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While I agree with you, history also shows that unemployment and wealth disparity often do rise high enough to cause massive civil unrest. Yes, high unemployme
by dreamdu5t 15y ago
While I agree with you, history also shows that unemployment and wealth disparity often do rise high enough to cause massive civil unrest.
Yes, high unemployment isn't permanent or a long-term trend. That isn't really relevant though when you're talking about the prospect of blood in the streets prior to returning to decent levels.
The US seems completely arrogant in the sense that they don't seem to think this can happen to them, or that their military superiority somehow insulates them from civil unrest.
- tsotha 15y agoOr maybe it's not wealth disparity that causes civil unrest, but rather the absolute level of poverty on the low end. Here in the US there's no sign of any kind of generalized unrest. Far less than there was in the 70s when, according to the "disparity causes unrest" theory there should have been even less.
- pyrhho 15y agoSeems like it would take a bit of both. If everyone is at least comfortable enough, no one will violently revolt and risk losing it (Counter-examples?). Conversely, if everyone is impoverished who do you rise up against?
- CamperBob 15y agoI can't think of a single case where wealth disparity alone has been sufficient to cause civil unrest, massive or otherwise.
- locopati 15y agoDoes this count? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_the_French_Revolution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_the_French_Revolution
- CamperBob 15y agoNo, the French Revolution occurred because of active exploitation and abuse of the lower classes. The French people were not sitting around debating whether to spend the evening playing with their PS3s, going out for pizza, or mailing out a few more resumes. They were sitting around starving.
- SoftwareMaven 15y agoThis comment would imply the cause was wealth disparity. What were the rich doing to exploit the poor (other than not giving them money).
- CamperBob 15y agoI can't even begin to do credit to the causes of the French Revolution in a HN post. There are a million better sources, but I think you'll find most of them will agree that "not giving the poor enough money" is not on the list of causes. Taking excessive amounts of money from the poor (and everybody else) is closer to the mark, but you still can't ignore the political climate. The lessons of the American Revolution weren't lost on the French, who came to see Louis XVI the way we saw George III. TL,DR: the country was bankrupted by the usual zero-sum game of runaway government greed. The common people were tired of being forced to pay for stuff like Versailles ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Versailles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Versailles ) and literally starved of patience. Nothing like this is even remotely comparable to what's happening today in the US. If anything, we're heading towards feudalism rather than revolution.
- SoftwareMaven 15y agoAre we not being bankrupted by run-away corporate greed? Probably not, but more importantly, will the average American think we are? That has a much greater chance to be yes. If some sort of revolutionary spirit starts in the US, corporations will be targeted just as much as the government. Big if, but we are much closer than we were 20 years ago.
- simonsarris 15y agoThe Yellow Turban Rebellion was pretty much entirely caused by a loss of jobs -> massive wealth disparity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Turban_Rebellion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Turban_Rebellion
- CamperBob 15y agoLike the French Revolution example, this was caused by exploitation and abuse rather than the simple fact of someone's bank account being fatter than someone else's.