At this writing, securities markets and the international community are reeling at the news that British voters have opted to leave the European Union. The Brexit has provoked angry reactions from the pro-"remain" camp, who accuse "leave" voters of stupidity, shortsighted ignorance and, worse, thinly disguised racism and nativism posing as nationalism.
Political analysts point out that British voters were divided geographically — Scotland wanted to stay, England wanted to leave — as well as demographically. One chart that managed to go semi-viral online displayed high support for Brexit among older voters, opposition among the young, alongside the actuarial average years remaining that each age group would have to live with the consequences of the vote. The smartest of these pundits focus on the class divide between shiny expensive youth-oriented cities like London, where pro-European sentiments are strong, and England's version of the Rust Belt, abandoned hellholes where citizens barely subsist in a ruined landscape of shut down factories and widespread unemployment.
"If you've got money, you vote in," a voter in Manchester told the Guardian newspaper. "If you haven't got money, you vote out."
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