Davos, G8, G20 etc - haven't they had enough chances already?

As the world's financial elite met in Davos last week that question became obvious.

Why are we still in a severe mess if they were in the slightest bit effective?

Why would people like me, who obviously cannot make a living in translation work (the money isn't there), choose to be unemployed when we would prefer to be working - preferably in IT, where I happily spent most of my life?

And if there is an embargo by private companies upon hiring older people, why does the issue not raise its head there, so that at least the issue gets some recognition?

The problem is, as the Occupy movements have recognised, that the financial elite have had their opportunity, and blown it completely. There was too much emphasis on quick and easy profits, and throwing talented people to the wolves, particularly as they get older!

There have been some strange converts to this thinking. Richard Quest, a London-based CNN business anchor, and a staunch Thatcherite if ever I heard one, wrote a thought-provoking piece on cnn.com this week as to whether capitalism wasn't working.

Well spotted finally! I hope that this is not a momentary whim though. A few years ago another very conservative one-time CNN business anchor, Lou Dobbs, started making some very critical noises about American corporations. Whether he is still that critical, I have currently no idea.

What I do know is that large numbers of people have been sacrificed to a system that is broken. To earn qualifications, young people have to take out ludicrous amounts of debt without the promise of a brighter tomorrow when they can finally pay off what they owe (frankly as a young man I would have refused to go to university on that principle anyway! I always had an aversion to debt). Unqualified young people have meanwhile to queue up to get even the awful poverty-wage jobs at McDonalds these days.

And at the other end of the age range, if you are past 50 and still have a meaningful job that pays adequately, count yourself lucky!

The Davos crowd have had their opportunity. They have failed miserably. It is time, now, finally to tell them to get out of town and replace them with someone who will provide solutions that will work!