In 2011, the Great British Class Survey was conducted, in collaboration with academics from the University of Manchester, the London School of Economics, and the University of York. The British have always been obsessed with class, so it is not surprising that British academics would attempt something of this nature.
The survey polled 161,400 people, and in a fit of obviousness, they concluded,
“We demonstrate the existence of an ‘elite’, whose wealth separates them from an established middle class.”
They also concluded that class distinctions had broadened into a multitude of seven classes. This is an expansion of the Marxist model of class division of capitalists and workers that has dominated academic circles for at least a hundred years.
According to Karl Marx:
- Capitalist bourgeoisie — If you control the means of production this is you.
- Worker — Oppressed and exploited proletariat with no control of the means of production. Sells his or her labor for profit.
The survey included “unusually detailed questions based on social, cultural and economic capital.”
For the economic capital section, the survey asks how much money you make and how much money you have in the bank, plus the value of your house.
Secondly, to determine your cultural capital, it asks what kind of cultural activities you participate in. This is based on high brow culture—preference for interests such as classical music, historic architecture, museums, art galleries, jazz, theatre and French restaurants. And the other, for emergent culture—appreciation and participation in such activities as video games, social networking, sports, hanging out with friends, working out at the gym, and rap or rock concerts.
Thirdly, social capital was measured using the position generator originated by Nan Lin, an American sociologist, in 2001, which measures the range of social connections. People were asked if they knew anyone in several dozen occupations.
Seven Classes
The study found there are seven distinct classes:
- a wealthy elite
- a prosperous salaried middle class consisting of professionals and managers
- a class of technical experts
- a class of new affluent workers
- an aging traditional working class
- a ‘precariat‘ characterized by very low levels of capital and ongoing precarious economic insecurity
- a group of emergent service workers
This is an incomplete list in my humble opinion, because it fails to mention the homeless who are a separate class of non-persons, comparable to the Dalit caste in India. Homeless people have virtually no rights and squeeze out a fragile existence as urban nomads.
The most interesting group #7, the precariat, are the working poor who often fall into homelessness, when things go sideways in the economy or in their personal lives. The word precariat is a neologism of the words precarious and proletariat, coined by economist, Guy Standing, in his book, The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class.
The survey claims that the Elite class has a “mean household income of £89k (152K CDN), almost double that of the next highest class, and the average house price is £325k (556k CDN), considerably higher than any other class.” However, this elite class is only the upper middle class. The real elites make far more money than a meagre £89k per year. Many of them make that much in a day.
Other sociologists have gone further to sub-divide the wealthy into several categories:
Millionaires or High-Net-Worth Individual (HNWI) – those with $1 million or greater in investible assets. There are approximately 15 million HNWIs in the world according to the World’s Wealthiest Cities Report 2023 by Henley & Partners.
Multimillionaires or Ultra-High-Net-Worth-Individuals (UHNWI) – those with $30 million or greater net worth. There are 211,275 UHNW individuals in the world, with a total combined net worth of US$29.7 trillion.
Billionaires – According to Forbes, there are 2,640 billionaires in the world who are collectively worth about $12 trillion. The number of billionaires has been doubling every 10 years. In 2013, there were 1426 billionaires, worth $5.5 trillion. In 2003, there were 476 billionaires worth just $1.4 trillion.
Trillionaires – This class does not even exist in the media or academic circles. Above the billionaire class are the invisible trillionaires, who are never mentioned by Forbes, or any other list of the wealthy. Nobody really knows how much they are worth. Generally speaking, it is assumed by the alternative community, that people like the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers are at the top of this list, and the best guess is that there are about 300 trillionaire families at the top of the heap. These families are mostly American, British and European aristocracy, with a handful of Russian oligarchs and Hong Kong Chinese thrown in for good measure. They include the DuPont, Astor, Cabot, Oppenheimer, Schiff, Warburg, Russell, Onassis, Morgan, Kennedy, Bush, Clinton, Vanderbilt, and virtually, the entire European monarchy.
“The Vacuum Cleaner Class”
This elite class of families are “a vacuum that cleaner class” who have crawled over the whole planet, vacuuming up enormous wealth in the last couple of decades. The economic crisis of 2008 and the pandemic of 2019 created opportunities for the uber wealthy to buy up more property, banks, real estate and stocks.
