The Market - The Power of Money.

It has only been in later adulthood that I have thought of "the market" as anything other than the "streetmarket" - Places that I have always loved. After retirement, when my husband started playing with stocks & shares, I realised that there was a different sort of "Market". A Market that has become the major driver for our world & most beneficial & harmful things in our lives today. The Market has become all pervasive, creative & destructive simultaneously.

There are 2 definitions of the market - "a regular gathering of people for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other commodities" and "an area or arena in which commercial dealings are conducted". The two are completely different. The first is fairly benign. The second isn't.

Capitalism is defined as "production for a competitive market for profit - an economic system in which the private profit maximalisation motive lies at the core of its virtues and maladies". This has led to over exploitation of the world's natural resources. It depends on ever increasing, impressive, productivity and growth rates. It is totally unsustainable & destructive. It leads to wealth & power being concentrated in the hands of a few & the vast majority being marginalised.

This is the 2020 wealth list list. In fact Jeff Bezos has now been overtaken by Elon Musk who is worth $188.5 billion.

No.	Name	Net worth (USD)	Age	Nationality	Source(s) of wealth
1	Jeff Bezos	$113 billion	56	United States	Amazon
2	Bill Gates	$98 billion	64	United States	Microsoft
3	Bernard Arnault & family	$76 billion	71	France	LVMH
4	Warren Buffett	$67.5 billion	89	United States	Berkshire Hathaway
5	Larry Ellison	$59 billion	75	United States	Oracle Corporation
6	Amancio Ortega	$55.1 billion	84	Spain	Inditex, Zara
7	Mark Zuckerberg	$54.7 billion	35	United States	Facebook
8	Jim Walton	$54.6 billion	71	United States	Walmart
9	Alice Walton	$54.4 billion	70	United States	Walmart
10	S. Robson Walton	$54.1 billion	77	United States	Walmart

Personally I think this list is shocking. No one person should be able to have an income higher than some countries.

https://www.worldometers.info/gdp/gdp-by-country/

But, as well as wealth, these people & many others, have huge power to lobby governments & so affect democracy. Our very democracy has become corrupted by the Market. The recent events in America with Trump inciting a mob to overrun the Capitol shows how far this has gone. Worryingly eight out of the eleven on the wealth list are American.

If we want democracy to survive we have to do it in a different way. We have to stop the influence exerted by unelected lobbyists with huge financial resources behind them. Not to mention unelected "special advisors". We need conviction politicians who are prepared to do what is best for the people they serve & not fall into the trap set by bribery, flattery & power. 

Politics has become an arcane game. But the stakes are too high now & the price of inaction will be even higher.

 I think the World has forgotten this.