What do you think will happen to the middle class in the next five decades?
With inflation, soaring costs of living, the housing crisis, climate change and more devastating impacts that seems to crush the global middle class, what do you think our society will look like in the future? Do you think any of these problems will be addressed effectively?
The last time the world got itself into this sort of mess, the outcome was social democracy (the New Deal, Postwar Consensus, Les Trente Gloriuses). A ~30 year period of reduced income and wealth inequality, tighter controls on capitalist excess, and increased prosperity which was at least somewhat shared.
It remains to be seen whether that is still a possible outcome given the amount of wealth that has been amassed in so few hands. Fascism is power protecting itself and it’s in a much better position to protect itself now than it was then.
The middle class will either recover or disappear entirely. And if it recovers, the recovery will likely be temporary. Because power can protect itself like nothing (and no one) else can.
I don’t hold out much hope for a more revolutionary pro-social outcome. I mean, it would be good. But it’s very hard to see how it can happen when the people who need it to happen are too busy keeping a roof over their heads and/or trying to survive climate change with the very limited resources available to them. If we get any kind of resurgence of social democracy, it will be because power sees the need for a breathing space, not a permanent settlement with the masses. Something better, and more permanent, is not on the cards.
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