whenever a subject like this comes up, I am reminded of an Albanian poet , Millosh Gjergj Nikolla- Migjeni,who , back in the 1930-s in his “poema e mjerimit” — The poem of misery- wrote :
( Note: The albanian word “mjerim” , can be translated as Misery, but it is an all-encompassing expression which can also be translated as : destitution, squalor, poverty, misfortune, penury… … )
“Mjerimi nuk do mëshirë, por don vetëm të drejtë” … which should translate as “ Misery ( destitution, squalor) does not need mercy, all it needs is justice…”
That line, for me, sums up a large part of the issue, as it is, the poorest parts of the society are dependent on the mercy of the richest, which is simply, unjust. In a just system, there would be no need for merciful handouts by the rich… and that was the point of this article, so I am not gonna expand on it any more.
One thing I have to say is that, ( since we were on the subject)… the new “free market capitalism” system has created a situation on which we are, basically, going back to the feudal era ( just without the titles) . A small group of super-rich control everything, jobs, housing, payments… while the vast majority of the population is dependent on them.
To make things even worse, the system is designed in such a way that, despite it offering “equal opportunity” to everyone, in fact it keeps siphoning resources towards the top- meaning towards those who already have too much- while leaving the ones on the bottom ( and the middle) constantly being more and more dependent on the ones who “have” a lot.
Now, as time progresses , the ones on the top , will grow old and die — leaving whatever it is they have to their children and grandchildren ( while the rest of us are leaving out descendants with credit and debts) — so, just like in good old feudal era, there is a very limited number of families who seem to posses everything ( who own everything, from industries to banks) - while the rest are forced to work for them.
Funny how the more we progress, the faster we seem to go back