How Long Before the Peasants Revolt?

Wealthy elites would do well to make some concessions while they still can

Things are not looking so hot for the average American consumer.

Virtually every Florida resident over the age of 18 is a bankrupt former real estate agent whose half-million dollar stucco starter home has gone into foreclosure. Additionally, the national unemployment "trend" looks more like a national unemployment "vortex of doom" every day, while our shaky stock market plunges into a selloff every time somebody in the Obama administration talks to the press.

In other words, we are heading rapidly toward nationwide homelessness, unemployment, and poverty. It's the perfect time for a peasant revolt!

Think about it. Ordinary people are living out of their cars and bathing in the restrooms of truck stops while Wall Street executives feebly plead their case with the New York Times and Congress appears to be headed toward removing Obama's proposed executive pay caps from the stimulus bill.

No wonder outraged citizens are storming the castles of mortgage executives and baying for blood.

Yesterday in Florida, we witnessed two people -- Julio Osegueda and Harriet Hughes -- weeping with joy at the prospect that they might not have to spend the rest of their lives in dead-end jobs or no jobs at all. Their ticket out of nowheresville? The fact that they were fortunate enough to be called on by the president at a rally.

This is how hopeless things have gotten: that some people believe that the only way to avoid complete poverty and ruination is somehow to get a personal audience with the president. So what about the other 99.99% of the rest of us who can't afford gas or a plane ticket to Obama's next town hall meeting? Grab a pitchfork.

Keynesian economist and Venn diagram enthusiast Sara K. Smith writes for NBC and Wonkette.

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