Rioters in the U.K. and the U.S. have learned from their social superiors. The bailouts taught the working classes that incompetence, greed, and wickedness are rewarded and held in high esteem. Hard work, on the other hand, is regarded as stupid and pointless. Worker's rights and worker's benefits are down. Benefits for the idle rich are up. There is less honor, less comfort, and less prestige in working for a living. What is valued is knowing the "right" people and having the "right" connections. If those two prerequisites are not possessed, then getting ahead any which way seems to them the only way left. There are not enough jobs to go around. Young people are being told, in effect, to stay at home and do nothing. Education, self-improvement and studying are held to be of no value. The young people of the U.K. have digested this unfortunate lesson. Now society smells the end product of their digestion.
I think things can get a lot worse than they are right now. I don't see many reasons to have optimism in the future. The U.S. is in long-term decline, having sacrificed its future to the half-baked notions of the Republicans. Tyrannical China is emerging as a world power and is on course to eclipse the U.S. There is no reason to have any optimism about Russia. The world will become less free and less progressive as a result, and more people will be enslaved and oppressed. Global warming will continue unchecked, with unpredictable consequences. Iran cannot be stopped, but will eventually develop nuclear weapons, not a good scenario for a country that sponsors terrorism.
Already people are looking back with nostalgia for the 1990s, that bygone, blissful era of prosperity that is not likely to return in our lifetimes. There is a greater danger of political extremism, such as was experienced in 1930s Europe, in times of prolonged economic depression.
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