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WORLD
“In the upcoming years the conflicts different middle classes. We recognize
between cultures and religions will be one very well, the middle class in the
far less important source of interna- developed societies which slowly loses
tional shocks from the changes of the its ground, although this pace is differ-
standard of living of the global middle ent in different countries. The other
class”. The video where Moises Naim, two types of middle class belong to the
an associate of the “Carnegie Endow- developing economies. An example of
ment for International Peace”, the the first of the second two types (with
third most influential think tank in the a smaller scope) are the Latin Ameri-
world after the Brookings Institution can societies where the income of the
and Chatham House, and chief of the middle class, although it is lower, is
international columnists of the Span- closer to the one in Germany, and the
ish journal “El Pais”, predicts that in second of the second two types (or
the near future we are going to experi- three types in total) have an income
ence a conflict of the middle classes as of approximately 10 to 100 dollars per
the most common type of conflicts in person per day (measured according
the world. Since March this year, when to the purchase power) and these are
it was uploaded, this video has only more prevalent.
twenty reviews in YouTube.
The first middle class melts, the sec-
There could be many reasons for ond increases, however with a slower
such an insufficient interest. The first pace, and the third one quickly in-
and the most simple one is that the creases. Actually, as it is told in a for-
“Carnegie Foundation” is five years mer study, we live in a historical pe-
late with the uploading of the inter- riod: since 1800 two strong waves in
view with Naim on YouTube, because the development of the middle class
it is a matter of a recorded conversa- occurred, and we are sailing towards
tion from 2011. The second reason is the third one.
our focus on the migrant crisis as a
consequence, among other things, of Some actually fall from it. In the lat-
the strengthening of the radical Islam est publication Up Against the Wall:
elements, and the interpretation of the The French and American Middle
terrorist attacks in the European cities Classes, the analysts from France syn-
in context of conflict of culture and re- ergy, the French state think tank, ob-
ligion. And the third reason is the fact serve different speeds of melting of
that this discourse which is closely re- the middle class in USA and in France.
lated to the issues of (in)equality was The publication refers to data from the
grabbed by others, primarily the econ- Pew Research Center, another Ameri-
omists Thomas Piketty, and the closer can think tank, whereby according to
one to our region, Branko Milanovic. the data from 1971 to 2015 this layer
In an interview on the occasion of the has reduced by 18% and now it covers
publishing of his latest book “Global 50% compared to the former 61% of
Inequality - New Approach for the Age the citizens. Major part of the missing
of Globalization, Harvard University percentages merged with the blue col-
Press, 2016, he indicates something lars and the poor, and a small number
more similar: “In the next two or three joined the layer of rich people. There-
decades there are very probable na- fore, observed as an entirety, the rich
tional conflicts in regard to globaliza- and the poor for the first time in the
tion and distribution of income.“ past 44 years reached an equal per-
centage with the middle class.
When one speaks of conflicts in
the countries with increasing middle Calculated according to the same
classes, the political scientists, the methodology, the French middle class
economists and the sociologists actu- started to reduce significantly since
ally speak about two (or three) quite 2008. In the period from 1996 to 2012
the percentage of people categorized in
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