Selfish Capitalism

I was re-reading a review of Oliver James book 'Selfish Capitalism'.

"The scary thing is that since 1982 the top 1% of British earners have doubled their share of the national income from 6.5% to 13%. In 1980 the FTSE 100 Chief Executives earned 20 times the national wage and now it is an obscene 133 times. Over the years of the Labour Government the richest 0.3% grabbed over half of everything increasing their share of the wealth by 79% over the last five years.

Add to this that 23% of Americans, British, Australians, New Zealanders and Canadians sufferred mental illness during the last twelve months compared to only 11.5% of Germans, Italians, French, Belgians, Spanish and Dutch,

In our 'Big Brother/It Could Be You' society the combination of inequality and materialism creates unrealistic aspirations, stimulates consumerism and creates needy, miserable people who are somehow suckered into perfectionistic, competitive workaholism."

There are no excuses for what is happening in London, Birmingham, Nottingham, Bristol and Liverpool but we should remember Oliver James wise words that the combination of inequality and materialism creates unrealistic aspirations, stimulates consumerism and creates needy, miserable people whose only response in difficult times is to rob, pillage and plunder the very communities they live in. Over the last thirty years we have lost our faith and our sense of community! We have created a selfish, capitalistic monster where people don't care about each other and the community and society they live in. We desperately need to rediscover our faith, our faith in each other and work together to strengthen and grow the communities we live in. We need to create a skills and competency based curriculum which helps develop respect, understanding, self-control and self-discipline in our children and young people from the earliest age. We need to support parents and carers to create boundaries and frameworks for our young people who are the hardest to reach. We need to invest in education, training and volunteering to ensure that we create growth and ensure that our young people have hope and opportunities. However there are no excuses for what is happening... it is so very sad that it has come to this in the year before the London Olympics!
Chris