As Go Tunisia and Egypt, So Goes US?

[georgephillip]

"One cause of the revolts in Tunisia and Egypt is popular outrage over the monopolization of wealth by a small cadre of elites.

"The grievances of the Middle East's dispossessed probably seem justified to most Americans, who view the region as a relic of feudalism and stomping ground for despots.

"But what about America itself?

"As has been widely noted over the past few days, income inequality in the United States is actually much worse than in Egypt, Tunisia, or Pakistan.

"Could the US government feel the push of inequality's domino effect?

Comparative prosperity seems to argue otherwise since, as a group, America's poor have about as much wealth as India's richest.

"Yet those arguments neglect some of the major disadvantages of being modestly middle class in a wealthy country: A much higher cost of living and a perceived need to keep up with the Joneses, which fueled the explosion of subprime home loans that caused the recession.

"'Global unemployment remains at record highs, with widening income inequality adding to social strains,' Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the chief of the IMF, said this week during a speech in Singapore, citing turmoil in North Africa as a prelude to what may happen elsewhere.

"'We could see rising social and political instability within nations—even war.'"

And he wasn't referring to banana republics exclusively.

As Go Egypt...

 

[RetiredGySgt]

And yet when I talk about collapse of Government my shrink and my therapist tell me I am delusional.

 

[Samson]

And yet when I talk about collapse of Government my shrink and my therapist tell me I am delusional.

Would it help if I told you you're delusional.

 

[georgephillip]

And yet when I talk about collapse of Government my shrink and my therapist tell me I am delusional.

Had you visited your shrink or therapist on 10September2001 and predicted the next day's terror, delusion would be the kindest diagnosis.

Tunisia and Egypt have made me wonder how events in those countries, especially Egypt, would have played out before the internet became a factor. I'm guessing thousands of protesters would have been killed about ten days ago, and much of the world would have moved on by now.

A collapse of this government might begin at the polls if an overwhelming majority of internet-connected voters rejected ALL Republicans AND Democrats in a single day.

If 100 or 200 or more House and Senate members were simultaneously FLUSHED from DC, the same revolts we've just witnessed in North Africa might come to North America.

Do you have any thoughts on how rich US generals and admirals would respond to that uprising?

 

[iamwhatiseem]

um...no.
As long as the TV still works, and fast food still exist - Americans are too otherwise occupied to notice much anything else.

 

[Toro]

No.

 

[Samson]

Do you have any thoughts on how rich US generals and admirals would respond to that uprising?

What "Rich US Generals and Admirals?"

Like who?

 

[georgephillip]

And yet when I talk about collapse of Government my shrink and my therapist tell me I am delusional.

Would it help if I told you you're delusional.

Delusion or Desperation?

"One of the driving factors behind the protests is the decades-long stagnation of the Egyptian economy and a growing sense of inequality.

"'They’re all protesting about growing inequalities, they’re all protesting against growing nepotism. The top of the pyramid was getting richer and richer,' said Emile Hokayem of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in the Middle East."

As Go Egypt...

The Gini Coefficient in the US is worse than Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen.

What's the diagnosis, Doctor?

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Do you have any thoughts on how rich US generals and admirals would respond to that uprising?

Do you have any thoughts on what happens when military leaders are poorly paid?
Yeah...it would be a great idea to pay lousy wages to the people that control the most powerful military in the world...brilliant.

 

[Samson]

And yet when I talk about collapse of Government my shrink and my therapist tell me I am delusional.

Would it help if I told you you're delusional.

Delusion or Desperation?

"One of the driving factors behind the protests is the decades-long stagnation of the Egyptian economy and a growing sense of inequality.

"'They’re all protesting about growing inequalities, they’re all protesting against growing nepotism. The top of the pyramid was getting richer and richer,' said Emile Hokayem of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in the Middle East."

As Go Egypt...

The Gini Coefficient in the US is worse than Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen.

What's the diagnosis, Doctor?

Punny..."top of Pyramid was getting richer and richer..."

I'll agree that there's some vast feeling of class inequity in the USA when Mexicans stop crossing the border to escape class inequity.

 

[georgephillip]

um...no.
As long as the TV still works, and fast food still exist - Americans are too otherwise occupied to notice much anything else.

What if the Federal Reserve turned every $10 bill in the country into a $5?

Or worse??

 

[iamwhatiseem]

um...no.
As long as the TV still works, and fast food still exist - Americans are too otherwise occupied to notice much anything else.

What if the Federal Reserve turned every $10 bill in the country into a $5?

Or worse??

I would be impressed...that would be one heck of a magic trick.

 

[B. Kidd]

um...no.
As long as the TV still works, and fast food still exist - Americans are too otherwise occupied to notice much anything else.

What if the Federal Reserve turned every $10 bill in the country into a $5?

Or worse??

The 'worse' would have to be a growing police state with gobs of oppression.

 

[georgephillip]

No.

Have the richest 1% of Americans increased their share of national wealth during the last two years?

 

[Samson]

um...no.
As long as the TV still works, and fast food still exist - Americans are too otherwise occupied to notice much anything else.

What if the Federal Reserve turned every $10 bill in the country into a $5?

Or worse??

All the mexicans would return to mexico?

