Got Power?

[Mythsaje]

When the warning signs of these economic crisis coming down the pike, I said that the people would be unlikely to pay much attention until it started hitting them where they lived. Having all these new-fangled technological gee-gaws might have been a distraction for many, but it'll stop meaning anything when there are no longer jobs to pay for the electricity to run them, or the wall sockets in which to charge them.

DiFi might have been correct on some level about California's current condition, but that's not going to be much comfort when the millions of people suffering come knocking on the door of her gated community. Cutting social services to the bone will put hundreds of thousands on the street. And they're going to be PISSED.

Many of them will be in the disenfranchised sector of society--people who don't vote because they don't believe it affords them any change at all. NOT voting, on the other hand, can be worse. If they depend on the largess of the government, it seems a big mistake to stay out of the very debate on which that largess hinges.

It'll start as a whisper campaign in the darkness, among a few outsiders watching a Lexus roll by. "That person isn't suffering," they'll say. "Why is that?"

Then they'll know. The banks, the insurance companies, the corporate toadies, and all the others protected from failure by the very same government largess that failed them. They'll know, and they're just going to get angrier.

You say you want a revolution? Well this is how a real revolution starts. When people who have nothing left to lose take to the streets. It ain't going to be pretty.

[Selatius]

1. I think the problem in the US won't be solved unless people realize there is class war happening.

People are class unconscious, and I generally think it is the product of a relatively few corporations owning the news outlets. Freedom of the press belongs to those who own one. You can look at the working class, the middle class, the upper-middle class, and the corporate class and see that most of the presses are run by those in the last group. Propaganda and not just force of arms and high vaulted walls of old is now essential in the arsenal to keeping people down and powerless.

[Mythsaje]

2. And what good will that propaganda be if people are no

longer able to watch the TV media because they no longer own a TV, or have a place to plug it in?

[Selatius]

3. Well, at that point, I think working class rage will overwhelm any propaganda.

Of course, ideally, we correct the situation and the wealth imbalance before people get angry and desperate enough to spill blood. Personally, I don't think enough is being done to prevent such a confrontation. I think with each passing day it gets closer because not enough people in power realize or care to realize that stomping on poor people repeatedly is generally not a good idea if history books are any lesson.

[Mythsaje]

4. That's what I fear. Seriously.

If something isn't done, California will burn.

[AllentownJake]

7. Our representatives have no clue.

Most of them spend 90% of their time in D.C. unless they live in a neighboring state. Even when they are home, they spend their time with the people who can finance their next campaign.

The closest they come to the unwashed masses are photo-ops and townhalls. Neither which present a realistic view of the communities they represent.

State representatives are marginally better.

They honestly are like the French Nobility before the revolution.

[AllentownJake]

6. Few people believe they are poor

Everyone believes they are in the middle class.

The rich (non-uber wealthy) all believe they are middle class, even if they make over $250,000 a year.

Families just above the poverty line believe they are middle class.

[Selatius]

8. That was one bar I omitted from my response. It sounded too much like a rabblerouser's

I omitted a part of my post that said that from time to time, people must be forced to compare their meager living to those of the elite to truly drive home the point about exactly how far they truly are from middle class or even anything remotely resembling comfortable living. Anger is a powerful motivator to get something changed. People have been allowed to believe what they want to believe, but reality cannot be kept away forever. One day, people will be made to feel humble in comparison to what the elite have, and once the initial shock is over, people will do something about the humiliation.

[AllentownJake]

9. Don't know

The Roman empire lasted for many years based on the principle as long as you can keep people fed and entertained they are controllable. That and harsh retribution for revolutionaries.

We shall see, my one friend and I discuss these things and he believes until necessities of life are taken away, people will be complacent. They will tolerate a recession or even a depression as long as they have the staples. The closest we came to the described actions was the 1930s. In that case, FDR saved the country by putting people to work on infrastructure products. He also used his power to limit the power of the elites.

We shall see what happens this time around. To be honest, the elites are a little bit better organized than they were in 1932.

[Mythsaje]

15. Oh, I think people have gotten far more attached to luxuries--

or, what would have been considered luxuries--than they once were. Just taking them away will annoy them. If they lose necessities on top of them.

[AllentownJake]

5. There will be a migration first

All those people in California that get cut off will move to states that social welfare system is still intact.

People with families outside of California will take in family members from California.

This will strain the budgets of the states that have been reasonably responsible.

This will spread California's problems to the nation as a whole as already burdened state budgets are all forced to take on California's problem.

People are more likely to flee than to fight. It honestly only comes when people are absolutely hopeless that they will risk their futures by fighting the powers that be.

[Forkboy]

10. A guy gave me a bit of advice right before he kicked my ass one day long ago...

"Never fight a guy who has nothing to lose."

He was right, and so are you. :)

[bemildred]

11. Starving people are not going to care about all these whiney excuses.

History is clear on this, you screw the pooch, you can be hanging from a telephone pole,

[Cleita]

12. Unless counties start collecting taxes at a county level

to pick up the slack of the social services that are being cut, it's going to get ugly. Out of work people with no food or shelter will become a real threat to those who still have something. Not having hospitals, shelters or police to deal with the disenfranchised will make matters worse. Churches and charities have never been able to meet those needs. It takes the government at some level to step in.

[bemildred]

13. A sound idea.

They can duke it out in the courts. Meanwhile, the cops can do their duty and collect the taxes so that public services can be paid for.

[Name removed]

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