Why There’s No Outcry

[Crewleader]

Saturday, January 25, 2014

by Robert Reich

People ask me all the time why we don’t have a revolution in America, or at least a major wave of reform similar to that of the Progressive Era or the New Deal or the Great Society.

Middle incomes are sinking, the ranks of the poor are swelling, almost all the economic gains are going to the top, and big money is corrupting our democracy. So why isn’t there more of a ruckus?

The answer is complex, but three reasons stand out.

First, the working class is paralyzed with fear it will lose the jobs and wages it already has.


http://robertreich.org/post/74519195381

[Paper Roses]

1. Some of us are too old to be a factor. We keep the faith but are always waiting for the ball to drop

I care about all of us who have suffered through this economic mess we are in now. I feel powerless to do anything. With health and age a factor, I am afraid to do anything. I will be selling my house in about 2 months. I have no funds to keep going. I am too old to keep up the fight.
Call me gutless, but I am too tired to keep up the fight. All of you younger citizens, please keep up the good fight. Some of us are just too tired to continue.

I don't know where I will go or what I will do. We'll see what happens when or if my house sells. Apartments are so expensive. I will never be able to buy another house. Everything in my area is too expensive but I do not qualify for any assistance because I own this old place where I have lived for 45 years. There must be thousands of people like me who know what they must do but do not know what to do afterward.

I would never have believed this would happen to any of us. Don't call me gutless, just old and tired.

[Crewleader]

4. Paper Roses

I hope you are in a state with good people that will assist you and figure what is best for you.
My heart goes out to you, and my arms.

[truedelphi]

2. Oh Mr Reich would not know an outcry if it came up and bit him in the butt. n/t

[freedom fighter jh]

3. Good article and I love Reich.

But I don't really get the part about student debt. How does being in debt deter students from being activist?

[awoke_in_2003]

7. Maybe because being an activist...

might get you arrested, making it less likely to get a good job, making it harder to pay the debt off. This is just my guess, mind you.

[freedom fighter jh]

9. That sounds reasonable.

Seems it may be what Reich meant. And I think it could influence some students, even if only unconsciously.

But somehow I can't see the greater part of the student population figuring they'd better just shut up about politics and not protest overtly because they owe money. Student debt is one of the things the Occupy movement protested. Those people *did* protest (in part) because they owed money.

[awoke_in_2003]

12. And the job market is much more cutthroat today...

with way more applicants then jobs, even a misdemeanor on your record could rule you out. It is a sad state of affairs.

[OrwellwasRight]

8. I thought that part was pretty weak too.

My guess is he was saying in earlier days, students didn't fear that getting arrested in a protest would forever taint their employment prospects -- and there were more employment prospects. Now that college is more expensive and the market for decent paying jobs more competitive there aren't as many young people who are willing to go lead the activist movement. I guess I see it, but he didn;t make the argument well. It's an incomplete thesis as I have drawn it.

[freedom fighter jh]

10. I think you're right about what he meant and I agree that the thesis is incomplete. nt

[snot]

5. He left out the fact that, since the 1% own the media,

most people are completely un- or mis-informed.

[OrwellwasRight]

11. +1

True dat.

[Cleita]

17. I'd say this is the BIG problem

Most people are uniformed and actually protect the status of those who are robbing them because they believe all the lies they are told. Mostly, we have only right wing media that is accessible to the majority of people. All you can get is right wing talk on the radio and broadcast TV as well as in print media if you rely on the mainstream outlets. I can't believe the crap that's on the radio when I drive around. If I didn't have satellite TV or cable I would be at the mercy of what the rabbit ears pick up on the TV and the local print fish wrapper that is the newspaper.

[awoke_in_2003]

6. Don't forget we have a propaganda machine...

that would make Goebbels blush.

[passiveporcupine]

13. I don't think he has it completely correct

I agree with much of what he says, but the student debt didn't seem right to me either...if anything it would cause more activism. But what he isn't saying is that things are not as bad as they were during the 1929 depression and the dust bowl years. We have safety nets now that keep us from starving to death for the most part. Plus we all have more to lose now. More possessions and mortgages and car payments. Earlier, they didn't. So we aren't yet desperate enough to risk what we are losing. Until things get bad enough, we won't see a revolution.

But we are talking about it now and that's the first step. It's even being covered in the media. More people are being awakened by this discussion, and maybe...just maybe we will wake up and take action before we let it get too much worse.

[Faygo Kid]

14. We need the Unions back strong to stand up to the Kochs

[Warpy]

15. OWS was an outcry

and was brutally crushed by the government.

Anger is continuing to build. When it finally boils over, nothing is going to stop it, and the longer we go without any avenue to peaceful revolution, the more violent it will be.

[bvar22]

21. "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable."

---John F. Kennedy

[RoccoR5955]

25. OWS was NOT crushed

They merely went underground, and are doing other things like the Rolling Jubilee. This has raised more than $700,000 which has been used to buy 14,000,000 in debt. When they buy the debt, they don't collect it, they abolish it.

It is one thing that we can do, without the interference. Though it has not been covered by the media, the people whose debt is abolished, sure appreciate it. This is done all with small donations.

On other fronts, OWS is rebuilding. Wait, we will be back.

[Warpy]

26. That's what happens every time

Sometimes the underground movement gets stronger, sometimes it fades away.

And yes, I know they're out there. And yes, I donated.

[KG]

16. way too many americans view the rich as some kind of royalty.

[Jerry442]

18. "You’d have to believe in a giant conspiracy..."

Yes. Yes, you would.

[rickyhall]

19. We still leader - a real leader

The Progressives had TR
The New Deal had FDR
The Great Society had LBJ
Unfortunately our current President just doesn't seem to be that kind of leader
IMHO

[Omaha Steve]

20. Lose the jobs and wages it already has

Nail on the head. A post earlier this week about union workers being told to do work not in their contract and would not be paid for took managements side over in LBN.

K&R!

OS

[calimary]

22. I sure wish more attention would be paid to connecting the dots between labor unions

and benefits to workers.

There's been at least 30 years of concentrated condemnation aimed directly from the reagan era to organized labor, starting when he fired the PATCO workers. That air traffic controllers' union was officially screwed, and it gave new life and energy to the anti-union movement. Always with the accentuating the negative! Always throwing that union-crippling "right to work" baloney down everyone's throats. Always badmouthing unions and organizers. And the sad part is, as usual, too many people are falling for it. And then they turn around and wonder why they can't earn a living wage anymore. And then you have assholes like newt gingrich and others starting to broach the subject of putting little kids to work as janitors and such - "so they'll learn a work ethic."

Child labor laws and protections were instituted by - UNIONS.
The five-day work week was instituted by - UNIONS.
Workers safety laws and protections were instituted by - UNIONS.
Such things as the lunch break were instituted by - UNIONS.
Such things as the weekend off were instituted by - UNIONS.
Such things as a decent paycheck on which you could singlehandedly support a family were instituted by - UNIONS.
The idea of the pension was instituted by - UNIONS.
Such things as job security and other benefits that are now becoming more and more rare were instituted by - UNIONS.

And the robber-baron contingent has been resolutely working to tear all of that apart practically since it got started.

Everybody now seems inclined to protect the already well-protected, and comfort the comfortable, when instead it should continue to be all about the protection and comfort of the little guy who doesn't already enjoy such benefits. The rich can do for themselves. The rest of us need help, protection, and advocacy.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

23. Well,...they got their peasant class.

[Scuba]

24. "asked if they believe government will do the right thing ... fewer than 20 percent ... agree"

[Crewleader]

27. State of the Union