Have a precious week of Christmas. Every time we feel tempted to believe that the incipient baby Middle-Class is not important or not relevant for the well-being of our societies, just put your hand on your heart, and tell yourself, that basically history repeats when people do not mend its past. Humans will always make mistakes, it is in our nature. With our creativity empowerment, we have demonstrated and will continue to prove that our curiosity to expand our knowledge to make new things is infinite. But in that process, we also have ruined and sometimes destroyed beautiful industries, valient lessons and the equilibrium of the planet. Once we are aware of this, then, as anyone who is correct, we try to put things in the right place. We begin to fix. And that is our cycle of living: we do things that later we regret, and we have to mend them, which is costly. Little by little we will comprehend that before selling products and services, or before promoting projects that may harm us, it is better to take our time to test our ideas, instead of selling them to all the world, and then fix, or find out that we were doing wrong.

The French Revolution is here to remind us of social inequality. If the causes of the French-Revolution still exist in our days after 220 years of it, then our world still is in reparation mode. Still it has not repaired “the lack of a strong middle-class” during feudalism. 227 years have passed since king Louis XVI was executed in January 1793, and his severed head was paraded around all the violent crowd, exclaiming “Vive la République!”. And if we are still watching crowds in the streets (as recently happened in Chile, or we still see radical people killing because of religious or racial motives, or if we still have 74% of the low class, as poor living with less than US$80 dollars per household a day), then our leaders have a long way to continue repairing our ancestors feudalism legacy. Meanwhile there is still a majority trying to conquer its social mobility by using the “force” instead of using ideas and the brains; then it is better that we pause, and think that even with our new latest inventions (including the first, second and third industrial revolutions) there are certain core situations which have been patched but not solved after the French Revolution: such as the racial- religious-economic social inequality, lack of effective social mobility, a baby status of the Middle-Class. As any infant, our Middle-Class strategy has an incoherent sustainable business status that needs support, refinement, cultivation and improvements. All for the sake of keeping the world in perfect balance.

The French-Revolution (for Eleonora Escalante Strategy) was the beginning or the origin of the Middle-Class “formal” establishment. If you wish to read about it , click here:

https://www.britannica.com/event/French-Revolution

The reason why we affirm with cause of evidence that the Middle-Class has only 100 years, even thought the French Revolution happened 220 years ago (between 1789 to 1799) is because I have discounted all the years of conflicts and its immediate post-war years. After the French-Revolution, a wave of social and political revolutions all over the countries and the new World colonies happened. All of these violent manifestations, continued through the last century. In reality the Middle-Class began to emerge consistently as a social class group in Europe and the USA, at around the beginning of the 1900s. Alors, or in consequence for the French Revolution objectives to settle, it took more than 100 years (since 1799 to the end of WWI) just to accommodate, after the existing monarchies accepted the word “democracy” instead of “autocracy” or “authoritarian regimes” ruling their countries. Those 100 years time frame of accommodating the new democratic ideology were required for all the social and economic systems to accept “democracy” as a new economic and political system. The novelness concept of democracy, based on capitalist values, in the midst of its opposite, the socialism and the extreme “the communism”, has only around 100 years of implementation. There are still states in transition, and some have not even started their way into democracies. I dare to put my hands on fire to state that the genuine installment of democracies in Latin America, basically started only during the last 50 years, after Kennedy arrived to the United States Presidency.

The Berlin Wall legacy. During the 20^th century, the socialists countries were not able to fulfill their prosperity promises, and the Berlin wall destruction is the proof of it. The issue with the socialist political philosophy is the lack of social mobility and its rigid conception that  there are only two classes: the upper class and the working class, leaving the middle-class out. In addition, the socialist stratification of a society inherently kills the “desire” or “will” to work hard for reaching an own economic achievement, because there is always “government daddy” that will be there to solve our issues. The excessive, sometimes extreme, paternalist “government figure” is quite similar to the philosophy of the feudal monarchies of the 1700s, and this government huge significance diminishes entrepreneurship. On the other side, the capitalist countries after WWI, created so much wealth for the majority of inventors and entrepreneurs who well associated with new tech investors expanded the Middle-Class. In the United States, successful individuals from humble origins (employed at the top tier of middle-class salaries range) are extremely and highly respected by the American upper-class, and the Middle-Class membership is determined by individual economic achievements based on schooling, merit employment and “entrepreneurship”. But, be aware that also the capitalism has its meaningful faults, which must be overcome. So we need to find a balance, if we wish to strengthen social mobility, democracies and the Middle-Class. The role of the existing monarchies (beyond helping charities) is to help to keep democracies alive. None of the existing kings/queens wants to return back to the times of Louis XVI, and end up the same way again. Sooo… the importance of social mobility and the strengthening of middle-class is the recipe to follow.

