If the system is rigged, and there is no mechanism within the system for redress, you may have to go outside the system. Fine.
The civil rights movement is a good example of a case where the status quo needed to change and change wasn’t happening.
It’s not clear to me though that our system is rigged, and that there is no mechanism for redress. Yes there are some hedge fund guys that are getting a better tax deal than the rest of us – that loophole could be closed.
But many folks are able to start businesses and is there really any structural limit to their success? Look into the story of the Burt’s Bees lady. How about Dell computer? Dude started it in his dorm room.
Anyone can get student loans *and* grants. The more disadvantaged you are, the more you’ll get. How is that rigged?
I don’t know that the plight of the folks in the parks really matches those of folks that were under the same dictators for decades. Is it *really* as bad here as it is in Libya or Egypt or Tunisia? If we did a comparison of average daily income and hardship versus comfort, I think life would be looking pretty cushy even for the poor here.
If we compare their “mechanisms for redress” versus our system with term limits, a rule of law, a history of regular transfers of power, and an amendable, religion free constitution, are we really in a comparable situation here?
Nevertheless, I suppose Allan could be right and folks could “feel” disempowered and justified in protest. Seems though that there needs to be a large basis in truth before there is enough widespread support to reach a tipping point.
A few folks trying to get out of having to repay their student loans ain’t gonna do it.
