There's a rush these days to get back to the way things used to be. But we're not going back there. Bruce Anderson writes that the new world order is disorder:
This struck me as I was going through our latest Abacus Data polling, which highlights that Canadians don’t much like today’s leadership in China, Russia or the U.S. — the biggest economies and most militarized countries in the world. And they’re not so keen on the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, either.
Russia might be economically weak today, but still seems to be malevolent. The modern focus is on sowing division around the world, rather than building an empire, and hackers are the weapon of choice, rather than nukes. But it’s hard to imagine a Russian leader in decades as unpopular in Canada as President Vladimir Putin is today. Only seven per cent like Putin; 57 per cent don’t.
After the election of U.S. President Donald Trump and his “America First” agenda became dramatically clear, Canadians started to take a second look at China for a more globalist point of view about trade and climate and development issues. Briefly, Canadians felt China was a better example of global leadership and more committed to peace around the world compared to Trump’s America.
But today, China’s leadership is broadly mistrusted, with 10 times as many people registering a negative view of President Xi Jinping (52 per cent) as those registering a positive one (five per cent).
Gone are the days when Canadians thought that God was in heaven and all was right with the world:
Because of our cultural tendencies, Canada may be more deeply affected by the seemingly chronic disruption in the geopolitical landscape. Our democratic compass is set on “peace, order and good government,” and it’s no accident — it’s a reflection of what we prize. But from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to Johnson, Trump to Putin, Xi to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the world seems hell-bent on disorder, or sometimes just hell-bound.
The pressures building up in the pandemic-afflicted world, coupled with the growing climate crisis, might offer the best and most urgent argument for a collective approach the likes of which we’ve never seen.
But the leaders in many of the countries that are vital to such an approach are running in the opposite direction.
Navigating this disorder will not be easy. But there will be no going back to the way things used to be.
Image: The New Statesman
6 comments:
Like an old Trinidadian friend of mine once said"More crazies on the outside"
The crazies have revolted, zoombats -- and taken over the asylum.
The US, UK, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, China and Russia are among the countries with high levels of income inequality. The social science research shows that division and social disorder is to be expected under those conditions. Poor population health, crime and corruption are also predicted, and evident.
In all these countries, and ours, the system is rigged to reward a select few at the expense of everyone else. Short of a world war, I'm not sure it's possible to reverse the trend. Jeff Bezos is rapidly closing in on becoming the world's first trillionaire, on the backs of Amazon workers who toil in terrible conditions for meager pay. Bezos' wealth translates into enormous political power in a country whose politicians are openly for sale. Enough power to prevent things from going back to the way things used to be when the highest marginal tax rates exceeded 90%.
Cap
Higher tax rates would help provide services to those without wealth, Cap. But those with wealth don't like to give it up -- even a little bit.
When I lived in Hong Kong from 2010 to 2018 I was amazed at the flat tax for everyone of 15%. It works and everyone got a bonus in 2014 of 6,000 HKD from a surplus. Make Bezo pay his share.
I fully agree that Bezos should pay his share, zoombats. But he has benefited from what taxes have made available to all. If he used that infrastructure to get rich, he should pay more than his workers -- commensurate with his salary.
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