The unrest in Egypt is a microcosm of the sins of a global economy!
Egyptians, tired of oppression, wealth disparity, and the indignities perpetrated on the middle and lower income classes, revolted against this soft tyranny that has inflicted pain on the people over the last 30 years. The Egyptian people wanted to control their own fate. They wanted a new government and they wanted Mubarak to leave.
The world feared that the turmoil in Egypt would spread throughout the Middle-East -- to Saudi Arabia, Algeria, and other oppressed nations in the region.
Clearly, the Egyptian people had had enough of high unemployment, the listless growth in the country, the transfer of wealth to the top one percent of the Egyptian population, and the gluttony of the Monarch!
If this sounds familiar, it is! The only difference between Egypt and the United States is the number of bandaids available and a media not doing its job in exposing the unsustainable problems we have on the horizon.
When will the Americans wake up? When will the oppressed populace take to the streets of American cities?
Americans are too busy -- in an unending struggle to keep their heads above water -- to revolt. The idleness of the young Egyptians was one of the major reasons the revolt was able to have the life it had.
As the phenomenon spreads throughout the Middle-East -- now Algeria and Iran -- reporting the desire for freedom and democracy are the focal points of the American media. But, they're not the only points.
People throughout the region are demanding release from various levels of oppressive rule. But, what cannot be ignored is the role unemployment and poverty, or near poverty, is playing in this upheaval.
It's a ground swell that could easily spread to the U.S. as unemployment, wealth disparities, rising food, energy, and gas prices persist. These elements were all prominent in the dissidence in the Middle-East demonstrations and are at a tipping point globally and edging closer in this country.
Recent moves to austerity, a lesser harsh reality of similar problems to the Middle-East, is prominent in European countries.
Demonstrations in Greece, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, though less tense and shorter in duration, were products of the same deficiencies present in governments throughout the globe and across the political spectrum.
Yesterday, the unrest has shown up in, of all places, Madison, Wisconsin. Thousands of state employees marched on the capitol on Tuesday to protest austerity measures imposed by new Republican Governor, Scott Walker, which include slashing benefits and busting the public employee unions. Governor Walker called in the National Guard fearing union members' outrage and threatening to replace them with National Guardsmen. The plan calls for sacrifice from all public employees as reported by Jeff Mayers for Reuters, despite the $100 million in concessions state employees have already given to help the state's budgetary shortcomings.
As states like Wisconsin and Illinois attempt to balance government shortfalls through raising taxes, reducing pay, and vacating promises of retirement and healthcare on the backs of the middle-class, these demonstrations will increase and accelerate.
Americans are slowly awakening to the realizations that their country has become a combination Plutocracy and Oligarchy; run by a Corporate-Congressional Complex.
It is only a matter of time before America turns into Egypt -- before our individual struggles become as stifling and debilitating as those of the Egyptians.
Only then will Americans reclaim the inalienable benefits of democracy -- the opportunity to return to prosperity usurped and transferred over the last 30 years by an uncaring government to giant global corporations.
The Egyptians tired of it and so will we!
Only then can we return to 'the pursuit of happiness!'
Follow Jim Worth on Twitter: www.twitter.com/authorofmystery
I understand your pain and the pain of millions of hard-working Americans. We need to steel against the oligarchy and continue to battle for the survival of democracy.
I hope you return and are able to read this. I think you'll find, if you will read other articles I've written, that I am not about to give up until my children and my children's children have the opportunity at the American Dream.
There is a long way to go, but I hope, despite being a 99er you will continue to fight with me to overcome the obstacles that are being placed in our way.
Here is my web site address which will let you read my articles on The Cutting Edge Blog as well as all the articles here at HuffPost. http://worthanopinion.net
Don't give up!
Jim
I am surprised that nobody commented, I agree with your piece with the exception of this:
USA has more than 25 million unemployed or underemployed
USA has more than 43 million living in poverty or worse
USA has more than 7 million homeless
USA has more than 5 million students that do not see a future
That is like 80 million people in the USA that are not very well attached to the full-time employed in the USA, something necessary to keep you too busy. You need to be working 40-55 hours per week to be unavaliable for what you described. The 80 million that I just described are not being permitted to work40-55 hours per week. If they were permitted to work that much, they may actually be in a position to pull themselves up by their boot straps, but they cannot do that. Temp jobs do not usually provide 12 consecutive months of employment.
Remember, Tunisia only has 10 million people. I just provided 8 times that many.
Egypt has around 80 million people. I just equalled that.
Anything can happen, protests may be dampened by more than 2 feet of snow, but spring is on its way.
Excellent comment and I fully agree with your numbers and your conclusions.
There are about 20 to 30 million of the people you describe that are likely to participate in demonstrations on their own. Probably not the homeless, the students probably once the ball gets rolling, many in the poverty or worse are struggling to keep themselves and their families fed, and some of the underemployed are working two and three jobs to try to make a living.
Maybe Wisconsin is what we need to stir the pot and wake Americans up to what is happening in their country. Time will tell, but I believe it is coming.
Thanks for your insights and your continued involvement in what's happening in our country.
Jim