The life of the ordinary Egyptian or Yemenite or Tunisian is far more bleak

[WCGreen]

than that of the average American.

Remember that old chant that Roman elites lived by, bread and circuses?

We have that here today. The level of people in dangerous poverty, going hungry poverty, in this country is historically high but not high enough that most people take much notice. We have isolated the poor in rural areas that are flown over or driven by on the interstate.

The urban poor are concentrated in areas where, well, most of us just don't go or drive by at 60 miles an hour.

Most of us are not threatened with starvation.

Most of us have enough "bread" to eat.

Then we have the Circus part which is hundreds of channels full of mind numbing banality to distract us from problems we have.

It took a brilliant strategist to whip up the faux anger on the right wing of the middle class.

These same strategists have successfully branded anyone speaking out about the poor as being whiners and sissy liberals so no one pays attention.

That's why we love to give to Typhoon relief and ignore the plight of people here in this country.

Perhaps when over 50% of the people fall into dangerous poverty levels with no help from anyone anywhere we will see the people rise up in this country.

But until then, don't expect any kind of revolution in this country.

None of those country's mention above are even close to a democracy. At least we still have the trappings of democracy, a steam valve, if you will, to let off a lot of pent up anger.

You can't compare a third world country to ours because it just isn't a valid comparison.

That, at least to me, is why we will not have a revolution in this country any time soon.

You can disagree or agree, but the facts are plain, we aren't desperate enough in this country to risk what we have to get what the majority of the people think we already possess.

[leftstreet]

1. Then maybe we need to go 'Greek'

Members of the Communist-backed labor union march in central Athens as a banner reads ' No in the austerity ' on September 23, 2010. Greece's main union said it would join European anti-austerity protests in Brussels on September 29 and stage its own demonstration in Athens.

Or Spanish



Riot police hit out at demonstrators during protests in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2010. Spanish workers staged a general strike Wednesday to protest austerity measures imposed by a government struggling to slash its budget deficit and overcome recession.

Or French, Brit, German.......

all the people who've been protesting austerity cuts and anti-labor policies while the US M$M quietly ignores them

[WCGreen]

2. We are just discussing austerity cuts now...

We wont know the full breath and depth until they actually start talking about it or it threatens to become law...

The media wont really cover it since they now consider themselves as part of the pampered elite.

Look at how many people protested the war and how little coverage it received.

No, the pain has to cut wide and deep before any protest will find traction here in the US.

Remember, a lot of people who protested the Vietnam War were in it because their lives were at stake.

Believe me, I am not at all comfortable with how things are going in this country...

[Blue Meany]

3. Impoversihed people are forced to depend on each other for

support, which creates strong communities and social networks. Middle-class Americans depend on money to buy, rent, or hire many of the same things that poor people depend on neighbors for (or do without). Although those in absolute poverty are usually too busy trying to survive to organize politically, their social networks can be mobilized at critical moments. It remains to be seen whether those in the middle-class--or falling out of the middle-class--can break the habit of disconnectedness and develop some sense of solidarity that would facilitate mobilization. So far, there is too much of sign of this.

[leftstreet]

5. So true. And rich people do the same thing

Network, organize, depend on each other, mobilize their capitalist minions

Interesting

[provis99]

4. we've got 40 million Americans living at the starvation level.

Not one of them is rebelling. If conditions were the same here as in Egypt, there still wouldn't be any rebellion, because the American people are largely conformist, right-wing authoritarians.

[leftstreet]

6. No. 40 million+ impoverished Americans who stand alone with no support

no support or solidarity from the people just barely hanging on to the ladder above them

:-(

[readmoreoften]

11. +1

[cali]

7. no we don't.

please check into reality.

[NickB79]

16. 40 million Americans are dependent on government food stamps to survive

Without which, they would be starving.

And with the kinds of cuts the GOP are proposing, those food stamps are in no way guaranteed into the future.

[Kaleva]

8. There's a difference between hunger and starvation.

[readmoreoften]

12. Ooooo. Okay. So they just go HUNGRY. They're not STARVING.

Mac n Cheese from a Box three times a week--that'll keep those kids alive. Let's not "exaggerate" or anything :eyes:

[Kaleva]

13. You might be taken seriously if you used facts.

[Posteritatis]

15. {Citation needed} nt

[CaliforniaPeggy]

9. Absolutely right...

I am proud to send your well composed thread to the Greatest Page.

Richly deserved...

Ah...never mind. Someone unrecced it.

I'm sorry.

[readmoreoften]

10. Then how come people in France and England have no problem getting into the streets?

It's not just "X level" of desperation that gets you into the streets. It's a history of political leadership, union participation, and political history in general. Most Americans are worse off than most Europeans--but they get out into the streets. You can absolutely compare our nation to a "third world country" (there are no "third world countries" anymore, by the way, not since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

No, America is not going to have a revolution any time soon but that's not because we're all so well off and middle class. That is PATENTLY FALSE. We have an incredible poverty level here. Three quarters of a million people in Texas alone are homeless or housing insecure. Almost none of us have decent and reliable health care (insured or not) and now a quarter of the population is "food insecure."

There are a number of reasons why we're not going to have a revolution here, but none of them are because we haven't suffered enough. The biggest reason is because we have a 2-party system that has decimated our unions and backed neoliberal expansion at the expense of the people, with one of those parties posing as "the friends of working people and a lesser evil" and the other posing as "the voice of patriotic Americans".

The fact is that the level of repression--physical and ideological--in the US is unparalleled. We have a higher incarceration rate than even Stalin's regime.

Glad you're living a nice middle class life in a gated suburb, but that's not my life and its not the life of anyone in my neighborhood.

[WCGreen]

14. The people in England and France have a shared ethnicity and tradition

that we here in America do not.