong. All a politician has to do is promise abundance to get elected. People who are lacking think only of having a little more and turn away from the common good, and they have less compassion for their neighbors. They focus on details when voting and lose sight of the big picture ⸺ which can sometimes lead them to vote against their own interests, mistakenly believing that they will gain a few crumbs. This is why it is essential to reduce inequalities in order to defend our democracies. A universal basic income, with pr…
#Economictension is turning us #againsteachother: www.aurianneor.org/economic-ten...
#abundance #art #compassion #crises #democracy #differences #economy #election #inequalities #photomontage #politicians #precarious #publicinterest #qualityoflife #standardofliving #tolerance #ultra-rich #work
