Linda Tirado

So here we are. “The richest one percent of the world’s population now controls 48.2 percent of global wealth, up from 46 percent last year, according to the most recent global wealth report issued by Credit Suisse, the Swiss-based financial services company.” Apparently, if this level of growth continues the 1% will own all the wealth in 23 years.

So here we are, with our burgeoning knowledge and education, declarations of human rights, constitutions, our politicians working assiduously, day and night, for the common good. This, along with walking on the moon and splitting the atom, is our achievement.

How extraordinary it is that we have underachieved to such a spectacular extent.

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Listening to an interview on radio today, I was highly impressed with Linda Tirado’s clear-sighted analysis of the United States’ treatment of its poor (an analysis that applies universally, I would say).  Having direct experience of what she’s talking about, she cut quickly through shit to the reality, and with deft articulateness swept away common perceptions of the comfortable middle-classes (myself included). There was nothing new in what she said, but her clarity made me stop; I will have to reassess my own perceptions of those poorer than myself, and it is well past time for governments to intercede for the impossible situations the impoverished find themselves in.  

The piece that brought Linda Tirado to public attention: http://killermartinis.kinja.com/why-i-make-terrible-decisions-or-poverty-thoughts-1450123558

Today’s interview on ‘The Marian Finucane Show’ on RTE Radio 1: http://www.rte.ie/radio/utils/radioplayer/rteradioweb.html#!rii=9%3A20667519%3A70%3A18%2D10%2D2014%3A