Bread, circuses and Netflix subscriptions

But keeping the masses distracted only works so long

- by NEIL BRYAN

ONCE upon a time, the Roman Empire kept the mob quiet with two things: bread and circuses. Feed the people, distract them with a bit of blood and spectacle, and you could get away with pretty much anything.

Fast-forward 2,000 years, and the recipe hasn't changed much. Only now, the bread costs £3.40 a loaf and the circus comes bundled with your monthly Netflix subscription.

We live in the most distracted age in human history. Every crisis, every injustice, every flicker of genuine outrage has to compete with the dopamine firehose of entertainment. The cost-of-living crisis? Sure, it hurts, but at least there's a new season of The Crown. Energy bills? Brutal, but did you catch Stranger Things? Your rent's gone up by 20 per cent? Painful, yes, but at least you can order a Deliveroo burger at 11pm and pretend it's cheaper than groceries.

The bread shrinks, the circus grows.

To be clear - ordinary people are getting poorer. That's not an opinion, it's the data. Since 2020, wages have flatlined in real terms while food and housing have skyrocketed. Inflation acts like a regressive tax, hitting the bottom 50 per cent hardest. In the UK, unsecured borrowing is at record highs. In the U.S., credit card debt has ballooned past $1.3 trillion.

Meanwhile, the asset-owning class (the one per cent, if you prefer blunt instruments) continues to soar. Stocks bounce back. Property values climb. Private equity firms buy up homes, hospitals, and water utilities, and then charge us rent to live, fees to drink, and surcharges for the privilege of existing.