What I wrote in the sibling reply still stands, but I should probably emphasize that how we interpret your question is really, really important. In particular,

What I wrote in the sibling reply still stands, but I should probably emphasize that how we interpret your question is really, really important. In particular, you wrote (emphasis mine): > What are they doing other than protesting for a government response/solution to their woes? There are two ways to read that "their": A) Each person is protesting for a solution to his or her individual woes. B) They are protesting for a solution to the woes of all of them. The distinction is important because yes, if all you're protesting for is your own personal well-being, then I would agree that you should get off your sorry ass and just improve yourself. However, if you are genuinely concerned about the well-being of society as a whole, things are suddenly very different. I suspect that you are implicitly working off an A-type interpretation, while I am working off a B-type interpretation. That's a likely source of misunderstanding.