Polls show that, several decades ago, when most North Americans, Europeans and East Asians were much poorer than they would soon become, they were far more likely to trust their elected representatives than they do today. Even the many who found it hard to make ends meet assumed that things would get better for them in the not so distant future, as indeed they did until what the French call “the 30 glorious years” which followed World War II and just about everyone benefitted from economic growth started petering out. Though overall output did continue to increase in the advanced economies, large numbers of people saw their incomes stagnate.
According to some specialists, in the United States middle-class wages, as measured by purchasing power, remain much the same as they were over half a century ago, while those pulled in by high earners have skyrocketed. In Europe, economic trends have been even more dispiriting than in the transatlantic powerhouse. Awareness that “ordinary people” are getting left behind by “elites” whose members think they thoroughly deserve their good fortune because they are brighter and more virtuous than the rest is behind the rise of Donald Trump in the United States and the “extreme right” in Europe.
Abandoned to their fate by leading Democrats and socialists, people are turning towards politicians who are willing to take on the system they think has betrayed them. Fuelling the resentment they feel is the haughty behaviour of those .
