Thursday, January 19, 2012

Blog 1: Income Inequalities - A Threat to Economies Worldwide

The 2012 Global Risks report was released on Wednesday, with information that leaves us uncertain of our economic future. The Global Risks report is a 60-page analysis of risks that the World Economic Forum discuss during an annual meeting that lasts two weeks long. The people that attend these meetings are politicians, central bankers, and business leaders. In the article I've read, Global Risks Report 2012 Find Income Inequality To Be A Threat To Economies Worldwide, there is a huge rise in youth unemployment, retirement of peoples with debt, high levels of government debt, and the conflict of inequalities. As we've seen in the United States with the "Occupy" movement and protests occurring in the Arab world known as Arab Spring or the Arab Awakening, as well as other places in the world, people are getting upset by these inequalities of upper class people being part of the 1%, while the rest of us (99%) are getting paid nowhere near what these corporate executives are making. along with many other things that could use some fixing. "For the first time in generations, people no longer believe their children will grow up to have a better standard of living." This quote from the article really shows how realistic this global social problem really is. Children at young ages are realizing that they aren't headed to a stable future, realizing they must attend college, if not, graduate school to make a good earning in this country, as well as other countries all over the world. And sometimes that's not even a possible choice for a person.

One of the problems with this "Global Risk report" is that the people that are discussing it are the people that are actually part of the 1%, central bankers and business leaders, along with the politicians. I am hoping that in the years soon to come these people will take into recognition the effects of the Occupy Movement and other movements such as Arab Spring and do something to try and help this economic stress that we're under, as a world. "The Arab Spring demonstrated the power of interconnected communications services to drive personal freedom, yet the same technology facilitated riots in London" said by Steve Wilson, who is the chief risk officer for general insurance at Zurich Financial Services. This shows these corporate monsters how fast word gets around due to social networking and how more people are getting involved with social movements. I hope that these social movements turn into revolutions and continue to impact decisions as a globe.

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