Trumpenstein ! Our Creation â Foretold 157 Years Ago
The election of Donald Trump has cast the political elite around the world into a state of shock. His arrival, so soon after the titanic Brexit vote, has profoundly undermined the neo liberal political status-quo that has dominated western economies over the past 30 years.
âTrumpensteinâ © GoldCore
What was unthinkable has become reality and the future is as uncertain as it has ever been. However, his election was foretold 157 years ago by the English philosopher John Stuart Mill. As such, the conditions and causes that ushered in the Trump era could not have been clearer.
In an echo chamber of neo liberal ideology, the cosy cartel of press and politician alike traded information, scoops and leaks back and forth with ease. They became blinded to growing discontent, the numbers of disconnected and the genuine concerns of a growing mass of minorities within our society.
For decades, their concerns have been largely ignored as globalisation and liberal economic policies reduced their financial security, buffeted their communities and increased the debt burden which they have been forced to take out.
In his book âOn Libertyâ Mill warned about this effect where a majority within a democratic society can behave tyrannically against the genuine beliefs and concerns of the minority, depriving both sides the right to debate and refute arguments and thus prompting the loss of democratic cohesion.
John Stuart Mill (Wikimedia)
Many highly informed politicians, historians, business people and everyday folk have for decades thought that the circumstances that brought the world to war in the 1930’s could never be repeated. They believed that by building so-called free and inclusive societies, where an individual could associate, speak and choose how to live their life freely and democratically, the conditions would be created where economic progress would be all but assured.
But Mill argued that this is not enough, society must actively support the minority’s right to express all concerns no matter whether the belief is right, wrong or even dangerous.
The reason for Trump’s arrival are numerous, primarily though they are based on deep social undercurrents that have been building for many years and have been hiding in plain sight.
His election is less about the rise of a new way or a new republican political corporatism, where billionaires are suddenly seen as political saviors, but rather it is more to do with high levels of deep anxiety, frustration, isolation and social dissension where swathes of western populations have been politically, economically and socially left behind and/or ignored by globalisation and its neo-liberal cheerleaders, press and politicos alike.
Make no mistake, Donald Trump is an anti-candidate; anti-status quo, anti-elite, anti-liberal. His election is a demand for attention, for debate and for dialogue from those who have been ignored and bypassed. In time his election may well be seen as one of the finest demonstrations of democratic principles the world has ever seen and democracies will hopefully, assuming they survive, be stronger for it.
So how was this election foretold?
Well, please allow me a word about the backstory that is âGlobalisationâ.
Globalisation has been on a rage since the 1960’s when the first truly transnational corporations spread across the globe seeking integrated, optimised supply chains and access to new prosperous marketplaces, cheaper capital, and of course low cost workers.
These corporations delivered cheaper, faster, better quality goods to more and more markets, disrupting indigenous craft industries, old fashioned and state protected and inefficient industrial complexes.
They played not only regulatory arbitrage but they also played accounting arbitrage, optimised their balance sheets (liability and asset) using transnational tax efficient strategies designed to pay as little tax on their burgeoning profits, providing increased earnings and capital growth to their shareholders and executive teams.
Globalisation, though, was never really understood by the masses. No one explained what would happen to local jobs, services, lifestyles, communities â in short they never bought in.
It was thrust upon societies and at first very much welcomed. Everybody was a winner. Western economies enjoyed new cheaper goods, access to new markets, new higher paid jobs, requirements for new skills and so on. In fact, recent research by MIT shows that the productivity of companies grew at the same pace as the prosperity of workers from the 1960’s right through to 2000.
This is when the relationship stopped. Companies continued to see gains, but workers did not. In fact, their wages stagnated, their debts grew and they had to work harder for the same or less reward. Systemic risk started to build.</