“I don’t agree or endorse all of them. However, rest of them ring the bell here.”
IRSHAD SALIM: American Senator Bernie Sanders –critics dub him a ‘socialist millionaire’ keeps adding more beef to the burger with his insightful binary takes than a bean counter or a savvy Wall Street investment pro. I received early this morning a WhatsApp share of Bernie’s speech (Message to Fox News viewers) –a Pakistani American professional in California shared it. He’s aware that I’m in Karachi, and I take it that his sharing of the video clip was meant to draw my attention toward parallelism he considers at home & abroad:
In March, DesPardes posted some Bernie tweets on Corporate Greed, Corrupt Political System and Oligarchy. I’m copying and pasting some of them, as his takes seem more relevant and obvious (quite significantly) to me in Pakistan amid all the ongoings and the going ons. Pakistan Zindabad.
We have elections in this country which are dominated by big money and corporate interests. And whether or not our democracy survives depends on if we stand up together and put a stop to growing oligarchy.
Global oligarchy is on the rise. Between 1995 and 2021, the top 1% captured 38% of the increase in global wealth, while the bottom 50% captured 2%. The share of wealth owned by the global top 0.1% rose from 7% to 11%. Children go hungry. Billionaires buy yachts. Not acceptable.
This is what oligarchy looks like: Today, the 10 richest people in the world own more wealth than the bottom 37% — 3.1 billion people. We need a national and global economy that works for all, not just the few. The struggle continues.
Now, more than ever, those of us who believe in democracy and justice must work to bring working people all over the world together. Instead of hate & divisiveness, let us take on the greed & ideology of the top 1% and fight for economic, social & environmental justice. (14/14)
This is Russia’s Oligarchy. In 2017, it was estimated Putin was worth some $200 billion. Last year, Russia’s 120 billionaires owned $588 billion in wealth, equal to 60% of the country’s household wealth. We must destroy global oligarchy and create an economy that works for all.
Here is the economic situation in America today. Desperate workers who live paycheck to paycheck are forced to go to work. Thousands of them have died on the job. But hey, a handful of billionaires became over $2 trillion richer. That’s not an economic system we should accept.
Worker productivity is up 62% since the 1970s, yet wages have barely budged in the same period — meanwhile, CEOs in this country have seen their pay explode by 1,322%. Does anyone REALLY think CEOs are working 1,322% harder than they did in 1978?
A multi-billionaire with a super yacht should not pay less in taxes than a firefighter.
A corrupt political system is 745 billionaires becoming $2.1 trillion richer during the pandemic, while 3.7 million children slipped back into poverty last month because corporate Republicans and corporate Democrats refused to extend the $300 a month Child Tax Credit.
If we do not summon the courage to take on corporate greed, if we do not summon the courage to stand up to the moneyed interests, future generations will look back at this Congress and will rightly ask, ‘where were you?’.
Hear me out, because this is a far-out concept… what if instead we just made the wealthy and huge corporations pay their taxes here on earth? “The Moon should be privatized to help wipe out poverty on Earth, economists say https://indy100.com/science-tech/m “
PS: I don’t agree or endorse all of the above though. However, rest of them ring the bell here. After all, we (southeast of Washington DC) appear to be docking and locking with the U.S., as some say and it seems so. Why then not consider Bernie’s pointers as local issues there here also, and find solutions, way forward ala desi style with or without jugaar. The ‘socialist’ billionaire makes sense without being called out as siding with Russia or China, and remains independent at home, and stays non-aligned with the ‘communists, socialists’!
Curated by Irshad Salim, Karachi (Sep. 8, 2022) as part of the Bering Strait & Tropic of Cancer Series.
Honorary contributors to DesPardes: Adil Khan, Ajaz Ahmed, Ammar Jafri, Anwar Abbas, Arif Mirza, Aziz Ahmed, Bawar Tawfik, Dr. Razzak Ladha, G. R. Baloch, Jamil Usman, Jawed Ahmed, Ishaq Saqi, Khalid Sharif, Masroor Ali, Md. Ahmed, Md. Najibullah, Nusrat Jamshed, Shahbaz Ali, Shahid Nayeem, Syed Hamza Gilani
