As world leaders (aka the 0.01%) fly into the exclusive economic forum at Davos to discuss how to run the world, numerous activist organizations are releasing data to show how the world is circling down the toilet.
These are depressing stats. The world is not in great shape and it’s getting worse. This could all lead to growing social conflict all over the world.
So why am I telling you? Because the traditional middle class dream is dead. That game is over. You need to understand how the system is rigged if you want to win at the new game.
I know this sounds like some conspiracy theory bullshit but it’s not. The fact is the world is not a nice place. It’s not a fair place and none of us can rely on others to make it fair. We have to fight to break past the trappings of the current system because the system doesn’t care about us and isn’t here to look after us.
It’s all up to you. And me. That’s why I’m doing this.
I know I’ll never be a Bill Gates or Monty Burns. Neither will you. But that shouldn’t stop us from trying to NOT be the guy that is one missed paycheque away from bankruptcy. Or that doesn’t have time to play with his kids.
So here we go with the depressing stats:
- IMF says the outlook for the global economy ‘remains sluggish’ as it cuts growth forecasts.
- 78% of respondents to Edelman’s Trust Barometer agreed that elites are getting richer while regular people struggle.
- 56% of general population respondents to a study by consultancy Edelman agreed with the statement: “Capitalism as it exists today does more harm than good in the world.”
- In the U.S., 43% of people believed they would be better off in five years’ time, a 7 percentage point drop on a year ago.
- In the U.K., only 27% of people thought they would have more money in the same time period, a drop of two percentage points.
- 48% of the general population said the “system” is failing them, relating to how governments behave. More than half (57%) said governments serve the interests of only the few.
- The world’s 2,153 billionaires have more wealth between them than a combined 4.6 billion people.
- Someone who saved $10,000 a day since the construction of the Egyptian pyramids would still be 80% less wealthy than the world’s five richest billionaires.
- Nearly 40% of the world’s 195 countries will see civil unrest during 2020.
So here’s the gist:
Since the dot com bust, real economic growth has slowed > competition for resources intensified and those with economic or political power consolidated wealth > wealth inequality widened > the masses became increasingly disenfranchised by missing out on all the “economic gains” (i.e. stock market gains) the news keeps raving about > now, animosity is growing, feeding the possibility that a seemingly unrelated catalyst will thrust the masses into rebellion.
Or something like that.
This is the fragile framework we have to play within if we want to build personal wealth or simply realize the middle class dream.
How do you do it when the world is becoming more politically polarized, many people can’t pay their rising bills and most feel they can’t trust the system? Wealth creation is still the game but the rules have changed.