Where is the Outrage?

More than four million people have been out of work for six months or longer. Will we ever hear from them?

My latest column for The Week looks at the dire situation for today’s unemployed and considers why these hard times have not led to an economic protest movement.

More than four million people have been out of work for six months or longer, and every day more unemployed Americans pass the 99-week mark at which their benefits expire. Some of those who exhaust their unemployment benefits may qualify for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. But others will not. What happens to them?

And when will we ever hear from them?

The most surprising thing about this recession, at least to me, has been the total absence of an economic protest movement by the unemployed and the foreclosed. Yes, we have the Tea Party protesting on behalf of taxpayers who also worry about an uncertain future. Yet the Tea Party's ranks are recruited from the "have mores" of American society: 20 percent have incomes of more than $100,000, compared to 14 percent of American households generally.

The "have less" demographic, however, has fallen silent.

Time and again in American history, the hard-pressed and dispossessed have spoken loudly, fiercely, in the public square. Not this time. There are no Populists or Wobblies, no Bonus Marchers or sit-down strikers. And this time, the have-less demographic has not even attracted a Bruce Springsteen to sing “Born in the USA” on their behalf, or a Michael Douglas to star in “Falling Down.”

Click here to read the rest.