Another study conducted in 2011 by the University of Zürich applied mathematical models to the top 43,060 transnational corporations. The study concluded that a “super-entity” of 147 corporations control 40% of the world’s wealth. These corporations exhibit very high levels of interconnectedness—directors sit on multiple boards and each of these corporations have heavily invested $403 billion in each other. Out of these 147, the top 17 have $41.1 trillion in assets and operate in virtually every nation on Earth.
The majority of these corporations are American, and most are financial institutions.
The Transnational Capitalist Class
Referring to the upcoming WEF in 2024, Tracy Francis, a senior partner at management consulting firm, McKinsey & Co, claims the value of the Davos meeting is in
“the human interaction of a multitude of different types of entities—start-ups, nonprofits, governmental organizations, business. There’s a lot of talk about a new world order, but I do think that just being together in person and exchanging ideas increases connectivity.”
Davos is the yearly conclave for the Transnational Capitalist Class (TCC), a term coined by Leslie Sklair, in his book of the same title. The strength of the TCC lies not only in their phenomenal wealth, but in their ability to interconnect and create think tanks and policy-making networks. The Transnational Institute describes the main purpose of the World Economic Forum is
“to function as a socializing institution for the emerging global elite, globalization’s “Mafiocracy” of bankers, industrialists, oligarchs, technocrats and politicians. They promote common ideas, and serve common interests: their own.”
The WEF has forged an agreement with the United Nations to “accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” by deepening institutional coordination and collaboration between the UN and the WEF.
Much more disturbing is that the agreement grants transnational corporations preferential and deferential access to the UN System at the expense of States and public interest actors.
This “preferential access,” gives corporations special oversight privileges, making them, in conjunction with the WEF, a higher executive authority. “This agreement between the UN and WEF formalizes a disturbing corporate capture of the UN. It moves the world dangerously towards a privatized and undemocratic global governance,” said Gonzalo Berrón of the Transnational Institute.
Stakeholder Capitalism
Contrary to the epic rants of many in the alternative community, who swear on their grandmothers’ graves, that we are experiencing a global communist takeover—what is actually happening is the creation of a transnational capitalist techno-state.
Klaus Schwab, the author and finisher of Stakeholder Capitalism (not Stakeholder Communism) has been advocating his peculiar brand of capitalism for five decades. Communism is when the workers control the means of production. Capitalism is when the capitalists control the means of production.
Schwab and the World Economic Forum portray Stakeholder Capitalism in warm and fuzzy tones:
“The stakeholder model Schwab suggests, is one where government, business, and individuals collaborate.”
“Various stakeholders of an economy don’t only look after their own interests, but that of society as whole, leading to a system of stakeholder capitalism”.
Stakeholder Capitalism is essentially the attempt to bring all the stakeholders to the bargaining table. The World Economic Forum is the bargaining table. The stakeholders are any individual, corporation, nation, city, NGO or entity with wealth, power and global influence. Some of the main institutions that sit at the table are the UN, World Bank, BIS, IMF, G20, WHO and NATO.
This week, January 15-19, the WEF syndicated crime extravaganza will go down in Davos, Switzerland. Approximately 3000 stakeholders will fly in private jets to attend the annual conclave. According to the WEF website, members will include:
- 60 heads of state (national crime bosses)
- all major international organizations (private control grid)
- the Forum’s 1000 partners-in-crime
- as well as civil society leaders (gangsters-in-training)
- foremost experts (paid liars)
- young changemakers (useful idiots)
- social entrepreneurs (propaganda artists)
- and the (always compliant) media
This transnational oligopoly of crime bosses will sit with Godfather Klaus Schwab.
They will schmooze, plot and scheme, and finally, come to agreements on a multitude of global policy issues that will impact the future of our planet.
None of these policy decisions will have any consultation with the public. In fact, most of these decisions will be made in back-door meetings. The public will not even be informed of the existence of these policies, until after these agreements are signed and ratified by orgs like the United Nations, WHO, and the G20.
The Transnational Capitalist Class Question
The most pressing question of our time is how do we reign in the Transnational Capitalist Class, who answer to no one, are unelected, and have so much wealth and power that they are virtually omnipotent globally? Combined with this is the difficulty of access to them and their institutions, which have increasingly become deaf to the world around them. They are insulated by their wealth—they fly around in private jets, live in gated communities and sail in private yachts. They live above the law, accountable to no one except themselves.
The foremost goal of many conservatives is to preserve the nation-state system at all costs. Most conservatives view national sovereignty as a sacred cow, along with the free market. Many believe we need a Libertarian utopia where no one pays taxes, the market is unregulated, government is local, decentralized, and ideally as minimal as possible.
