General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Americans Seem To Buy Into "Dog Eat Dog" Economy With No Safety Net. [View all]gratuitous
(82,849 posts)That pot of gold is coming to them, they just know it. Probably after the next big storm. Just you wait and see! They also fancy themselves as the dog doing the eating, not the dog being eaten.
The required remedy, however, is highly distasteful. It means getting along with detestable persons who would rather live in squalor than move off of square one to better their lot. They're presently okay, perhaps hanging on by their fingertips, but any action could result in their situation getting even worse. It will get worse on the current path, but that's a concern for another day. As long as it happens slowly enough, they'll adjust. Witness the remarkable hostility to the Occupy movement from the very people who stood the most to gain from the reforms Occupy advocated. That didn't happen by chance; people just getting by were carefully taught to fear and hate the people who were barely scraping by.
Fixing things will mean that if you're just getting by, you have to resist the dominant message that your greatest enemies are the people below you on the economic ladder (particularly if they're of a darker skin than your own). And that's a very tough sell.