America and Europe face the worst jobs crisis since the 1930s and risk “an explosion of social unrest” unless they tread carefully, the International Monetary Fund has warned.
Historians say the last time that the wealth gap reached such skewed extremes was in 1928-1929. Some argue that wealth concentration may cause investment to outstrip demand, leading to over-capacity. This can trap the world in a slump.
Although US history books have been carefully scrubbed clean so you’d never know, there was massive unrest in the US in the 30’s including huge labor protests and strikes. My great aunt who was stationed in China with her military husband said when they came back in 1931, friends told them to settle in D.C. because they were afraid there would be a revolution in California.
Right now, all that social unrest is going to the Tea Party while too many liberals and progressives wait for Obama to start doing the Right Thing and the hard left is just totally freaking asleep. Why is this? And what can we do to change it?
Organize. If you don’t know how to, find some people near you who do. Every little bit helps – as a person, since we can only do so much, do whatever you can. To paraphrase Howard Zinn, a movement is nothing more than a bunch of people doing their own little parts, never knowing if that will add up to anything.