Moving forward to overcome social resentment in social stratification, means to situate ourselves with a thoughtful and reasonable mental frame that help us to acknowledge that the term social mobility has to be strengthened and respected. Social mobility allows people to move out of the stratum of poverty into which they were born. And social mobility is a journey of a lifetime. Some of us will have the good luck jump from poor to middle-class in 20 years. Others will need some more time. The path of high-superior education will always be required to maintain and procure the “Middle- Class existence”. Multiple ways of social mobility have risen: to win scholarships to join top schools, to mix and mingle with the upper class through democratic schools, a situation which has helped many to move out of poverty sometimes by romance and weddings between different social classes, or by offering jobs or possibilities to study out and scale in social positions.

Social mobility starts in real-life traditional schools. When public systems fortify the public educational system to a level in which there is no difference between those who study at a private expensive school and those who study at the public school, then and only then, we can groom people to belong to prestigious universities by merit, with an excellent chance to getting the jobs or entrepreneurial opportunities of the upper and upper-middle class groups.

Depeche toi to earn at least US$2,400/ month (US$28,800/year)! In developing economies, to reach a level of US$2,400/month or to earn the same amount as net profits after taxes) in your small business, requires  more than the “heart desire” of working hard for it. At this point in time, when the Chinese factory has reached enough critical mass that is searching to expand more and more, the only way to protect the local economies, is not through protectionism but through a well and fine tuned regulated deployment of the “democracies” system. Economic progress begets democracies, and the free market economy needs adjustments and some careful decision making (particularly when the low-cost strategy seems to be driving the world). Please remember that in a global world wide web, the low-cost strategy triggers cannibalization of prices, and industries can collapse, as a result of the new disruptive technologies. The optimistic vision that once China reached the free market system, its own democracy will follow, is far from a reality. At least that is how we perceive it.  Only time will tell if the Chinese economy business model will be able to maintain and grow its Middle-Class with at least US$2,400/month and more for decades to come. When it comes to Latin America and African countries, the goal should be to ignite the economies under a balanced and ecological ethical capitalism that could help all the low-class to be educated integrally, and promote democracies to develop the Middle-Class much more. To reach 50% population of Middle-Class in a century, is not an utopia, it has been a reality in the United States, and it can happen everywhere on earth. But it doesn´t happen automatically. It requires good and excellent education at all levels, it requires decent and moral leaders, and the efficient usage of the geographic resources and commercial trade that belong to each country. It requires at least 4 generations or between 80 to 100 years to see the impact of choosing for democracies. In El Salvador, we basically started our democracy journey after the civil war ended (1992), and that is the case for many latino, african and asian countries.

Overcoming social resentment is in our own responsibility. All of us who are in the process to reach our economic prosperity will always find roadblocks. We will move up and fell down, many times. We will find not one but many difficulties. Nevertheless, only consistency and persistence in the middle of this journey will pave a better life for the next generations to come. When someone is trying to elevate its social position out of poverty, and is doing it with decency and under an ethical umbrella, through hard work, and dedication, we have to help instead of creating obstruction. We are obliged to hide our prehistoric envy, and help if we have the contacts or resources. If we can´t help directly, at least it is morally beautiful to don´t hinder social mobility. Only by helping social mobility to be a reality, through education and hard work, we are strengthening democracies, and we are also (without knowing) helping those who will make a difference to develop a much fair free-market economic model for the future.  In consequence, where do we go from here?

Next thursday we will continue with the subject 18 of our outline. Blessings for you.

Disclaimer: Illustrations in Watercolor are painted by Eleonora Escalante. Other types of illustrations or videos (which are not mine) are used for educational purposes ONLY.  Nevertheless, the majority of the pictures, images, or videos shown on this blog are not mine.  I do not own any of the lovely photos or images posted unless otherwise stated.

Published by eleonoraescalantestrategy

Corporate Strategy Artist, San Salvador, El Salvador View all posts by eleonoraescalantestrategy