We are the 99%

The Occupy Movement, using the slogan 'We are the 99%', started in the USA with demonstrations on Wall Street, but subsequently spreading to centres around the world.  Their gripe is that 1% of the population controls 45% of global wealth and the focus of their attack is the financial community, particularly bankers, hence the demonstrations on Wall Street.

There is no doubt that there is massive income inequality across the world and I'm not going to use this blog post to spout numbers - the readers can look them up on the Internet.  If we are looking for solutions, then we need to try to understand the problem from a systemic perspective.  Someone once said there are two types of problems - clocks and clouds.

The clock can be taken apart and each of its constituent parts provides an understanding of how the clock works when it is re-assembled.  That is not true of a cloud, which is formed mainly from water and other airborne particles.  The cloud is what is known as an emergent behaviour of a highly complex weather system.  So to understand the cloud we need to observe the whole, rather than the constituent parts.  Income inequality is a cloud-type problem, emerging from a highly complex social system an inherent part of which is a man-made monetary system.

Now from my Internet research, the 99% activists' problems are articulated very succinctly, but nowhere did I find what they were proposing as a solution - perhaps a helpful reader might point me in the right direction but I doubt it somehow, simple solutions to cloud-type problems rarely exist.  It is easy to repair a clock by replacing a defective part, but how do you change the shape of a cloud?  Indeed, many of today's problems are as a result of yesterday's solutions.  In fact, the title of this post does not clearly define the 'problem'.  Firstly, the 1% is not just composed of bankers and financial sharks, but also includes, for example, world-class surgeons and some English Premier League footballers.  Secondly, within the 99% there are also tremendous disparities in income from, for example, people earning $100,000 per year, to many in poverty surviving on less than $2 per day.

There is only so much that can be done politically or through legislation.  Communist states have generally been unsuccessful.  Taxing the rich tends to lose its effectiveness over time.  Subsidies for the very poor are like sticking plaster solutions, tackling the symptom rather than the underlying problem.  On top of all this, wealth attracts wealth and, for example, $10 million sitting in a bank at 10% compound interest, will 'earn' $1 million in year 1, $1.1 million in year 2, and so on.

There are no simple solutions to this highly complex problem and in my opinion, large-scale philanthropy is the best way forward.  Bill Gates, for example, is gladly giving his wealth away to good causes because he feels the need to help the society that was responsible for his success.  That said, I still believe the protests should continue if only to ensure public awareness of the issue does not wane.

The greatness of man is not how much wealth he acquires, but in his ability to affect those around him positively.  (Bob Marley)