Complacency: The Great American "Virtue"

Trey Smith

The giant austerity measures that are driving Europe to the edge of revolution have been delayed on the federal level in the U.S. until after the November elections. Then, the seldom discussed budget "sequesters" will go into effect — automatic cuts to federal spending of $100 billion, every year until 2021.

Also, after the election federally enhanced unemployment insurance expires, as does the federal payroll tax cut. Obama's stimulus plan that supported states and city governments petered out at the end of 2011, adding pain to the ongoing deficit crunch nationwide.

It's possible that the U.S. may already be re-entering an "official" recession, though the jobs recession never left; the April jobs report showed that only 63.6 percent of people in the U.S. are either employed or actively looking for work, the lowest in more than three decades.

U.S. politicians — both Democrats and Republicans — are united in a strategy to combat the weakening economy by resorting to the European strategy of austerity. Both parties have already worked together to cut 600,000 government jobs (mostly local) since 2009, destroying the services these workers deliver in the process (education has been most targeted).

These numbers will balloon when the effects of Europe's plight reaches America's shores. The political silence over this fact is a good strategy for U.S. corporate political representatives; the more unprepared working people are for austerity measures, the easier they are to implement (what Naomi Klein calls the Shock Doctrine).
~ from Gloomy Economic Prospects: Why U.S. Politicians Are Quiet About Europe's Meltdown by Shamus Cooke ~

Almost the entire European continent is on edge. In country after country, the people are pushing back against austerity. Having grown tired of the machinations and manipulations of the wealthy elite, people are taking to the streets and ballot box to show their disdain for their leaders' drive to force the 99 percent to pay in blood for the sins of the 1 percent.

Yet, here in the US, life goes on as usual. We do have the Occupy Movement; it's but a drop in the bucket. The vast majority of citizens may curse our leaders under their breath, but they remain distracted by all the distractions that American life has to offer.

By and large, why are Americans so complacent? We seem poised to put up with all sorts of abuses and barely register as much as an audible whimper! We allow ourselves to be slapped in the face again and again. After being flogged and bludgeoned, we dance and skip to the ballot box to elect and reelect our abusers!

Is it that Americans, on the whole, are not as smart as our European counterparts? They've been slapped around too and, instead of heading to the mall, they've gone out into the streets in mass protest. They've gone to the ballot box to elect left-leaning candidates. They are joining together to scream NO MORE!

While the European citizenry is joining together to beat back the banksters, about all the American citizenry can come together on is to debate who should be the next winner of American Idol!