Back in Mid-September, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg made a comment his weekly radio show that America could face riots in it’s streets. His comments, which received much media attention, referenced recent uprisings in Cities ranging from Cairo to London. Given where we are at the beginning of October, the Mayor appeared to be glancing into a “crystal ball”.
Fast forward two weeks and we see almost 700 persons arrested in New York after ongoing “Wall Street” protests expanded to include a traffic-snarling march to the Brooklyn Bridge.
What’s most interesting here is unlike those “tea-party” activists, these “Wall-Street” protesters range from college students to baby-boomers and come from a variety of backgrounds and races. And, while these protestors lack the focus of a leader, political party, or organization serving as an umbrella for a group of organizations; there are plenty of points that unite them;
*As Mayor Bloomberg noted, there are far too many recent college grads unable to find work. At the same time, many Americans with years of experience are still unable to find jobs or are underemployed.
*The financial sector seems to have rebounded very well, in fact, better than most other industries, yet it’s harder for the “average” American to get loans, re-financing for their homes, small business or other financial assistance that was all too available just several years ago.
*The President is now calling on wealthy corporations and individuals to pay their “fair share” of the tax burden. In the 80’s much of the economic basis of “Reaganomics” involved the “trickle-down” theory; “give the wealthy folks and their businesses big tax breaks and they’ll create more jobs”. We saw then, as we see now, this formula doesn’t exactly work as planned. And today, those with money fight to make more and keep all of it if possible.
*The cost of food, healthcare, education and other essentials continue to rise. A New York Times Article on September 28th says health care premiums are up 9 percent in 2011 with the average premium cost for a family through an employer hitting an all-time high of $15,073 in 2011. The article also states that most employers expect premiums to rise another 5 percent on average before many of President Obama’s heath-reform items go into effect in 2012.
In Detroit Michigan, residents took to the streets for the start of October as Reverend Jesse Jackson joined Michigan Congressman John Conyers for a protest of a new bill authored and signed by Republican Governor Rick Snyder putting an immediate cap on “welfare” benefits paid by the State. This “cap” comes after a March 2011 bill the Governor signed making Michigan the “shortest” unemployment benefits State in the Nation cutting jobless benefits by 6 weeks to 20 versus the National Average of 26 weeks.
The new “welfare cap”, limits a Michigan resident to total of 4 years of “cash” benefits paid by the State during their lifetime. According to the Detroit Free Press as of this writing, 41,000 residents (29,000 of them children) in Michigan were scheduled to lose their cash payments. In a State that’s seen a virtual “meltdown” of the American auto industry and it’s suppliers over the past 20 years, the impact to a State struggling to retrain it’s workforce could be devastating.
Are we seeing some kind of threat to capitalism? Or course not! Even with our problems, there’s still a far better chance of living a decent life here than we’d have in Cairo, Tripoli, Tel Aviv, Johannesburg or even London for that matter. But it doesn’t mean we Americans are going to necessarily stay quiet either.
Since the election of President Obama, we’ve seen the rise of the mostly right-wing “tea party”. Perhaps the time has finally come for a much larger, moderate, and more sensible group of voices to be heard as well.
Let’s hope the President’s “jobs bill” and numerous other “stimulus” plans are put in place now. The protests locally on Wall Street show no sign of ending soon and with many out of work with little hope of finding employment in the near future, New York and may Cities across our great Country could be in for a long winter.