The growing divide between the world’s rich and poor is among the biggest dangers of the next decade. The warning is contained in the World Economic Forum’s latest Global Risks report, an annual curtain raiser to the organization’s summit in Davos next week.
Street violence like this will become more frequent, according to the World Economic Forum, or WEF, unless politicians and business leaders tackle rising wealth inequality and youth unemployment.
"I don’t think we’re at the rend of the road in terms of social unrest. We are seeing in many countries around the world, the last year has seen it in many of the large emerging markets, such as Brazil South Africa, but also in Europe. In Spain, you’re starting to see it in some of the more advanced European economies," said Jennifer Blanke, chief economist of world economic forum.
The WEF spoke to 700 experts from around the world to compile its report. It discovered an army of young people - 300 million strong - without work.
"The huge risk is that you create, so to speak, a whole generation, it's called "the lost generation," that really doesn't see any future. The consequences for social and economic stability could be hugely devastating," said Axel Lehmann, global risks report co-author.
So, even with a more benign economic outlook for 2014, throwing ahead to Davos and the world economic forum, it's apparent youth unemployment and the disruptive social consequences that arise from it, will be high on the agenda.
However, according to the report authors, finding a solution will require more cooperation between involve the challenge of governments still shrugging off the economic pressures of the financial crash.
"The focus of political leaders is being pushed to short term domestic things. We need to widen the focus and get more into the global multilateral sphere," said John Drzik, global risks report co-author.
The authors also cite "local governance failure" as a global risk, without naming an obvious one, the humanitarian tragedy in Syria-currently the focus of high level meetings between many of the foreign ministers who’ll be attending the Davos forum.