Poverty - the failure of leadership?

So, the land of the free is rapidly becoming the land of the poor. Instead of the USA having streets paved with gold, instead one in seven are living in poverty. What angers me about this situation is that you could see it coming, it has happened on the Democrats watch and it plays into the hands of capitalists who will now say ‘told you so’. The biggest single year rise with nearly 44 million people in poverty.

So why has this happened? I am not, as you may have worked out, an economist; the recent credit crunch, driven by the demand for over inflated property, combined with an aspirational culture, where we need to have the ‘must have’s’ – the latest Iphone, the big screen TV, the fastest car, the overseas holiday. Again you could see this coming – adverts invade my telephone, the office fax machine (yes, we still have one), my television, my radio, the internet – even when I go on a website for news I am bombarded with video pop-ups that I need to view before I can actually find out what is going on in the world.

Is it the global marketing of international corporations to blame, or is it the human race for being sucked in? I happened to come across the orbituary for Jimmy Reid, a well known Scottish radical (I fondly remember my grandfather calling him a ‘stupid f***in’ communist’) and it got me thinking, in these days of Blair, Obama, Sarcozy, Chavez, etc, where is the real leadership. Is leadership just about getting people to confirm, or is it, like Reid aspired to, creating a fair and just society. Maybe it is timely to actually consider the words of Reid - read his speech and tell me this isn't truth - it may have been nearly 40 years ago, but the same is happening today. 

Footnote – today’s blog was created whilst listening to Leftfield, great band, great inspirational beats.