This is most likely never going to happen. The world is interconnected with trade, transportation, media and communication at an unprecedented level, never before witnessed in world history. It cannot be unconnected. The reason the TCC has been able to achieve their goals is because of this global interconnectedness.
Evolution Versus Revolution
A quick review of about twelve thousand years of human history reveals a gradual evolution from tribal clans to farming villages to market towns to city-states to feudal kingdoms to parliamentary monarchy to the nation-state system that began in 1648 with the signing of the Westphalian Treaties.
There are many forces outside of the control of the TCC, such as gravity, mortality and evolution. The transition to a global system of government is the next stage in the political evolution of our planet.
Evolution is not just biological—it occurs on all levels. Human beings have experienced the evolution of our political, economic, cultural and social systems over thousands of years. The unprecedented explosion of science and technology that occurred through the Scientific Revolution was also outside the control of the TCC, despite their obvious success at exploiting and profiting from this revolution.
The nation-state system is deteriorating, and being replaced by a multipolar system, not because the TCC are the causal agents of this transition, albeit they are actively embracing this change in order to further their goals and agendas. Those who are clinging for dear life to the lifeboat of national sovereignty are destined to be cast adrift on the oceans of change.
It does not matter what system of government is put in place, whether it is a municipal, provincial, federal or even a global government. What matters is if the freedom and rights of the citizens are protected and enforced. Without freedom of speech, assembly, press, worship and transit, We the People have nothing. Even democracy can be totalitarian if the elections are only a choice between various tyrants.
What is needed is some serious judo, using the full weight of the TCC against them, or more accurately with them. An interconnected network of citizens needs to be created on an unprecedented level—a movement of unparalleled solidarity, unity and commitment. This means breaking down the traditional ideological barriers between the left and right, conservative and liberal, Republican and Democrat. It also means speaking with One Voice, and directly challenging the Transnational Capitalist Class.
A New Social Contract
A new Social Contract needs to be signed and ratified, between We the People and the TCC. So far, there is no social contract with the TCC, and they have no desire to have one. They want a stakeholders’ contract only, that ensures their rights, but none for the rest of the planet. Their ultimate goal is to eradicate all rights and freedoms on Earth.
It is virtually impossible to unseat them from their Halls of Power. A violent revolution on a global scale against the armies of NATO, along with the vast security apparatus of the TCC would be a formidable challenge, and unlikely to be met with any success, unless the revolutionaries directly confront the members of the aristocratic global family with appropriate force.
Force is not violence.
The employment of unified, constant and unrelenting social force upon the architects of the new world order is an achievable goal. The battle needs to be taken to their private residences and their private offices. The TCC must be forced through social pressure to hand over the keys of the kingdom to the people.
Almost all previous social movements were national in character, such as the black civil rights movement in the United States. The women’s suffrage movement had more of an international flavour, but the right to vote was a national challenge, that each nation undertook in order to enshrine women’s rights in national charters. We have a global challenge to force the TCC to obey the rights of citizens across the entire global spectrum.
Clauses and agreements need to be inserted in all the policies of the WEF, UN, WHO, G20 and the rest of the TCC network. The rights and freedoms of all citizens of the Earth need to be protected, not only by the rule of law, but also enforced by the people. Any government, whether it is local or a world government, must guarantee the safety and security of its people. If the TCC wants legitimacy as a global government, it must guarantee peace and prosperity. There can be no peace and prosperity without the guarantee of civil rights.
Organizations like the WEF need to be pressured to allow representatives from across the spectrum of classes, who are not currently represented. The WEF needs to be forced to become a more democratic institution, where attendees from the other various classes are permitted.
Sound far-fetched? Maybe it is, but so far, the efforts to oppose the WEF have not been successful. Ordinary citizens are not allowed entrance to the meetings. The fee for attendance is over $70,000, which makes attendance exclusive only to the Transnational Capitalist Class.
How are we going to negotiate with them, if we are not even allowed in the door? We need to get our foot in the door, even if it means kicking the door down. Schwab and his mafia bosses must not be permitted to continue with their plans for enslaving the entire planet. Unless we crash the Davos party, it will be caviar, steak and lobster on the menu for them, and insects for us.
Rick Thomas is a musician, activist and the author of How to Defeat the New World Order. For social activism: VictoryCanada.today and for all articles: Substack. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.