A new prosperous middle class is rapidly emerging in countries such as China, Russia, Brazil, India, Turkey and Indonesia. In 2009, 70m new middle class* people made an appearance on the world stage. Goldman Sachs estimates they will be joined by roughly 2bn others by the year 2050. These people buy things. The Chinese purchased more cars than Americans last year and in 20 years people living in ‘emerging markets’ will own 90% of mobile phones.

But it’s not just raw spending power which makes this trend interesting. It had always been assumed when nations like China or India developed they would adopt broadly Western attitudes. But the new emerging middle class is rejecting liberalism, free markets and free speech.

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This new middle class is broadly supportive of authoritarian Govt, state control and limits on free speech and elections just so long as the local economy keeps growing. It is individualistic and supportive of free trade and globalisation but is also nationalistic and protectionist. In short, millions of newly wealthy people around the world are rejecting the notion you need political freedom for economic growth and are supportive of the idea it doesn’t matter who runs the country, just so long as they keep in running it smoothly.

But there’s one area where the old and new middle classes converge. Both are anxious about the economy, interest rates, unemployment and global chaos. Both are also driven by a combination of pride and insecurity.

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