The world’s one percenters have been purchasing airstrips and farms in preparation for the perceived consequences of such movements as Occupy and Lives Matter, reported The Guardian.
“I know hedge fund managers all over the world who are buying airstrips and farms in places like New Zealand because they think they need a getaway,” said Robert Johnson, former hedge fund director and current head of the Institute of New Economic Thinking.
The civil unrest from Ferguson and Occupy still echoes through society, and the world’s wealthiest people feel like the system they rigged for their self-interests may be in imminent danger. Income inequality isn’t just an American problem, it’s a cancer spreading across the world.
Social justice advocates, like Sojourners founder Jim Wallis, believe that “a catalytic event” will give a larger and more impactful voice to those who once “didn’t matter” to wealthy elites. The rigged system is just Wall Street and mega-rich corporate CEOs, but there’s the consequence of dark money and purchased politics to worry about.
“People need to know there are possibilities for their children – that they will have the same opportunity as anyone else,” said Johnson. “There is a wicked feedback loop. Politicians who get more money tend to use it to get more money.”
And those wealthy people and companies who give politicians absurd amounts of money tend to have their voices heard over the common, who actually do matter. The problem, according to The Guardian, is that politicians are nonresponsive to the voices of ordinary people.
“Solutions are there. What’s been lacking is political will,” said UN development head Helen Clark. “Politicians do not respond to those who don’t have a voice. In the end, this is all about redistributing income and power. Seventy-five percent of people in developing countries live in places that are less equal than they were in 1990.”
This is a problem caused by the one percent. The bigger problem is that they have the money to buy there way an escape.
