Doom and Gloom

[digitaldiscipline]

In the comments on my glib screed against the lack of priorities in today's media environment yesterday, smjayman made the following observation:

I suspect if much more of this goes on, we'll encounter riots and protests all over the globe. Everything will become more expensive, and eventually there will be food shortages. (Which is really one of the only important things, if you think about it. Food. Who cares if you can't drive up the street? If you can't eat, things are dire.) I figure it is a matter of when, not if, for us to see such things here in this country.

This is one of the things that flemco would get himself worked into a lather over, the coming social meltdown here in the US of A. I'm hardly Pollyanna, but, listen: we produce enough food here that we export it to just about every other industrialized nation, and a whole bunch that aren't. It's going to take something like the Yellowstone Caldera going off to push this country to the point where there are actual food shortages.

That said, there is plenty of potential for a spike in food prices to make a lot of desperate people more desperate, and plenty angry. There are a lot of causes for this, most of which piss me off and make me want to stab rich fuckers in nice suits (the fact that most of them probably work or vote for, the GOP is coincidental - the underlying issues are social and economic, and I think their stance is pretty comprehensively incorrect across the board):

- Farm subsidies, especially for the corn industry (paying people to not farm, or grow stuff that isn't needed; assume there is a thousand-word screed about Monsanto and commercial farming tucked in here, too)
- Systemic erosion and undermining of social programs that provide the basic necessities for folks in need, veterans, and so on. I don't think we are in any danger of becoming a welfare state or are anywhere near the actuality of Socialism (or even the bogus "socialism" trumpeted by the current crop of propagandists). It is my opinion that the function of government is to provide a framework within which their citizens can survive and prosper, and I think that too many people have forgotten this, if they've ever considered it at all.
- Racism. It's alive and well and thriving and pervasive. Just because we don't want it to exist means fuck-all.
- Income inequality. This is one part racism and eight parts political bullshit. The richest keep getting richer, and the rest of us keep getting fucked. Take a look at how well that's playing out for the rich fuckers who were in control in northern Africa (and now Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the middle east).

Aerosmith said "Eat the rich," but, frankly, they've probably got a worse nutritional profile than pen-raised, corn-fed beef.

Comments

[smjayman.livejournal.com]

Yeah, to be clear, I don't think said shortages will be a scarcity issue. I think that when it costs more to produce and transport said food, the costs for the end consumer will rise, and people won't be able to afford to feed their families. Then they'll protest or riot or start stealing, or maybe all three. And these things will contribute to more issues raising the cost. If .gov doesn't step in and un-fuck it, it could spiral.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

I figured that's what you were getting at. We've got six years until the Bakersfield Food Riots that opened up the theatrical version of The Running Man, after all.

At some point (and this is going to tie into the racism issue slightly), lower-income white folks are going to feel the pinch; it's probably going to take that kind of action to open their eyes, politically, that they're punishing themselves by voting R because of their bias against folks who aren't white (or straight, or male).

That's going to take a long time, and, frankly, things would get a lot worse for a lot of other folks before that is going to happen. I try to agitate for middle-class folks to at least vote their own self-interest, if not that of the country at large, as opposed to directly against it, but it's hard to motivate comfortable people (and I am as guilty of this as anyone; there are far more active and engaged folks (some of whom comment here occasionally)).

You probably have a different perspective on and insight into the situation of the folks for whom the price increase is going to impact first from your job; I live in a transitional neighborhood, so it's close to home but not at my door, so to speak.

[bitogoth.livejournal.com]

i think SMBC sums it up pretty succinctly today: http://www.smbc-comics.com/#comic

[etcet.livejournal.com]

yeah, that'll do.

[the_axel]

Motörhead said "Eat the Rich".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eat_the_Rich_(Mot%C3%B6rhead_song)

Did Aerosmith cover it or something?

[etcet.livejournal.com]

yeah, or did their own version.

[farchivist.livejournal.com]

And this is why I have very short outlines prepared on what would be needed to transfer to Uruguay or Belize. Preferably the former.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

I wonder who "suspended user" might be.