This is not the past but the future for all societies...


The BRICS of this world will never escape the middle-income trap, and this might be good news for our environment (if everyone lived like US Americans, we would need 4 earths, but if we all lived like Indians, the one we have now is more than enough). And in the G7s of this world, the rich are reclaiming the wealth that for a moment in the 20th century was, after the shock two great wars, transferred to and greatly expanded the middle classes. This is indeed what Thomas Piketty's bestselling book Capital in the 21st Century is all about. Eventually BRICS and G7s will be indistinguishable. The biggest question of our times is how to develop our societies without economic growth. The solution will not be found in reality but in mental conceptions.

UPDATE: BuzzFeed claims that the image of the Brazilian football fans and the woman in the dumpster was not taken at the 2014 World Cup but from another international football event that happened in Brazil last year. This claim, however, makes no dent on the point of my post.