I think I’m part of the one per cent. You know the one per cent they are talking about on the streets of New York, London, Toronto, Rome, etc. I didn’t mean to be part of the one per cent. I lost so much money in the early years you would have found me at zero per cent in a bachelor apartment in Sudbury with running water that ran all the time, windows that didn’t open, and doors that didn’t close.
I wasn’t there that much anyway because all I did was work. It took me a long time to get over working all the time because I liked it too much. Getting a life was much tougher than making money, but I digress.
The thing for me about being in the one per cent is that it doesn’t feel like it. The reason is that no matter how well I do with one of my businesses, there is always another one I own losing money, growing or dying. I always think the dying ones are going to eat up the successful ones so I never get to feel like a one per center because I know tomorrow I’ll be on the street.
Of course that looks pretty absurd to a young person out of work and patience on the street looking at me with nice cars and more than one home. It is ridiculous.
I’m glad our young people have found a pulse. I come from a family of protestors and activists and agree bankers and brokerage firms who are bailed out need regulations and some notional accountability for their greedy behavior.
The growing gap between rich and poor is a leading indicator of a society which is forgetting about its social contract between the people who are governed and those who govern. All of this started with Jean Jacques Rousseau in the 1700s who wrote a book at the time, not un-controversially, suggesting that Kings and Queens did not have a divine right to rule without consent from the people.
Today’s Kings and Queens are the banks, the hedge funds, the globalized billion-dollar corporations and the governments they buy around the world (see demise of Liam Fox, minister of defense in Britain, for a refresher or Google Rupert Murdoch for a white paper on corporate power corruption). All these companies are owned by shareholders. The companies' stated duty is to maximize profit for shareholders. Why would we be surprised that enormous power centred in these organizations with no societal obligations beyond satisfying shareholders would lead us astray.
Smart business people understand their obligations do not end with profit. In some ways they only begin with profit. If you do not give people a vested interest in their society, they will tear it down. If you create a society that is unaffordable, the system breaks down.
An interesting canary in the mine is the recent unprecedented rejection of negotiated agreements between Air Canada and its flight attendants. Twice the 7,000 odd attendants voted down agreements their negotiating team unanimously supported. Twice. They are fed up. They really don’t care about their employer or its success. Have you flown Air Canada lately? They care that they are going nowhere, that Air Canada wants to bring on new attendants at lower salaries to work in a discount vacation division, and none of it from their point of view improves their life or prospect. They do not trust their employer and they most certainly do not trust the federal government which has told them they have no right to strike and will be legislated back to work the minute they set up picket lines.
What the flight attendants know, which the government doesn’t yet understand, is that they don’t care anymore.
That can happen. It can happen in countries, in communities and families. These are called failed states. When people don’t feel respected, when they don’t feel they are heard, when they don’t feel the game is fair, they don’t play by the old rules.
In the United States, it is called the Tea Party and the Wall Street Occupation. Two points of view, but complete agreement on their failed state.
It looks irrational, but it really isn’t.
In Canada, we have some time, but less than we think. We’ve dined out on our commodity prices and that game may be over.
It is time for some serious soul searching.
