How Much Anger are You Noticing from the Poor?

[stepnw1f]

What have Duers noticed? Stocks are up and the wealthy and upper-middle class seem to be doing fine, while the rest are getting screwed. I've have heard and seen anger first hand where I am. What is it like in your neck of the woods?

[NNN0LHI]

1. I am middle class and heading for poor and I am angry n/t

[htuttle]

2. Everyone I know is poor...

...and everyone I know is angry.

[leftofthedial]

3. Plenty

when the local football team loses

[brokensymmetry]

4. Just about none.

It's more like depressed resignation. Perhaps a
disgusted look when the subject of voting comes up.

Make no mistake, the poor (middle class, too) are
hurting - but I don't see any real anger. No rage.

Which is what's needed to effect profound change...

[stepnw1f]

5. Hmmmm.... I See Planty

and they blame the GOP and Bush.

[brokensymmetry]

12. Good.

Quite honestly, I want it to become a seething
cauldron of rage. Dangerous, perhaps - but needed
for corrective change.

Now if only we can focus that anger.

[stepnw1f]

15. They are Getting Word from Me

and a few I know....

[Fovea]

6. I am in a poor urban neighborhood

and crime is up. Last week a neighbor was beaten by 4 other neighbors after he objected to sexist remarks one of them made to his wife.

Juvenile crime is way up, I think because there were no local jobs, and a spike in the teen population.

[stepnw1f]

11. Same Around Here

Shootings too..

[The_Casual_Observer]

7. The poor have no voice or say in anything that goes on

here or anywhere else. If the poor are pissed nobody would know, who's going to listen? There isn't any money to be made off doing anything for the poor.

[butterfly77]

8. I see more anger and despair..

and more boldness in the crimes that are being committed, I see more furniture thrown out on the street and I see more people walkin with there belongings in bags and sleeping in the parks and bus stops.I also know of more people who's water has been shut off and other utilities.

[texas1928]

9. I am not poor, I guess I am middle class...

And I am pretty pissed off.

[stepnw1f]

14. Same Here.....

I live with the poor and grew up poor with the poor. Things are getting rough.... the GOP is clueless. They really think they are getting blamed.

[etherealtruth]

10. Fatigue, worry, disillusionment ...

... FEAR.

Anger may be there but it is overwhelmed by other emotions associated with basic well being (survival)

[Demit]

13. People who are poorer than they used to be are bitter.

Except for those who are in denial that they are (home equity loans, expressing a new-found enthusiasm for shopping at dollar stores). It's not that I hear much about it canvassing...but my suspicion is that people who have been poor a long time figure they live in a different world from the powers-that-be anyway & so they might as well focus on their blessings, whatever gets them through, whatever happiness there is in everyday life that isn't dependent on how much money one has.

[skids]

16. Poor? We have poor?

None: this society does too good a job isolating them and hiding them from my "beautiful mind." If I didn't get my news through the Internet, I wouldn't even know they existed.

[Coyote_Bandit]

17. I am poor

and very well educated and quite angry.

I live in red state hell. I mostly see two kinds of poor folks here. First, there are those who have been beaten down, fight to survive, try to keep an even keel and not surrender to despair (though many have). Second, there are those who have been beaten down yet remain eternally optimistic - or at least pretend to. On closer examination you will find that many in this group are fundie kooks who are planting financial seeds into various ministries and believing God to prosper them. The first group is angry but not particularly motivated because they do not sense any personal power to change things. The second group thinks it is their fault if they experience financial difficulties and do not prosper.

[triguy46]

18. Anger? Hell, in Oklahoma...

the poor are among the biggest supporters of el presidente for life. They must be giddy with their circumstances. No anger here.

[Coyote_Bandit]

21. I'm in Oklahoma

You're not looking in the right places. That said, yes, there are the fundie kooks that will remain loval to shrubbie to the bitter end.

