badgenome said:
We've just seen looting and rioting on a massive scale in Britain, a society which certainly does not lack for a social safety net. The problem really is a break down of society, of morals, of personal responsibility, and of any sort of culture of internal and external shame. Life was a lot harder decades and centuries ago, and people didn't riot because of it, but a bunch of spoiled kids armed with smartphones and brand new clothes will damned sure riot if society constantly tells them that they've somehow been cheated out of having even more stuff that they haven't earned. Especially if they don't have to worry about being shot either by the police or by an armed and empowered citizenry. It's rather darkly amusing how many governments promise they can take care of you from the cradle to the grave but are unwilling or unable (same difference, really) to carry out even the most basic functions of a government, like, oh, preventing roving packs of brats from burning down whatever they please. As for the old "legalize drugs but tax the shit out of them and make it a great hassle with lots and lots and lots of regulation!" canard, sounds great in theory but if you tax it too much or make it too great a hassle, you'll probably do nothing to seriously harm the black market while still having the negative effect of removing much of the social stigma against using drugs. Sure, lots of people use illegal drugs anyway, but many more abuse legal prescription drugs and that, in part, is because it's not seen as something "dirty" like smoking crack. |
All things are relative in terms of rioting and social action. Just because migrants from the Dust Bowl were glad to get $5 a day from California farmers in the '30s doesn't mean people can't be livid about not getting health benefits on top of $10 an hour on a given farm today
Though these riots in particular had little to do with entitlements, however, and more with the general culture of hooliganism in Britain, which has to be something that runs deeper than any overt social engineering
Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.