Reply #1: Actually, I think a crash would eradicate apathy.

[Taxloss]

Certainly it would spawn myriad social evils - crime, drug abuse, alcoholism, child abuse, murder, violence, and so on - but not political apathy. There is nothing more dangerous to the powerful than a man with nothing to lose. People would organise damn quickly. And if and when a crash hits, all that right-wing BS about welfare queen and stay-at-home money would evaporate. The precise moment people saw what was happening in their neighbourhood, on their street, to their friends and families, you can bet they'd stop listening to the well-paid talking heads slamming welfare from the comfort of their TV studios.