Monday 16 January 2012

The State Of The Economy And Social Revolutions

I believe it was an acquaintance of my girlfriend who said that French society didn't evolve; it mutated, violently, every now and then but in-between the society was calm and "business as usual" carried on.

I suppose this isn't too far away from the truth. And quite frankly, one can easily say this applies to other societies/nations/economies as well. And the most remarkable thing is that it seems like the social unrest takes place only, or at least mainly, after economic hardship, however that hardship came about. Cornered people that have nothing to lose don't just sit by and wait for things to happen.

US colonists revolted against UK because of taxes and demanded tributes to the King ("No taxation without representation"), France's Revolution was amongst other things because of bad harvests (allegedly caused by Laki volcano in Iceland), the Nazis gained power because of the Versailles treaty and the debt-hardship it put on the German people while today the citizens of Latvia, Iceland, Portugal, Spain, Romania, Greece, Italy, US to name just a few have all marched the streets essentially because of debt levels and the economic slowdown they have introduced.

How does the Chinese curse go: "May you live in interesting times!"


Latvia


Iceland


Greece


Romania

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