1% - Superfluous To Requirements.

       The world has reached a very bizarre situation. Through human effort and ingenuity we have built up an enormous mountain of wealth, however, we have allowed 1% of the world's population to purloin 50% of that wealth. At the same time we have allowed the conditions of the other 99% to become ever more bleak. Surely any sane person must see this as unjust, unacceptable and unsustainable. Living within this mountain of wealth the world has 2.2 billion children, of which approximately 1 billion live in poverty, almost 50%. Here in the UK we have roughly 3.7 million children living in poverty, 28% of all children. To put it into context, imagine a school class room with 30 pupils, 9 of those children will be living in poverty. There is another anomaly in this capitalist system, London, one of the richest cities in the world, has the highest rates of child poverty in the UK. Opulence and deprivation live cheek by jowl in this crazy insane system of capitalist exploitation and greed. 

       Looking at the trend of greater wealth moving into ever few hands, we have to ask ourselves, will the 1% stop at owning 50% of the world's wealth, will they as a group, say, "Well we have enough now, let's reverse the trend", or will they continue their journey of grasping at ever more of that wealth, where does it stop? When do we say enough is enough, how many more children will have to sink into deprivation and poverty, before we call a halt to this plundering of the world's wealth by the greedy few?
 

      We can't rely on that 1% to reverse this trend, to abandon their desire for ever larger yachts, ever more lavish personal jets, that just will not happen. We have to decide that this system of injustice, inequality, exploitation and greed, has to be destroyed, by us. We have to start with co-operation across our communities and workplaces, at taking control of our lives and shaping things to our needs. We the ordinary people, produce everything in this world, we distribute everything in this world, the change has to be that we decide what we produce, and how it should be distributed. We don't need some over paid CEO, nor a bunch of greedy shareholders, nor the leeches of the financial Mafia, to tell us how to shape our society, to tell us who gets and who goes without. We know, that the 1% is superfluous to requirements.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk