The third instalment of The Coming Wars grapples with the constantly shifting and disruptive nature of societies in today’s world. What is acceptable today might be viewed differently by future generations. By Sudhir Vadaketh
We are living through a new gilded age. Oxfam believes the world’s richest 1% will own more wealth than the rest of the world combined.
Debates will rage across the developed world about whether there is a need to mitigate this, and if so, how.
My sense is that we are unlikely to see any fundamental shifts in ideologies on the left or right. They will simply be modern manifestations of the same debates the world has known for the past century.
Even though I believe that inequality must be tempered — for a host of commonly discussed reasons — it does not appear like voters in major developed countries think so. Even if the likes of Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn win national power, which is highly unlikely, competing political demands will necessitate their shift to the centre.
Barring some major crisis in legitimacy for the world’s elites, I don’t foresee any major redistributive shifts in the world — certainly no return to anything resembling Communism.
There is a growing nexus among the world’s senior political and business leaders. Elite protection and privilege will increasingly express itself in the behaviour of big organisations.
Executives will continue to privatise profits and socialise losses. Countries in which these massive organisations operate will continue to find it difficult to govern and tax them. Multilateral forums and initiatives will forever be playing catch-up.
Sudhir also discusses the rise of an ageing population and the changing ideologies. What will their impacts be? Read the full article on STORM V26, available at Allscript, MPH, and Kinokuniya.
