Opinion Editorials, August 2011

The Global Debt Crisis Is the Handiwork of the Super Rich

By Abid Mustafa

Al-Jazeerah, CCUN, August 1, 2011

 
"The world with its billions does not have too many people, but it does have too many in their thousands who think that they are worth a million others." ...Daniel Dorling
 
Barely a year after European governments and the IMF had lent Greece $156bn to lighten its debt burden; Europe is now embroiled in a new debt crisis. The magnitude of this crisis is such that it threatens to engulf some of Europe's biggest economies such as Spain and Italy. The debt 'contagion' is not limited to Europe alone. Across the Atlantic, sees America a country that once boasted a 50 percent share of the world's GDP, controlled 75 percent of the world's gold and once a creditor nation, is now on the brink of default at a time when politicians on both sides of the political spectrum fail to agree on raising the US debt ceiling that is currently set at $14.3 trillion. The convergence of these two debt crisis has once again brought to the fore the prospects of impending global economic collapse.
 
Yet again, it is the intransigence of the super rich unwilling to share their wealth that is heralding another economic collapse. In the aftermath of the global financial crisis in 2008, the super rich were able to manipulate governments to undertake actions and enact laws that legalized the daylight robbery of ordinary citizens. Western governments were quick to bail out debt laden banks, with billions of dollars of tax payers' money. Without any consideration for the laymen, governments aptly converted the private debt incurred by the super rich into public debt by moving it off the balance sheet of troubled banks and onto the balance sheet of governments. In a further bid to protect the material interests of the super rich, governments engaged in the printing of money. This swiftly led to devaluation currencies around the world, and heaped misery on the people through the rapid rise in the price of basic commodities and services, which most could not afford. The super rich, on the other hand, were shielded from the effects of currency debasement, through their immense wealth and their ability to convert cash into tangible goods.
 
Three years on, the super rich are again manipulating the political class, the media and the financial institutions to safeguard their wealth at the expense of peoples and nations. For instance, at the heart of Europe's economic woes is in the reluctance of the super rich to write off debt owed to them by countries like Ireland, Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal. The super rich would rather see countries indebted to them, paying exorbitant interest rates and their respective populations stripped off wealth, than the cancellation of debt payments and a reprieve for indebted countries to recover.
 
Likewise in America, it is the super rich that are demanding that the American public must pay for their economic mismanagement and excessive lifestyles. Both the Democratic and the Republican parties are vying with each other to protect the interests of the super rich. Cutting fiscal spending, reducing taxes or a compromise between the two parties will no doubt save the wealth of the super rich, but it will gravely hurt the majority of Americans.
 
Since the rest of the world is dependent on the West and its financial institutions, billions of people will suffer more than the average westerner. The monopoly of the super rich over the world's wealth, treasures and resources exists only because there is no other ideology to challenge their greed and hegemony. Islam is the only ideology in the world that categorically forbids the super rich from hoarding their wealth. Allah mentions in Surah Al Hashr a translated meaning of which is:
 
"And what Allah restored to His Messenger from the people of the towns - it is for Allah and for the Messenger and for [his] near relatives and orphans and the [stranded] traveler - so that it will not be a perpetual distribution among the rich from among you. And whatever the Messenger has given you - take; and what he has forbidden you - refrain from. And fear Allah ; indeed, Allah is severe in penalty." [Al-Hashr, 59:7]
 
Only in the Caliphate you will find the super rich are unable to hoard and are forced to share their wealth with the people through a variety of economic rules based on Islam. In this way, all the citizens of the state are not deprived of the basic necessities of life and have an opportunity to live prosperously.
 
Abid Mustafa is a political commentator who specialises  in Muslim affairs and global issues
 

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