Youth Unemployment in the U.S.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

And what will that lead to?

Lots of lawsuits, since it is illegal to age-discriminate against people 40+.

That's very hard to prove. Most people don't have the resources to fight that.

[Datawolf]

And what will that lead to?

Lots of lawsuits, since it is illegal to age-discriminate against people 40+.

That's very hard to prove. Most people don't have the resources to fight that.

Especially if they've been unemployed for seven years.

David Cameron is veering into supervillain territory. Seriously, the only explanation for this is that the Tories are actually trying to destroy the country.

[CatharzGodfoot]

Seriously, the only explanation for this is that the Tories are actually trying to destroy the country.

Another explanation is that they're trying to save England by flailing about in a ham-handed and misguided fashion.

[Datawolf]

Seriously, the only explanation for this is that the Tories are actually trying to destroy the country.

Another explanation is that they're trying to save England by flailing about in a ham-handed and misguided fashion.

Yeah... I suppose Hanlon's Razor applies here. After all, if the government of the U.K. had actually put any thought into their actions these riots would likely have never occurred in the first place. Their current plans for dealing with the rioters clearly show that they have no idea what caused this debacle to begin with, and even less of an idea of how to effectively deal with this problem and prevent it from happening again.

[Koumei]

If this had been the US, the riots wouldn't have lasted that long.

Everyone would be dead within the first day, due to everyone owning heavy machine guns with underslung hellfire missiles.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

It's my gawd-given right to have all the weapons I want. If you don't love America, you can GIT OUT!

[sabs]

Yes, because the LA Riots ended in 1 day with a giant OK Corral shoot out.

[Koumei]

Yes, because the LA Riots ended in 1 day with a giant OK Corral shoot out.

Oh, so you want to bring history and facts into it, do you? That's just cheating.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

I think it's funny that the west during American expansion is known as being lawless despite the fact that during that time period, the most dangerous cities had a murder rate lower than Baltimore's.

[tzor]

If this had been the US, the riots wouldn't have lasted that long.

You don't know US riots very well, do you.

[CatharzGodfoot]

British PM David Cameron Analyzes the Downfall of Civilizations Throughout History

[sabs]

If this had been the US, the riots wouldn't have lasted that long.

You don't know US riots very well, do you.

Fairly sure that was sarcasm on Koumei's part

[Josh_Kablack]

due to everyone owning heavy machine guns with underslung hellfire missiles.

Now that's unfounded exaggeration. The average citizen's arament pretty much tops out shotguns and 7.62 x 39 mm assault rifles like the AK-47 and SKS, plus homemade explosives. Even those who go above and beyond to prepare for fighting the law only use guns like This

[Chamomile]

Here in the United States riots are short and to the point. We eliminate all the chaff from society, burn off some steam, and then the ammo industry booms again and everything goes back to the way it was before the crash by Tuesday. If the Brits did things like we do, they'd be halfway back to 2005 living standards by now.

[Psychic Robot]

We eliminate all the chaff from society

congress still exists so no

[Lago PARANOIA]

Regarding that whole 'death of the nuclear family' thing...

Since such a shift won't be universal across the U.S. (or the U.K., come to think, I think that their youth unemployment is even worse) do you think that such households will become status symbols in the near future? Sort of like how one-income households are miniature status symbols right now?

[Count Arioch the 28th]

It will go back to being a status symbol. The whole "stay-at-home mom" was originally a status symbol during the victorian era where men competed to see whose wives could do the most nothing. A low-class victorian mother strapped her baby on her back and worked in the mines with everyone else.

[K]

It will go back to being a status symbol. The whole "stay-at-home mom" was originally a status symbol during the victorian era where men competed to see whose wives could do the most nothing. A low-class victorian mother strapped her baby on her back and worked in the mines with everyone else.

Considering the middle class is vanishing, I expect there will be the upper class with the stay at home mothers and the lower classes banding together into illegal communes for childcare.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

I think the whole "middle class" thing was just a fad anwyay. If you look back in history, it's always been a small number of wealthy people living like parasites off the rest. I think we as humans are just going back to the way we naturally are.

[angelfromanotherpin]

If you look back to prehistory, it seems likely that the amount of time humans spent in small communes vastly outweighs the amount of time spent under aristocracy.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

Those small communes were designed to serve the needs of the one guy that could beat the asses of the rest of them, plus slightly less ass-kicking guys who promised to help the main guy kick asses in exchange for a bigger share of meat. Marxist communes don't exist prior to modern times.

[angelfromanotherpin]

Those small communes were designed to serve the needs of the one guy that could beat the asses of the rest of them, plus slightly less ass-kicking guys who promised to help the main guy kick asses in exchange for a bigger share of meat. Marxist communes don't exist prior to modern times.

Um, no. That's just straight-up false, and seems to be a projection of feudalism or possibly chimp dynamics. I've actually visited two contemporary hunter-gatherer cultures, and they seem mostly to be run by some variant of 'council of elders,' if they could be said to have been run at all.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

So a contemporary culture is a good judge for how people used to act in the stone age. Cool story, bro.

[Doom]

There are a number of tribes that (almost certainly) haven't changed much in the last 10,000 years. Some tribes adapt to the modern worldview more than others--New Guinea natives seemed to have had the worst of it ("Road Belong Cargo" details much of it), the kind of 'insanity' they displayed over the course of generations in trying to figure out how the world worked would simply stun you (as one example, they would create a 'runway' in the jungle, crafting radio equipment out of grass, and appeal to the gods with the 'equipment' to bring them the material goods of the modern world...even natives brought to manufacturing plants in Australia still didn't 'get it'.)

In primitive tribes, old age (basically anything past 45) is the most important thing for respect and 'power', such as it is. Brute strength is worthless, it's all about the hunting skill, and it takes about 25 years of training before someone is truly an expert hunter (compare to the decade or so it takes to become an astrophysicist...). Everyone past a certain age (and this isn't going to be that many people) is the council, with a headman having some nominal power past that.

[angelfromanotherpin]

Um, yes? Hunter-gatherers isolate societies who still relied on stone tools until fifty years ago seems like a pretty good approximation of prehistoric stone age society. Not because I say so. Because professional anthropologists say so, and have said so to me in person on site.

Your statements are ignorant, and you should feel bad for arguing from ignorance.