Make America WHITE AGAIN!

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Economics have a HUGE amount to do with it. On several fronts.

On a human front: People who are cold, wet, hungry, unsafe, sick, and scared will riot. They will riot, they will hate those who have excesses of the basic needs they lack access to, and they will gain access to those resources by force if need be. That's survival instinct. That's not even "listening to the monkey." I try very hard to tell "the monkey" to go play with its feces and leave me alone; consequently I would have a harder time rousing myself to riot, theft, or violence, but I would do it if necessary for the survival of my young.

That's where things like a living wage and a safety net are necessary parts of a civilized society. People without access to basic necessities are violent people. While I revile violence, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

On a cultural front: People who have basic necessities but are not secure in them, or shamefully know they have them as "the bones from someone's table" and are shamed because of it, are going to resent those who have so much more, so much easier, with so much higher a valuation placed on them. It might escalate to violence and it might not; I remember myself and most of my friends being in that position as children growing up in poverty and/or on Food Stamps. When the cashier makes fun of you as you try to check out with milk, bread, and the FS coupons that we're all your mother had to give you, you get angry. You might turn that anger into violence, or give-upism, or a driving determination to never and phobia of ever ending up there again... But you're going to get mad. You're going to experience bitterness and envy, especially if those who have it so much easier are idolized, idealized, and waved in your face. What you do with that feeling is, ultimately, up to you and what you were taught... Some are not going to be taught to rise above, and some are going to choose to listen to "the monkey."

Living wage. Not shaming people for needing a hand up. Not shaming children for being on welfare-- even if their parents are lazy freeloaders (don't tell me they don't exist; I'm related to too many), it ain't the kids' fault. Shaming isn't as likely to motivate them to rise above as it is to drive them to join in.

Also on a cultural front: This is what we're guilty of in the US that angers me. I do not have a problem with prosperity being the reward for hard work, or even the wise management of good luck. I don't have a problem with some having more than others, as long as all have access to basic needs without shame or loss of personhood. I have a MASSIVE problem with consumerism and the worship of material wealth as it is practiced in my country. The way we idolize and idealize wealth and wealthy people makes me sick. The way we present lavish lifestyles as a norm nauseates me. The way we allow marketers to convince people that they must have sports cars to really be driving, lots and lots of fashionable name-brand clothes to really be dressed, tons of toys and the very best zip code to really be providing (when Thistown, Thattown, and T'Othertown are all safe places with low crime and decent schools, but Thattown is BETTER because property values are higher than T'Othertown and the high school tested out two points higher than Thistown, that's zip code envy) infuriates me. Since WWII, we have enculturated our populace to believe that enough is just a beginning, not really enough.

It's sick in so many ways. It drives the need for some to live in poverty so others can have absurdity-- and makes absurdity desirable. It drives the need for the tithings that people are taught to 'need' to be produced in wage-slave conditions and sold by people earning less than a living wage that must be subsidized by welfare. It's the reason that minimum wage increases won't fix the problem for more than a matter of weeks to months. It drives the ghetto culture. It drives discontent and envy, and the desire to repeat the trick of climbing high up the dogpile by treading on the backs of others instead of the desire to build strong communities by helping each other up to a level that isn't absurd.

It costs the many a great deal, even those still hanging onto enough as my family is, to benefit a very few.

It's a hell of a knot. Unraveling it is simple...and next to impossible.

in my neck of the woods I pass for "white trash." even though, technically speaking, i'm not white.

If you're ever in Western PA, look me up. If the weather's warm, we'll build a fire in the back yard, burn some wieners, and carry on hillbilly style. If the weather's cold, we can toss some ham and beans in the pressure cooker and sit around the table.

Hope your sensitivities can cope with barking dogs and screaming children.

^^^ sounds cool to me