What
could be more revealing of the fact the elites, including in our
so-called democracies, are battening down the hatches as they prepare
for the mess (both economic and environmental) they have created:
"At least half the world’s population lives in countries where there
are more private security workers than public police officers, according
to a new Guardian analysis.
"More than 40 countries – including
the US, China, Canada, Australia and the UK – have more workers hired to
protect specific people, places and things than police officers with a
mandate to protect the public at large, according to the data. In
Britain, 232,000 private guards were employed in 2015, compared with
151,000 police.
"The global market for private security services,
which include private guarding, surveillance and armed transport, is
now worth an estimated $180bn (£140bn), and is projected to grow to
$240bn by 2020. This far outweighs the total international aid budget to
end global poverty ($140bn a year) – and the GDPs of more than 100
countries, including Hungary and Morocco. ...
"In 2014, the
economists Samuel Bowles and Arjun Jayadev published research that found
the US was employing “as many private security guards as high school
teachers”.
"According to Department of Labor statistics, there
are more than 1.1 million private security guards in the US – compared
with about 660,000 police and sheriff’s officers. ...
"According
to Freedonia figures, it’s a worldwide business that’s growing at nearly
6% a year – faster than the global economy as a whole – and it appears
to be expanding fastest in developing countries and in Asia, with China
and India major markets."
