The Bread Based Social Contract

Bread isn't just bread. It is the cornerstone of the social contract between the rulers and the ruled. Across the middle east, this social contract was part of an authoritarian bargain whereby security was traded for freedom. The world produced a record quantity of food in two thousand seven. In 20 ten, there's this huge food price spike. And many of these regimes are very, very slow to respond to it, right? So essentially what you start seeing is rising food prices.