rich and poor
The idea that the rich is a necessity for the economy to function is one of the most defended ideological mantras of capitalism.

Author: Ernesto Estévez Rams | internet@granma.cu

September 1, 2022 23:09:09

Photo: Illustrative
There’s a worrying sign in the University of Michigan’s survey of consumer trends: “The problem is that wealthy Americans aren’t excited, and that may signal further pain ahead for markets and the economy as a whole.” . The rich do not want to spend and, as a consequence, everyone suffers.

CNN clarifies that the top 20% income segment is responsible for up to 40% of US consumer spending, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. An economy based on consumption suffers if there is a contraction of this.

CNN is concerned about how that will be reflected in the stock values ​​of the nation’s top consumer companies: Amazon, Home Depot, among others. Per capita spending using credit cards has fallen, a bad sign for banks and finance companies.

CNN does not speak, as a possible solution to the problem, of horizontalizing consumption more, so that it is not concentrated in the richest segment. That is, make society more equitable. The idea that the rich is a necessity for the economy to function is one of the most defended ideological mantras of capitalism: without the rich there will be greater poverty.

The idea is not only defended in the US, it is constantly exported to all corners.

Disguised as unquestionable reality, the ideology of the economic need of the rich is just a myth. A myth carefully erected and cared for. The stubborn reality shows another side: the rich get rich at the expense of the poverty of others, not in favor of them.
Not to leave CNN, in 2021 the news network reported that while global millionaires increased their fortunes by more than 3.6 trillion (millions of millions) of dollars, one hundred million people were pushed into extreme poverty, leading to that segment of the population to 711 million people in the world. The impact has been greater in poor countries, since, according to the Global Inequity Laboratory, rich countries have achieved assistance programs for their populations to avoid a massive increase in poverty. The reality is that the poorest 50% of the world’s population owns 2% of the world’s wealth. The middle segment, comprising 40%, receives 22%. The richest 10% get 76% of the cut.

Contrary to the ideological myth that if the rich get richer, the others benefit as a result of the economic “spillover” effect, and everyone is happy, the data shows that, between 1995 and 2021, 1% of the population The richest snatched 38% of the increase in global wealth, while the bottom 50% snatched 2%. When the rich get richer, the poor get poorer.

In underdeveloped countries it is added that the rich do not leave their fortunes in the country, they take them to the old metropolises; then their wealth is not reinvested in the national economy, not even in national consumption. The rich underdeveloped prefer to go to New York to buy the latest fashions from Louis Vuitton, than to buy indigenous fabrics from the unfortunate indigenous people of their countries.

When Mauricio Macri came to power in Argentina, under the promise of getting the country out of its economic problems, one of the first measures was to free the currency exchange market and open restrictions on money leaving the country. It is estimated that under his government, 59 billion dollars fled the country to foreign banks, mainly Americans.

The Macri family was modest about that astronomical figure, they leaked just under ten million to their accounts abroad. Of course, that figure does not include those leaks associated with companies in which they had ownership interests. Let’s repeat it, the President and his family took ten million dollars from the country in direct transfers.

Simultaneously with the antics of the Macri, his government asked the IMF for a loan of more than 57 billion dollars. Let’s understand something, the IMF is an organization that makes loans so that governments can pay debts. It is not money to invest in the development of a country, it is money so that the debt contracted with international banks can be paid. Now that debt has to be paid by all Argentines, as a collective punishment.

As a result of the party of millions between the Government and international banks, poverty in the country increased to 32%, incorporating 2.6 million people below the poverty line.

According to public organizations, including the UN, one in three children in Argentina decreased their daily food consumption and 13% suffered from hunger. 14.2% of the families were food destitute. Half of the families had a member who lost their job.

While that was happening, the richest 20% of the country were seizing 50% of the nation’s wealth. The richest 10% receive more than 22 times what the poorest 10% receive. The data is not from an outdated Marxist, it is from the World Bank. Here we are talking about one of the strongest economies in Latin America.

According to the Indec, Argentina’s statistical office, 37.3% of the population lives in poverty. That includes the lack of a place to live, access to health services, food insecurity, etc. All this while the country’s economy grew by 10.3% in 2021.

Alarmed, the Argentine analyst Ezequiel Adamovsky affirmed that Argentina is “growing and working so that only one class expands its earnings.” He would add what he does not name: that class is the bourgeoisie.

The idea of ​​economic democracy, the basis of any democracy, is not in the political vocabulary of the system.

Those who accuse us in Cuba of being afraid of the bourgeois are right, we do not want new bourgeois in Cuba. Our comparison is not European ‘prosperity’, nor even Asian ‘prosperity’. Nor is our comparison Argentina, the third largest economy in Latin America. Our comparison is closer, in the other Caribbean islands and in Central America.

Stop selling us smoke. Here we have to get out of the economic crisis within socialism, with everyone and for the good of all.