Economic tension is turning us against each other

Struggling to make ends meet makes people less tolerant and less supportive of one another. Inequalities in wealth and lifestyle cause people to blame each other.

When there is enough for everyone, people share without any problems.

When there is unemployment and insufficient wages, people resent each other. Civil servants against private sector employees, whites against blacks, young people against old people, men against women, right-wing people versus left-wing people, etc.

Politicians stir up differences, defending one side one day and the other side the next. This allows them to divert attention away from those who really benefit and who are responsible for their low standard of living: the ultra-rich, the ruling elites. Politicians use precariousness to control the population, to make the population more docile. If you don’t have enough money to cope, you can’t travel, you accept your working conditions, you don’t go out to protest, etc.

After the protests that peaked in the 1960s and 1970s in Western countries, politicians grew wary and no longer wanted a population that had enough, because then people mix, travel, discuss, and have more time to think. Then they demand more.

Permanent crises allow politicians and the elite to remain in power and justify these declines in quality of life ⸺when in reality these declines are due to their monopolization of wealth.

Les dix plus grandes fortunes professionnelles en France

Quelles sont les dix plus grandes fortunes de France ? – Observatoire des inégalités: https://www.inegalites.fr/Quelles-sont-les-dix-plus-grandes-fortunes-de-France

2016-2022 : une envolée des revenus des ultra-riches– Observatoire des inégalités: https://www.inegalites.fr/2016-2022-une-envolee-des-revenus-des-ultra-riches

“Today, the top 10% of the global population’s income-earners earn more than the remaining 90% while the poorest half of the global population captures less than 10% of the total global income”

“The wealthiest 0.001% alone, fewer than 60,000 multi-millionaires, control today three times more wealth than half of humanity combined”.

Highlights from the World Inequality Report 2026 (WIR 2026) – World inequality report: https://wir2026.wid.world/insight/executive-summary/

Just 0.001% hold three times the wealth of poorest half of humanity, report finds – The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2025/dec/10/just-0001-hold-three-times-the-wealth-of-poorest-half-of-humanity-report-finds

Les montants de patrimoine détenus par les ménages en 2024 – INSEE: https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/8672665

The fear of a crisis like that of 1929, the fear of being destitute, and the fear of losing social status are very strong.

All a politician has to do is promise abundance to get elected. People who are lacking think only of having a little more and turn away from the common good, and they have less compassion for their neighbors. They focus on details when voting and lose sight of the big picture ⸺ which can sometimes lead them to vote against their own interests, mistakenly believing that they will gain a few crumbs.

This is why it is essential to reduce inequalities in order to defend our democracies.

A universal basic income, with price controls, would be a good measure to enable citizens to vote without fear and in the general interest.

For example, in the United States, people voted for Trump because they don’t have enough. This economic tension is the source of many problems: women’s rights, the exclusion of immigrants, gun ownership, religious intolerance, white supremacy, and the law of the strongest. If people had enough, these problems would lose their intensity. These ideas are strategies for escaping precariousness.

High School Radical – arte: https://www.arte.tv/en/videos/RC-026860/high-school-radical/

High School Radical: Justin Bieber with Acne (1/4) | ARTE.tv Culture: https://youtu.be/E2t7x9gOyy8?si=re84JrQTG7K8J4xw