 

[iamwhatiseem]

No.

Have the richest 1% of Americans increased their share of national wealth during the last two years?

Have they for the last 200 years?

 

[georgephillip]

Do you have any thoughts on how rich US generals and admirals would respond to that uprising?

What "Rich US Generals and Admirals?"

Like who?

Like:

"Anthony Charles Zinni (born September 17, 1943) is a retired four-star General in the United States Marine Corps and a former Commander in Chief of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).

"In 2002, he was selected to be a special envoy for the United States to Israel and the Palestinian Authority. While serving as special envoy, Zinni was also an instructor in the Department of International Studies at the Virginia Military Institute.

"Presently, he is an instructor at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, a public speaker, and an author of two best-selling books on his military career and foreign affairs, most recently Battle for Peace.

"He also is involved in the corporate world, joining M.I.C. Industries as its president for International Operations in 2005."

Around 2005 I heard Zinni interviewed on CSPAN. In response to a question about whether he had ever considered running for congress, the first words from his mouth revealed he would take a 90% cut in pay to serve in the House.

 

[georgephillip]

Do you have any thoughts on how rich US generals and admirals would respond to that uprising?

Do you have any thoughts on what happens when military leaders are poorly paid?
Yeah...it would be a great idea to pay lousy wages to the people that control the most powerful military in the world...brilliant.

Generals and admirals making six figure salaries in addition to their corporate returns to wealth aren't poorly paid, and they aren't likely to care much about those who are.

"Thanks largely to the $13 trillion Wall Street bailout – while keeping the debt overhead in place for America’s 'bottom 98 per cent' – this happy 2 per cent of the population now receives an estimated three quarters (~75 per cent) of the returns to wealth (interest, dividends, rent and capital gains).

"This is nearly double what it received a generation ago."

Do you think that has anything to do with the invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq?

Obama's...

 

[waltky]

Yemen next?...

Egypt's revolution redefines what's possible in the Arab world
February 11, 2011 - The Middle East has been riveted by the success of the grass-roots revolution that ended Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year reign.

As darkness fell over the winter-chilled Middle East on Friday, television screens lit up living rooms from Tehran to Damascus to Rabat. All eyes were riveted by the spectacle that just weeks ago seemed impossible: the toppling of Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak after nearly 30 years in power. The collapse in Egypt took just 18 days of bold protest, inspired by the overthrow of Tunisia’s long-standing strongman just weeks before. For Arabs used to a heavy hand and little hope, Egypt’s revolution has redefined the possible, before their very eyes.

“Everyone is watching this – hundreds of millions of Arabs, Muslims, and who knows who else?” says Shadi Hamid, the director of research at the Brookings Doha Center, speaking from Cairo. “The Arab world is never going to go back to what it was. We are going to wake up to a new Egypt tomorrow, and we’ll also wake up to a new Arab world,” says Mr. Hamid. “What has changed is that Arabs know that they can change their own situation without the help of the US, without the help of the international community, they can just go out on the streets and do it on their own – and no one can take that away from them,” he says.

Across the region, Arabs have watched transformative events unfold day after day, first in Tunisia where a single self-immolation in protest in mid-December sparked weeks of demonstrations and finally regime change. Then Egyptians began gathering strength on the streets, battled Mr. Mubarak’s security forces, clung on in Tahrir Square in the face of mob attacks, and then simply took over when the regime began losing its ability to control or intimidate the crowds.

“On the psychological and symbolic level, it is a shattering moment,” says Fawaz Gerges, director of the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics. “Remember that Mubarak was the public face of political authoritarianism in the Arab world. He had built one of the most feared security apparatuses, employing five million personnel.” The forced exit of Mubarak from the presidential palace has sent shock waves to Arab rulers. “Every village. Every neighborhood. Every Arab regardless of how poor, or alienated or marginalized, [now has] a sense of empowerment, a sense of revival,” says Mr. Gerges. “The psychology of the Arab world has changed.”

'Bellwether for the region'

See also:

As Mubarak resigns, Yemenis call for a revolution of their own
February 11, 2011 - Thousands of secessionists protested in Yemen today in an example of how disparate movements across the Middle East are tapping the anti-regime fervor for their own disparate aims.

As jubilant protesters in Cairo celebrated the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Yemenis were calling for a revolution of their own. In the southern port city of Yemen, protesters marched through the district of Mansoura, waving the old flag of South Arabia and chanting, "Revolution, revolution for the south."

Just hours before, security forces had fired live ammunition during a protest on the same street, according to eyewitnesses. Hundreds more staged ad hoc demonstrations throughout Aden, as well as in other cities across Yemen's south.

"After Hosni Mubarak, Yemen is going to be next. I know it," said Zahra Saleh, a prominent secession activist watching the scenes in Cairo on TV in a small Aden office. "Now our revolution has to be stronger," declared Ali Jarallah, a leader in the southern separatist movement sitting with Ms. Saleh on the low cushions of a diwan.

Divergent aims of Yemeni protesters

 

[Flopper]

It's not going be millionaires who hit the streets protesting a tax hike. The number below the poverty line was 39 million in 2008, 43 million in 2009, near 50 million in 2010. When it hits about 75 million, I think the people will hit the streets.