Rising expectations revolution

I remember listening to an international (not Filipino) political analyst explaining the current worldwide political environment. In many places in the world – United States, United Kingdom, Brazil, South Africa, and most developing countries – voters are expressing discontent with the present order and are demanding change.

He explained that today the lower middle classes and the working poor have access to television and smart phones. This gives them the capability to see how the rich live. Also they are not prepared anymore to wait another generation before they can lead comfortable lives.

I am not surprised that this discontent seems to be especially felt by people from the working class that are exposed daily to the rich and the super rich. This includes the caddy in the golf courses; the waiters in fine dining restaurants; the messengers and janitors in Makati offices; factory workers; and even office workers struggling to survive on the minimum wage.

Perhaps, what we are seeing in the world today is a “revolution of rising expectations.” This phrase has been used by social scientists to refer to a situation where people who are NOT oppressed have a belief that as economies improve their life should also be getting better. However, their expectations outstrip the pace of actual change. These rising expectations can lead to frustrations and even unrest as demands for improvements in the lives of the average citizen continue to grow.

The biggest issue that has surfaced is that of income inequality. It is true that poverty rate has been reduced worldwide but the gap between the rich and the poor, and even the working class, have considerably widened. It may be difficult to believe but this widening income inequality is still being questioned by even well meaning academicians and liberals.

Income inequality is now the biggest economic and moral issue in the world. Credit Suisse, in 2013, estimated that the top one percent in the world population owned 46 percent of the world’s wealth. This meant that just over 400 million people out of a population of seven billion owned most of the world’s income generating assets. The bottom 3.2 billion people own just three percent of all wealth between them. The most horrendous figure is that the riches 60 billionaires in the world own more wealth than the bottom 50 percent or 3.5 billion people.

This debate on income inequality has raised many moral economic issues. The most hotly debated is the issue of the living wage versus minimum wage. It has been an accepted business maxim that any increase in the minimum wage would lead to businesses closing and more jobs lost. It is, therefore, assumed that a low minimum wage will attract more investments and create more jobs. Catholic church on living wage

A living wage is the minimum income necessary for a worker and his or her family to meet their basic needs. For over a century, the Catholic Church has pushed for a living wage. The Catholic Church was the first religious community to stand up for a living wage. Since then, Catholic social teaching has continued its vigorous advocacy of a living wage.

Catholic Social Teaching on living wages started in 1891. Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum (On the Condition of Workers) recognized the right of every worker to receive wages sufficient to provide for a family. He wrote:

“Equity, therefore, commands that public authority show proper concern for the worker so that from what he contributes to the common good he may receive what will enable him, housed, clothed and secure, to live his life without hardship.”

Many still believe that wage levels should be left to the market. In 1961, in his encyclical Mater et Magistra, Pope John XXIII proclaimed that a living wage was a justice issue:

“We therefore consider it our duty to reaffirm that the remuneration of work is not something that can be left to the laws of the market place; nor should it be a decision left to the will of the more powerful. It must be determined in accordance with justice and equity; which means that workers must be paid a wage which allows them to live a truly human life and to fulfil their family obligations in a worthy manner.” Pope John Paul II in his 1981 encyclical Laborem Exercens (On Human Work), stated that the payment of living wages was the determinant for the legitimacy of any economic system. Pope Francis on income inequality

Pope Francis expressed his own views on income inequality in his 2013 encyclical Evangeli Gaudium, in paragraph #54:

“While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few. This imbalance is the result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation. Consequently they reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control. A new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules...To all this we can add widespread corruption and self serving tax evasion which have taken on worldwide dimensions. The thirst for power and possession knows no limits.”

This revolution of rising expectations have given rise to the rise of populism – the belief in the power of regular people and in their right to have control over their government rather than a small group of political insiders or wealthy elite.

Pope Francis has a more serious warning: “Inequality eventually engenders a violence which recourse to arms cannot and never will be able to resolve.” Summer creative writing classes for kids and teens Young Writers’ Hangout : May 21, 28 and June 4 (10:30am-12nn except June 4, 1:30pm-3pm) Classes will be held at Fully Booked Bonifacio High Street. For registration and fee details, 0917-6240196 / writethingsph@gmail.com Email: elfrencruz@gmail.com