{"id":50002,"date":"2013-07-13T08:09:40","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T07:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/why-are-americans-so-passive\/50002\/"},"modified":"2013-07-13T08:09:40","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T07:09:40","slug":"why-are-americans-so-passive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/why-are-americans-so-passive\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Are Americans So Passive?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Brazilian workers march in Rio de Janeiro, on July 11, 2013.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

July 12, 2013<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
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From the first breaths of life to the last, our lives are being stolen out from under us. From infant care and early education to Social Security and Medicare, the dominant economic ideology is demanding more lifelong sacrifices from the vulnerable to appease the gods of wealth. <\/p>\n

Middle-class wages are stagnant. Unemployment is stalled at record levels. College education is leading to debt servitude and job insecurity. Millions of unemployed Americans have essentially been abandoned by their government. \u00a0Poverty is soaring. Bankers break the law with impunity, are bailed out, and go on breaking the law, richer than they were before. <\/p>\n

And yet, bizarrely, the only Americans who seem to be seething with anger are the beneficiaries of this economic injustice \u2014 the wealthiest and most privileged among us. But those who are suffering seem strangely passive. <\/p>\n

As long as they stay that way, there will be no movement to repair these injustices. And the more these injustices are allowed to persist, the harder it will be to end them. <\/p>\n

Where the hell is the outrage? And how can we start<\/em>\u00a0some?<\/p>\n

John and Paul<\/b><\/p>\n

Paul Krugman<\/a>\u00a0ruminated about inflation-free unemployment the other day, and he was feeling pretty grim. Krugman is frustrated that clear prescriptions for this kind of economy \u2014 prescriptions born in John Maynard Keynes\u2019 day \u2014 aren\u2019t being followed. What John proposed then, Paul\u2019s proposing now. <\/p>\n

But he\u2019s not optimistic. \u201cWe can probably have high unemployment and stable prices in Europe and America for a very long time,\u201d writes Krugman, \u201cand all the wise heads will insist that it\u2019s all structural, and nothing can be done until the public accepts drastic cuts in the safety net.\u201d <\/p>\n

One source for Krugman\u2019s pessimism is the extensive political science research showing that \u201cthe level of unemployment matters hardly at all for elections; all that matters is the rate of change in the months leading up to the election.\u201d <\/p>\n

Krugman concludes that \u201chigh unemployment could become accepted as the new normal,\u201d and worries that we\u2019ll come to accept \u201ca more or less permanent depression\u201d as the norm \u2014 adding that \u201cwe could suffer endless, gratuitous suffering, yet the political and policy elite would feel no need to change its ways.\u201d <\/p>\n

Quiet in the streets<\/b><\/p>\n

He\u2019s right. A number of studies have linked political participation with economic conditions, typically with results like those Krugman describes. \u00a0But that doesn\u2019t explain why Brazilians took to the streets in such large numbers recently. <\/p>\n

A majority of Brazilians believe that their economy\u2019s improving, according to a recent Pew survey<\/a>. 59 percent of Brazilians rate their economy positively and 74 percent say their personal financial situation is good. By contrast, the same organization\u2019s most recent US polling<\/a>\u00a0showed that only 46 percent of Americans said they believe the economy\u2019s getting better, while 50 percent think it\u2019s getting worse. <\/p>\n

The polling says that Brazilian political unrest is driven by a divergence in goals and priorities between political leaders and the population, triggered by poor public services, bus fare increases, and the cost of hosting the World Cup. <\/p>\n

A similar divergence of priorities exists in this country. Washington\u2019s been focused on deficit reduction, while the public wants more job creation and economic growth. \u00a0But Americans are quiescent. <\/p>\n

US voter turnout is extremely low when compared to other developed nations, even though we rank among the highest in terms of income inequality. And other forms of political expression are also under-used. The Occupy movement was originally very popular, for example, but most people were easily persuaded to abandon it and return to a state of quiet desperation. <\/p>\n

Republished with permission from: AlterNet<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brazilian workers march in Rio de Janeiro, on July 11, 2013. July 12, 2013 \u00a0| Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. From the first breaths of life to the last, our lives are being stolen out from under us. From infant care and early […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-50002","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50002\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}