Blogs Aug 10, 2011 at 4:44 pm

Comments

1
Jesus, one could only hope.
2
In some cities, maybe. There are a LOT of poor dumb white people who are content being dumb and poor.
3
Yawn....so having a Crackberry and a 30" flatscreen, but wanting an iPhone and a 50" screen makes you 'poor'?

This is a riot the way the stampeding hordes of savages at Walmart every Black Friday are a riot.
4
Probably not. American culture has so many steam valves and built-in channels for misdirecting anger. If any rioting occurs, I predict it will be similar to the UK with chaotic looting while the powerful tut tut with ultimate security.
5
What @2 said
6
evidently the poor also are getting all uppity by having things like refrigerators and microwaves too, sheesh; people having cheap throwaway consumer crap just proves the war on poverty has finally been won. booyaah, & thanks Heritage Foundation, USA, USA..

Colbert Challenges the Poverty Deniers
7
It's an interesting question. We have so many dutiful conservatives who year after year slave away for peanuts so their boss can be comfortable, tithe to the church so the minister and his wife can drive matching Hummers, and keep telling themselves that they are going to be rich one day, because if they are good enough, that's the Lord's reward.

Well, one day, they may snap, realize what fools they've been, and start breaking things. Wouldn't that be a hoot?
8
Tavis Smiley nails it here.
9
@3 Free tvs on craigslist http://seattle.craigslist.org/search/zip…

Free phones through tmobile - http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/phones/?pri…

Having a tv and a phone does not mean you're not poor.
10
I think Parsnip @4 has it correctly identified.
11
If they were having trouble getting enough people to work as flight attendants for $14-$19k per year at a part time job with one really great benefit, they'd raise the wages. It's called the free market. It works amazingly well.

BTW@7 - Stereotype much? Not all conservatives are religious. Or working for other people.

12
Average pay of$40k a year for less than 30 hrs a week? Not bad considering they're little more than flying waitresses.
13
Good Evening Charles,
Roubini poses a tantalizing question. My response is "I sure hope NOT". Should it become a "long, hot summer" with violence and destruction a la Detroit 67', Newark, NJ 67' or Watts (LA) 65', Obama's Presidency would be doomed. It's precarious Charles. The masses must remain calm. What's happening in Britain is most unfortunate These two articles I read today gave me pause:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/na…

&

http://www.city-journal.org/2011/eon0810…

14
Charles, in all seriousness, do you really think communism or socialism is all that great? The US needs some socialism for sure, but it is a pure idealogical nonsensical view. People breathe air, which power their muscles to build and maintain machines, which kill the air that people use, to power their muscles to build machines. Machines can 't function by themselves.
15
"Flash mobs started off in 2003 as peaceful and often humorous acts of public performance, such as mass dance routines or street pillow fights"

Oh white people, you're so cute.
16
THEODORE DALRYMPLE
British Degeneracy on Parade
The riots should surprise no one who’s been paying attention.
10 August 2011

"The riots are the apotheosis of the welfare state and popular culture in their British form. A population thinks (because it has often been told so by intellectuals and the political class) that it is entitled to a high standard of consumption, irrespective of its personal efforts; and therefore it regards the fact that it does not receive that high standard, by comparison with the rest of society, as a sign of injustice. It believes itself deprived (because it has often been told so by intellectuals and the political class), even though each member of it has received an education costing $80,000, toward which neither he nor—quite likely—any member of his family has made much of a contribution; indeed, he may well have lived his entire life at others’ expense, such that every mouthful of food he has ever eaten, every shirt he has ever worn, every television he has ever watched, has been provided by others. Even if he were to recognize this, he would not be grateful, for dependency does not promote gratitude. On the contrary, he would simply feel that the subventions were not sufficient to allow him to live as he would have liked.

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