It’s been reported that in the German elections, a far right party has made ‘significant gains’.
In the UK (at least before the scandals) Reform UK seems to have had a significant boost and has even surpassed the right-wing Conservative Party in some polls/predictions.
Even France, one or two years ago, was threatened with a far-right government due to the French far right party gaining a lot of support.
It feels like in the last few years, the far-right has exceeded itself and had a surge in popularity. Is this the case? And if so, wtf is fuelling it?
I don’t mean there haven’t been recessions, just that on the whole the economic situation is not significantly worse (and in fact probably somewhat better) than in the 1990s.
This only holds true when you use the metrics that wealthy people use to know how well the economy is doing for them. For the vast majority of people the economic situation has been worsening for decades.
By what metric more appropriate for ordinary people has the situation significantly worsened since the 1990s, on average across Western democracies?
https://www.epi.org/publication/charting-wage-stagnation/
Stagnant real wage growth, sure. Stagnant, so not significantly worse.
Health care? US-specific - how do you explain the massive growth of fascism in countries with reasonably well-functioning health care systems and universal health care?
Union membership? US-specific - how do you explain the massive growth of fascism in countries with 50%+ union membership rates, massively more politically influential unions and widespread collective wage bargaining?
Minimum wage? US-specific - how do you explain the massive growth of fascism in countries where even the minimum income (i.e., for the unemployed) is far above the US federal minimum wage?
Inequality? A global problem, to be sure. But how do you explain the massive growth of fascism even in countries with dramatically lower inequality, poverty and crime, and with universal access to health care and top-tier education? In fact, some of these countries are among the most egalitarian in human history since the advent of agriculture thousands of years ago.
Why did fascism emerge now as suddenly so much more popular? Could it be, perhaps, not something economic at all, but something else? Like maybe people being bombarded with fascist propaganda 24/7?
Why are you out here lying and pretending like billionaires take a wage?
They don’t. They drive up prices buying over inflated assets then borrow against them and live off the loans (all to avoid income taxes, pushing their tax burden onto the rest of society in the process). So they inflate prices, don’t give back, buy up companies, give everyone else a burden and don’t appear in the wage equality stats you’re spraying everywhere in their defense.
I hope you get this now, because it’s one of the main problems corrupting society.
Don’t cover up for billionaires, you’ve done so much for them in these threads and need to stop.
The “on the whole” economic situation is not what you want to be looking at.
If you look at the real wage growth compared to expenses, life has been being getting grimmer and grimmer for the vast majority of individuals since the 1970s, even if GDP continues to climb.
Did you, in fact, look at real wage growth?
Here is data for the US specifically, which shows modest growth of median real wages over the past decades.
Edit: I’d also see the shift in the media landscape as a very conscious effort made by oligarchs to control the media landscape, including Reagan removing the Fairness Doctrine, and Fox News being explicitly created to allow Republican presidents to engage in criminal activity.
Not sure what you’re seeing. Everything I see things pointing to life getting worse and harder economically.
Rise in consumer debt: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CCLACBW027SBOG
Decline in housing affordability: https://worththen.com/tools/housing-affordability
Increase in student loand debt: https://thecollegeinvestor.com/32031/average-student-loan-debt-by-year/
Medical bankruptcy is another thing to look into.
Culture is another window, maybe less valid. The idea behind the Simpsons was a family of 3 was barely scraping by, yet they owned two cars, a house, and Homer had a union job and no college degree, and usually Marge didn´t need to work. In the 1980’s Anthony’s Song complained about, “Who needs a house out in Hackensack? Is that all you get for your money?” would be a flop today because a house out in Hackensack isn’t conformity, it’s just unattainable.
Well, even if we accept (which I don’t) that things like increasing student debt would be a major factor, how do you explain fascism being on the rise in many other (pretty much all of them) Western democracies? You can’t really use US-specific things like medical bankruptcy and student debt as explanations for a trend in societies where these aspects just are not relevant at all. Most Western democracies have universal access to health care and education.
The Fairness Doctrine, however, has clear parallels in other societies. Not because they have legislation similar to it (though some did or still do, like France) - but because even in those places where no such formal legislation exists, social media have almost completely negated the role journalists used to play in moderating public debate from a (relatively) neutral and, more importantly, non-fascist viewpoint.
You’re too smart to convince of anything.
Have a great rest of your day.
You’re literally linking to a graph that ONLY measures the wages of fully employed people in the US. It doesn’t measure the under employed, part time employees, or contract/gig workers - at a time when all those categories all became more prevalent…
…and it certainly doesn’t measure changes in wealth share globally. So way to cherry pick.
In fact, the rate of underemployment (gig workers who’d like to work more hours, etc.) is at historically low levels in the US.
You’re getting all these replies from me because of how many times you’ve used income inequality ir employment stats to cover for billionaires…
…who as you know, have the most concentrated wealth, and avoid income taxes by not taking a wage.
Income equality is so even because the ultra rich don’t take an income.
They buy up assets at inflated prices, they buy up the media companies you’re complaining are fascist AND MAKE THEM FASCIST.
Then they borrow against those assets and luve off loans. Buying more assets to get more loans, or getting paid in stocks to borrow more money against.
So they inflate prices on luxury homes, land, goods, vehicles, assets, and companies. Increasing their wealth further and further away from everyone else, whilst everyone else pays the taxes billionaires avoid… Suffers the more expensive land values, houses, goods.
… they’re totally corrupting society. Musk just recently silenced a Twitter account that tracks Donald Trump’s stock investments BECAUSE Musk bought Twitter then took out massive loans against it.
It’s the biggest corruption scam in your lifetime. Probably the biggest in history.
I don’t know where you get the idea that I would “cover for billionaires.” I support higher taxes on billionaires. Heck, I support higher taxes on myself, and I’m only a 9%-er.
While it’s true billionaires use fiscal tricks to avoid taxes, it’s an oversimplification to claim they have “no income.”
But the main thing you’re missing is that most Western democracies have only a handful of billionaires, and they are typically far less politically active than US billionaires (some exceptions notwithstanding). This is because bribing politicians is actually banned or at least fairly restricted in most of these democracies. For example, the richest oligarch in Germany, Dieter Schwarz (net worth approx. USD 40 billion), has never even given an interview and stays out of public view. I couldn’t tell you what politicians (if any) he supports.
Once again, you can’t use US-specific concepts or phenomena to explain a trend in all Western democracies.
You’re completely out of touch with political donations, lobbying and any number of other matters (local land use decision, environmental protection lawsuits, financial law campaigns, think tank funding)…
…in short NO THE MAJORITY OF BILLIONAIRES AND THEIR MONEY DO NOT STAY AWAY FROM POLITICS YOU ABSOLUTELY AND ABSURDLY UNINFORMED PERSON.