[Selatius]

19. Sometimes I play the libertarian socialism message for people

It gets them very interested when they ask me what left libertarianism is all about. The right of people to organize for better well-being, participatory democracy, businesses run and owned by workers, collective health care, etc. It's an intoxicating brew for some workers who never knew what "socialism" meant beyond the face of Joseph Stalin, but there's still a lot of inbred mental programming left behind from the Cold War and the Red Scare.

[datadiva]

20. I am now poor and I am very angry n/t

[acmavm]

22. I am lower middle class and I am angry. I see the poor come in every

damn day where I work begging for a job, asking for applications, wanting to know if there's going to be anything opening up. The majority of them are black (but then again I work in a not so good area of town that is mostly lower class poor blacks. It's in an industrialized area in the north of town.)

Anyway, I don't know how it is where you all live but here I know two things. That the people in the end of town that I work in have no say in what happens in this city (that's why they split the school district into three parts, white, black, and hispanic basically). Money is never invested in their neighborhoods, and the unemployments is so disheartening.

I also know that historically poor blacks (and I STRONGLY suspect the poor of any race) turn out in very low numbers to vote. This has been discussed many times (on public access t.v. which I sometimes watch), in political discussions intended to motivate these people, and in some newspaper articles. I have heard some people of little means say many times that they don't think that voting will change anything because this country is owned and run by the wealthy. And this is our challenge. If we could get the those that feel disenfranchised and shut out to get to the polls, we would win by a large enough margin to make it impossible for them to try to steal this one. We need all the help we can get and we need to encourage the poor not to just sit and seethe in their anger, but do something. And that something is to vote.

[Subdivisions]

23. Nearly everyone I know

is hurting.

They are either in debt up to their ears (and looking at another Commercia...er...Christmas Season) or they a literally struggling to make ends meet with one foot in the gutter and the other on a banana peel.

Most have had and lost homes. Most have had good jobs and been either laid-off or traded for younger or cheaper stock. Most were once living the American dream of a peaceful, enriching family life.

And nearly every one of them is putting on a show of bravery and courage, if not acting compelely non-chalant about it. They are scared to death and they are completely ignorant, bless them. They are so busy just trying to survive that they have absolutely no comsideration of what is really going on. And, they are extremely disillusioned and embarrased.

I could ask any one them this minute who lost the Democratic nod for Senator of Connecticut and they would look at me as if I just spoke to them in tongues. They are angry that there lives have gotten so out of their control and, at least among the crowd I roll with, they have no idea how it has happened to them.

"After 20 years at the same company, how could they just up and lay me off like that?"

"I had to go into emergency heart surgery and because I didn't have any insurance, that bill, which I can never pay, is on my credit report."

"I've been to apply for a job in a trade in which I have 20 years of experience yet the best pay I can find is only 1/3 of what I used to make for the same work."

"I was down-sized and now the mortgage company want to downsize my ownership of this house."

"I was laid-off one week before my first child was born."

"I had to cheat my taxes in order to try to keep my company above water. It sunk."

How many can you add to this list?

I've heard it time and time again. And then you try to talk to them about voting and their eyes glaze over and they have no idea what you're talking about.

I come from the construction trade in Texas. I can't even begin to tell you how bad the problem with low-paid illegal immigrants is here.

My belief is that if you don't have a secure position in the company you are with and are not making at least $100k/year, you are almost assuredly in big trouble.

[alfredo]

24. They are starting to show up at Democratic events and

organizations that promote progressive ideals. Usually the events and organizations only see middle class and students, but the homeless and the blue collar workers are starting to show up at protests and events.

[butterfly77]

25. When willl they show up...

at the whitehouse.

[alfredo]

26. If there is widespread voter fraud by the Republicans, I think

the anger will become more vocal. Some are aware of the voting machine problems.

It is the war, gas prices, and class issues. They do not like the way bush is taking care of his rich friends and doing nothing for us.

[Imagevision]

27. A couple more years of Bush, the middle class will lose some...

How musch better off are the middle class now versus, say...6 years ago?