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WORLD

(photo: thestar.com) (as consumers of global goods and servic-
es)”. On the other side is the multitude of
influence of these governments to open the local population which is not related
new markets, on one hand, and the re- to the global economy and which spends
duction of the costs of the public services, locally.
the workforce and the tax burden on the
other side. It is enough just to have a look It is precisely these layers, more than
at the changes of the labour legislation in the ones at the bottom of the social scale,
Germany, performed under the pressure that make the group of disappointed
of the employers which threaten to move people who are directed towards Don-
to Poland and the Czech Republic, or the ald Trump and Bernie Sanders. These
reduction of the state apparatus and the are the people who, as Moises Naim in-
available public services in the countries dicates, created the movement Occupy
that experienced fiscal stabilization such Wall Street and lead to massive demon-
as Ireland, Portugal and Spain. These strations in the streets of Spain, Greece,
changes are led by the same logic. England and Israel, however also a rise
of the far right. “The time of tolerance of
Milanovic describes this as follows: inequality that marked the nineties and
“on one side there are members of the the end of the 20th century ended”, says
national elite which are internationally Naim.
connected to other capitalists and they
participate in the global economy and Ironically and paradoxically, in the
in production (as capitalists or as highly same way as the fall of the middle class
qualified workforce) and in consumption creates political tensions and frictions
in the rich countries, the spread of the
middle class is a source of political con-
flicts in the East. The reality is that this
middle class, which sustained the expan-
sion and the quick progress, requires a
much better quality of life, better access
to education, different media and style of
rule, which the governments of the Asian
countries, even if they wanted, could not
fulfill easily and quickly. The roots of the
unrests in Chile, Brazil, China and Tur-
key are in this field, among other things,
as well, says Naim.

The conflict of the middle classes will
continue to provide fuel for these inter-
nal conflicts. “In order to understand
where these could emerge, we should not
rely on geography or religion, it is enough
to refer to demographics, distribution
of income and access to resources”, says
Naim.

The aspirations of the two middle
classes are, at least seemingly, mutually
opposed.

According to the research of the Pew
Research Center from 2014, unlike the
Europeans and the Americans who are
exceptionally worried that their children
will live worse than them, with the fol-
lowing percentage: 86% in France, 79% in
Japan, and 67% in Italy, the respondents

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