Well, I think we know who slept through History class...

[kayshapero]

Dear Powers that Be - you guys would appear to be afraid of the wrong things, or maybe just not afraid enough.  Pissing off nearly everybody is a bad idea.  And the time to fear isn't when people are peacefully demonstrating, it's when you've been stupid enough to drive them out.  Heaven help you if you succeed in that endeavor.  The solution is to try and solve the problem brought before you.  The messenger is not the problem.

Oh, and Google the term "Hooverville".  Then go read Kipling...

Comments

[kayshapero]

Point one appears to be a Big Lie, actually - or at least wishful thinking on the part of those who want it to be a smallish mob holding a riot rather than a fairly peaceful assembly. How many riots have you heard of that set up a library? (I was here in LA for both Watts riots - it ain't the same.) As for FDR, things appear to have been beginning to improve until one party decided it was the ideal time to Balance the Budget and cut down on government, not the thing to do when the problem in the first place is too little money in circulation. No money > no buying > no income > no jobs and so we go...

Finally, my reference to the "Hoovervilles" is that their very existance vividly pointed out the problem, when a number of parties really wanted it to remain hidden. As long as you can get everybody to think they are the only one with a problem and that it is All Their Own Fault, they won't notice that in fact the problem has become systemic. But we can't do that any more when it becomes visible just how big the problem really is. The existence of the internet, cell phones and so forth merely makes it that much more visible. This isn't a small group of homeless people - this is a significant segment of society. And acting accordingly.

And no, even IF most of the Middle Class has more money than you do this does not mean that they have no right to continue to exist. That goose that laid the golden eggs... but contained no gold at all once slaughtered - that's not a bad metaphor FOR the middle class, and its effect on the economy. These are the people who do most of the buying - the poor don't have the money and there aren't enough of the rich to keep it afloat all by themselves. The fewer customers you have, the less you can sell. This, of course, is a horrible simplification, but your nearest library probably has appropriate books on economics.