The wonderful, whacky world of Twitter and the Social media seems to have started a pandemic of bonkers theories. Two of the most interesting is that the one that there is a massive conspiracy that involves getting rid of 95% of the worlds population and leaving only the mega rich and a few lackies to wait hand and foot on them. Another is that the World Economic Forum (AKA WEF) are coordinating all this and will do it by ensuring all of us are pauperised. These theories can seem quite compelling based on what has happened over the last few years, but when common sense is applied to the process of assessing their claims, it all starts to fall down.
Firstly, lets consider who would be orchestrating the plan? Well it is the rich and powerful. This is the big weakness in the idea of depopulation. Think about it logically. What is the point having lots of money and lots of power, if there is nothing to spend the money on and no one to exercise power over. It's all very well imagining the super wealthy living in big glass domes, protected from radiation, poverty and famine, but the whole point of being rich is the ability to visit swanky restaurants, punch above your weight with far more attractive sexual partners, visit the best resorts, stay in the best hotels. Once the workers are gone, then there will be no nice food, as there will be no one to harvest and transport it. There will be no one to unblock your bog when it blocks, no one to mend the fuse when it flips, no one to service the Bentley, no VIP enclosure at LeMans, no doctors, nurses and cleaners to look after you when you get ill. What is the point of being super rich, if you live on ten year old tins of sardines and the bog is blocked.
The reason we have out of season strawberrys, Wagu Beef and Kiwi fruit is because we have a massive population, which provides the infrastructure to deliver it. Most developed countries are seeng falling and ageing populations and economies are only propped up by immigrant workers. China is about to be overtaken by India as the most populous country, as China has had population limiting policies for decades. It's economy has been highly successful in this period. This has been done by encouraging people to have less children. A centralised communist economic planned economy can do this. In the UK, our indigenous population has also fallen, but we've kept things running by encouraging immigration. Brexit has affected this and we now have labour shortages and an ageing population with massive structural imbalances. As the rich and powerful tend to be older, it is in their interests to have younger people to do the work, which is why the establishment does not really want imigration controls to work.
The richest and most powerful don't give a damn about us, but they are lumbered with us, if they want a decent diet, good sports, music,TV and Radio and nice holidays.
As to the idea that the WEF want to pauperise us, abolish small business and pauperise us, I am sure that many of the more cerebal types in the organisation do think that the fact that you can't control human behaviour is a terrible thing. The problem with dealing with human nature means that all such schemes end in failure. All Empires fall. When you push people too far and the inequality gets too bad, people revolt. Anyone who has read history books will know this. The idea that we will all have only electronic cash that can be deactivated and no shops to rob, because all of the produce will be in warehouses is all very well, but there is an old maxim that when the people miss three meals they riot. When revolutions happen, they usually don't end well for many of the most well off. It's all very well having a gated house, with a well stocked larder, but when the mob comes, who will the blokes you pay a pittance to guard you side with? The reason the UK is prosperous is because we've had trades unions that fight for the rights of working people. As people get better pay and conditions, they have a vested interest in obeying the law. If obeying the law stops delivering, then you get problems.
I run a small business and I've noticed that recently there has been a lot of talk on Twitter about the WEF wanting to stop people running companies such as mine. It is undoubtedly true that the past three years have been tough, but it is also true that economic activity is picking up in the music sector and we have made a small profit this year so far. Banks only make money, when people have money. If we are all in debt, the whole system collapses. There is also talk of a 'great reset', where all the little guys get wiped out and the super rich take the lot. The problem with this is that when things crash, those with the most cash lose the most. In most stock market crashes, the most wealthy still take a hit. Their wealth means most can ride it out, but invariably some come unstuck big time. Make the wrong call and all of a sudden you are back on the slag heap with the rest of us. The conspiracy theorists think the WEF will coordinate this so that their rich benefactors will be spared, but as Harold MacMillan said, and Vladimir Putin found out this week "Events dear boy, Events" can derail the best plans of the cleverest people.
I have no doubt that the many of the richest, cleverest people would shaft us all if they could, but unless they are insane, they should see it's a zero sum game. If you wipe out the music business, then there will be little or no new quality music to enjoy. If you shaft family run restaurants, you will only have bland chains, if you block independent food growers and wholesalers, you will be left with tinned sardines. The world is not perfect, but if you are rich and powerful enough to attend WEF summits, you are doing alright. Attending these from a bunker in Slough by Zoom as the world burns is not an attractive proposition and I know very mega rich people who go on retreat in trappist monastry's for a holiday, which is what their life would be like in their bunkers after the world burns.
Humanity has one saving grace It is that the mega rich and powerful are vain and narcissitic, so they find it hard to work together. They are far more interested in shafting each other than they are in shafting us.
I suspect that the the WEF plans ultimately unfold, we'll see a world that is a lot better for them and just about good enough for the rest of us that we don't kick off. If the plebs started to starve, then we'd all kick off and there is no guarantee how that would end as esperate, hungry people don't make rational decisions and don't care and the powerful know that only too well.
But hey what do I know, I only run a studio in Mill Hill.
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