FLASH
Shkruar nga Beppe Severgnini
Billionaires are getting richer, the middle class is getting poorer...
If the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, what will happen? This is a necessary and dramatic question, because all revolutions arise from an unstable imbalance. And they never happen gradually: at a certain point, people can't take it anymore. And they react.
There is one place where we should focus our attention: the United States, which remains, for now, the laboratory of the West. The gap between the ultra-rich and the rest of the population has reached unprecedented proportions. In a single day, the CEO of an S&P 500 company (the largest companies listed on Wall Street) earns as much as his employee earns in an entire year. The US is home to 1,135 billionaires, whose collective wealth exceeds $5.7 trillion. In essence, a thousand individuals control more wealth than the poorest half of Americans, some 170 million people.
Meanwhile, the middle class is losing ground. In the US, spending on basic necessities, housing, healthcare and education is rising at a rate three times faster than overall inflation. Tax cuts for large corporations and wealthy individuals have eased the tax burden on capital relative to wage earners, while the Wall Street boom has enriched only those who own stocks. The military attack on Iran has increased prices, frustration and anxiety. And while in Europe, at the bottom of this slope, there is a safety net — social assistance and public healthcare — in the United States the chasm is widening.
Faced with this abyss, America's mega-rich seem unfazed. On the contrary, they enthusiastically boast about their royal lifestyle, their extraordinary wealth, and their political influence. They showed up resolutely at Donald Trump's inauguration; they accompanied him to China with conviction; they avoid criticizing him whenever they can. Watch the film Mountainhead, made by the creator of the series Succession: there the dynamics among American oligarchs are presented with a biting and didactic sarcasm.
Musk, Zuckerberg, Ellison, Thiel, Altman, Bezos and the others do not seem to be bothered by the distortions of the society in which they live. They have different ideas, they ignore criticism and they are not afraid of excess: they are the new global superstars and they know it. So far they have been lucky: they have found a president capable of distracting the less informed public opinion. Donald Trump has managed to channel the discontent towards others: the educated elites, immigrants and foreigners. But how long can this continue? Reality is stubborn and sooner or later it knocks on the door.
Tucker Carlson, a former television host and former Trump campaigner known for his long speeches, expresses his concern in a lengthy video interview for the New York Times: American society is in danger of imploding. Carlson notes that Luigi Mangione, who in 2024 killed the head of a major health insurance company on the street, has become a kind of national hero as he awaits trial. This has never been seen before in the United States.
Do we face these risks in Italy? Fortunately, no. But we must be careful: the slope exists and it is slippery.
As we know, over the last thirty years our economy has grown very little. Gross Domestic Product has grown at an average annual rate of less than 1 percent: only a dozen countries in the world have had worse results than us. According to the Eurostat map of annual net salaries, adjusted for purchasing power, we rank in the range between 20,000 and 30,000 euros. The European Union average is 39,000 euros, in France 60,000 and in Germany 64,000. According to an Altroconsumo survey, also cited by Corriere della Sera, 47% of respondents said they had difficulty meeting housing costs and 43% reported problems with healthcare costs. It will be interesting, at the end of the summer, to see how many holidays Italians have taken.
However, in Italy, as in the US, the excess of money inspires admiration and enthusiasm. For some time now, we have become complacent and subservient to the open display of wealth. With the help of social networks, this collective hypnosis is being strengthened: for some, excessive luxury is becoming a religion. Just look at the reaction of passers-by when a supercar is parked on a pedestrian crossing. Their eyes seem to say: “He can do it.”
Several circumstances favor this phenomenon: the wealthy find refuge in Italy; foreign tourists with unlimited spending power, away from unsafe tourist destinations, are flocking to our country. Crowds of the ultra-rich come to get married in Italy: in Rome, Venice, Tuscany, Capri, Taormina and Lake Como. Being a sought-after wedding destination is a good thing. But this cannot become a national symbol.
Let's be clear: no Italian leader seems inclined to imitate Donald Trump. A leader who shamelessly enriches himself and imagines golden statues and gigantic monuments for himself is fortunately not on the horizon. But that aesthetic and political model, based on flattery and subservience, is penetrating our mindset and risks having consequences.
Let's try to resist it. We are a social nation, accustomed to sharing many things: from squares to bars, from beaches to stadiums, from trains to Sanremo. For our model of coexistence to survive, the existence of the middle class is vital. If we impoverish ourselves by pampering the rich excessively, bitter days await us. In Alec Rossi's book, The Italian Dream, smiling restraint, and not vulgar excess, is presented as the distinctive Italian trait. It is elegance, not exhibitionism, that will make us fly in the world again./ Adapted from "Pamphlet" by "Corriere della Sera"
Viva Revolution! Aty do te ndodhe ngordhja e te pasurve.
Italia është vendi ku të pasurit janë të varfer sesa të pasurit e Amerikes dhe të varfrit janë më të pasur se të varfrit e Amerikes
Tek ne në Shqipri shtresa e mesme po cof, fal kontributit te qeverisjes se keqe te zotni Rames. Ndaj kaq varfni ka. ndaj kjo protest e nisun nuk ka per me u ndal pae rrxu ket halen qe shfaros te mesmit