There are two pivotal points to make about the epochal tensions reshaping the politics of industrialised nations and causing a backlash against mainstream liberal democracy and free markets, evidenced by the rise of Donald Trump in the US, Britain's rejection of the European Union and mounting nationalism throughout Europe.
First, there is validity to the surging concern that the market capitalist model, far from creating fairer and wealthier societies, is generating unacceptable inequality.
![Trumponomics](/web/20170121131710im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/u/i/p/p/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtuhrg.png/1484906144070.jpg)
This nebulous angst and insecurity is being augmented by fears the increased flow of refugees caused by the biggest number of misplaced people in history will undermine cohesion within recipient nations.
Second, the exploitation of the concern by President-elect Donald Trump, France's populist presidential front-runner, Marine Le Pen, and others, including Pauline Hanson, leader of Australia's stridently anti-immigration One Nation party, is cynical and fraudulent.
This is because they are disingenuously offering simplistic solutions to complex problems that have far more to do with tectonic social and economic changes caused by technology than with globalisation and higher refugee numbers.
Nations are strengthened by immigration and trade. Market forces, when adequately regulated to prevent deception and injustice, are the fairest and most efficient way to allocate scarce resources between unlimited desires.
The best social justice is employment, and the best generator of jobs is a private sector in an open economy. The sort of protectionist, punitive barriers proposed by Mr Trump and other neo-nationalists will merely harm workers at home and abroad, increasing inequality.
This is a particularly cruel irony in the case of Mr Trump, a man who relentlessly attacks "elites" but who inherited millions of dollars and has built an even greater fortune, in part by exploiting the taxation system and workers.
He is not the solution. His sense of entitlement is part of the problem that has caused such inequality, the extent of which was indicated in recent days by a report from humanitarian organisation Oxfam, using data from business magazine Forbes and international financial firm Credit Suisse.
The study found the eight richest people in the world, all men, have the combined wealth of the poorest half of the global population, some 3.6 billion people. The 1810 billionaires on the Forbes list, nine in 10 of them men, have as much wealth as 70 per cent of humanity.
Even taking into account a methodological point that the figures do not account adequately for debt, the data underscores just how valid it is to be concerned, indeed angry, about such obscene injustice.
But the answer to such economic and social travesty is not to distort markets through heavy-handed government intervention and trade barriers.
Rather, progress lies in effectively regulating to protect competition and consumers, and to finally compel wealthy individuals and profitable businesses to contribute their fair share of taxes.
That is what the thinkers gathered in Davos in Switzerland for the annual World Economic Forum meeting should be focusing on, rather than fretting about Mr Trump.
As should Australia's government, rather than being spooked by Senator Hanson, who, while prominent, remains marginal, with only one in 25 voters backing her at the last election.
A global poll this week found Australians are also disillusioned with politics and policy, and want a strong leader to reverse wealth inequality.
Well, a truly strong leader would stand up for freedom and fairness, rather than exploit fear and loathing. We hope such a leader emerges.
76 comments
Comment are now closed