Mind the gap

The gap between the haves and have-nots is dangerously widening and even in a country like mine, which is seen by many Republicans as communist, the effects are deeply felt. True, we don't have entire tent cities or barricaded communities a la Johannesburg, but it is evident that the world took a wrong turn particularly in the early 1990's.

Neoliberal free trade was sold as an elixir to cure all economic ills except that it became a way for capitalists to escape tax constraints and social responsibility to further increase the size of their pocketbook. Hence corporations simply moved their factories to places where labor was both cheap and plentiful.

In the US this meant dismantling traditional blue collar work leaving many families in financial ruin. The re training which had been sold to them as a replacement worked for a minority which then saw entire sections of American States which were once prosperous turned into ghost towns.

Now there is a deep problem because the justified mistrust by the working class of a government who sold their power to corporations, has only been magnified by echo chamber internet grievance and outlets like Fox News. The truth is there but simply out of the reach of many who have been sold culture war outrage as a distraction while their problems go unsolved.

But like always happens in history, there comes a time to pay the piper and that time may be coming sooner than we think.