Social Unrest Worldwide

We are seeing a disturbing trend in the spread of social disruption around the world. We had the Arab Spring several years ago, which I think was primarily triggered by economic difficulties of the masses. Food prices had gotten very high, seemingly in response to USA economic policy.

This was followed by some years of relative social peace until Venezuela imploded. Now we see Chile, once considered an oasis of South American prosperity and peaceful stability, erupting in unrest that has destroyed numerous supermarkets and injured thousands of people, while other thousands have been arrested.

We’ve had recent riots in Iraq and in Lebanon which seem like delayed Arab Spring phenomena. South Africa is experiencing unrest born of people’s frustration with government corruption and rolling power blackouts. France is experiencing demonstrations, and so is Ecuador. Even Alberta seems to be in the beginnings of such social turmoil.

None of the foregoing have the potential for damage as does what is going on in Hong Kong. China, as I keep saying in this blog, has a major economic problem. China was able to grow capital simply by forcing people to work, but its workers have aged and its population pyramid no longer looks like a pyramid. It is more like a fire hydrant with the big bulge of 50s, and a smaller bulge of millennials. Gen X, born at the start of the one child policy, and Gen Z, born during the latter years of that foolishness, are a small percentage of the population. A workforce like that is limited by age related infirmities from providing the kind of brute production it once did. Chinese economic growth can only continue by working smarter instead of harder. This requites innovation. It is hard to induce innovation in a centrally planned economy where people labor yields fruit to be taken by the government. I think China may be in for some major social upheaval, and if so, it will likely be very bloody.