What If the Soon To Be Benefitless 2,000,000 Unemployed Americans Took To Panhandling?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

And then the millions more.

One of the reasons we have a safety net is so we don't have a situation where folks are begging in the street. Millions of Americans begging in the streets with " I will work for food" signs would definitely attract the attention of the international press and make America a laughingstock. The negative p r would be unmatched in history.

Congress would be forced to act... It would be chaos...

[Delphinus]

1. What if they

took to the streets to go after Congress, since Congress thinks the tax cuts for the wealthy are what's important, not the little folk?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

2. It Needs To Be Peaceful And Lawful

I don't think America has the balls to look the millions of beggars they will create in the face. Can you imagine fifteen million beggars? They would be ubiquitous.

[kenny blankenship]

42. Don't condemn it to uselessness right out of the gate

Being peaceful and lawful and meek is how you ended up screwed in the first place. Besides, Americans are conditioned to hate the poor. If all your demonstration proves is that you are numerous and needy, the conditioned response out there in TVland will be that you are "dead limbs" that need to be cut away for the survival of the tree; and even if you were not being prejudged as "undeserving", you are far too many for "the productive majority" to rescue. The will look at your numbers and say "There is nothing we can do about a problem so vast - we have to think of ourselves so we don't end up the same way." People will not be moved by a demonstration of your peaceful and lawful pitiful destitution. They've had 30 years to be moved to pity by worsening conditions for America's most vulnerable people and they've done nothing in that time but to harden their hearts against you. You will be dismissed as fakers and whiners since you "were evidently able to afford to travel to DC for your whiners' convention." No, if you want even a chance to succeed you will have to face the fact that this state is hostile to your survival. Only when they realize they stand to lose everything if society unravels will they acknowledge and make terms with the basic needs of others.

[JackRiddler]

59. What if they marched on Washington, like Coxey's Army (1896) and the Bonus Army (1932)?

Coxey's Army: The 1894 March of the Unemployed to Washington D.C.
Mar 15, 2009 ... Businessman Jacob Coxey led a contingent of jobless men from Ohio to the nation's capital to promote a road improvement plan to create jobs.
www.suite101.com/content/coxeys-army-a102705

Coxey's Army - Wikipedia
Coxey's Army was a protest march by unemployed workers from the United States, led by the populist Jacob Coxey. They marched on Washington D.C. in 1894...
The march - Second March 1914 - Subsequent marches
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coxey's_Army

"...the first significant popular protest march on Washington and the expression 'Enough food to feed Coxey's Army' originates from this march."

snip

"Coxey and other leaders of the movement were arrested the next day for walking on the grass of the United States Capitol. Interest in the march and protest rapidly dwindled."

snip

"Some of the most militant Coxeyites were those who formed their own "armies" in Pacific Northwest centers such as Butte, Tacoma, Spokane, and Portland. Many of these protesters were unemployed railroad workers who blamed railroad companies, President Cleveland's monetary policies, and excessive freight rates for their plight. The climax of this movement was perhaps on April 21, 1894 when William Hogan and approximately 500 followers commandeered a Northern Pacific Railway train for their trek to Washington, D.C. They enjoyed support along the way, which enabled them to fight off the federal marshals attempting to stop them. Federal troops finally apprehended the Hoganites near Forsyth, Montana. While the protesters never made it to the capitol, the military intervention they provoked proved to be a rehearsal for the federal force that broke the Pullman Strike that year.<5>"

snip

"Among the people observing the march was L. Frank Baum, before he gained fame. There are political interpretations of his book, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which have often been related to Coxey's Army. In the novel, Dorothy, the Scarecrow (the American farmer), Tin Woodman (the industrial worker), and Cowardly Lion (political leader), march on the yellow brick road to Oz, the Capitol (or Washington DC), demanding relief from the Wizard, who is interpreted to be the President. Dorothy's shoes are interpreted to symbolize using free silver instead of the gold standard (the road of yellow brick) because the shortage of gold precipitated the Panic of 1893. In the film adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, the silver shoes were turned into ruby for the cinematic effect of color, as Technicolor was still in its early years when The Wizard of Oz was produced.<9>"

(Note as usual with populists of the past they understood the significance of easy money policy to economic prosperity for the working classes, unlike the counterpopulist Tea Partiers of today, following 35 years of widespread monetarist brainwashing.)

...

The Bonus Army
Veterans of WWI descend on Washington, DC during the Great Depression.
www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/snprelief4.htm

In 1924, a grateful Congress voted to give a bonus to World War I veterans - $1.25 for each day served overseas, $1.00 for each day served in the States. The catch was that payment would not be made until 1945.

However, by 1932 the nation had slipped into the dark days of the Depression and the unemployed veterans wanted their money immediately. In May of that year, some 15,000 veterans, many unemployed and destitute, descended on Washington, D.C. to demand immediate payment of their bonus. They proclaimed themselves the Bonus Expeditionary Force but the public dubbed them the "Bonus Army." Raising ramshackle camps at various places around the city, they waited.


Members of the Bonus Army encamp within sight of the Capitol, 1932

The veterans made their largest camp at Anacostia Flats across the river from the Capitol. Approximately 10,000 veterans, women and children lived in the shelters built from materials dragged out of a junk pile nearby - old lumber, packing boxes and scrap tin covered with roofs of thatched straw.

snip

A month later, on July 28, Attorney General Mitchell ordered the evacuation of the veterans from all government property, Entrusted with the job, the Washington police met with resistance, shots were fired and two marchers killed. Learning of the shooting at lunch, President Hoover ordered the army to clear out the veterans. Troops prepare to evacuate the Bonus Army and cavalry supported by six tanks were dispatched with Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur in command. Major Dwight D. Eisenhower served as his liaison with Washington police and Major George Patton led the cavalry.


Infantry Troops prepare to evacuate the Bonus Army
July 28, 1932

more at link

(Note the role of the military leadership. This kind of "loyalty" is how you move up in the world.)

As these things usually are, I've seen other sources give higher numbers for the Bonus Army.

Is this how the government would respond today, if the unemployed held a mass march on Washington?

Or would a million unemployed at the Capitol steps shift the political balance? I'm half-optimistic.

[RandomThoughts]

3. Great question.

So you are saying that they are trying to drive Americans to violence to throw them in prison. Or begging so they can laugh at the poor.

Great comment, some do that I agree.


There is a better choice then begging, just show them it is already yours and they are guilty of theft by trying to keep it away, then let justice handle the rest.

Although they already know that, some just want people to be like them so they lose their claims also. They are trying to break your spirit, since theirs was broken long ago. I think it is best to try and heal their spirit by letting them know they can make it back if they think and feel on it.

Isn't that what much of it is about?


Although if someone is begging, the shame is on those that allowed the society to create the state where that person felt they had to do those things. It is blaming the victim to blame the beggar, fits how some think of things.

The honor goes to the beggar for showing the failure of the system. That light on flaws in systems can help them improve.

[reggie the dog]

30. the honor goes to the person with a gun

shooting someone with food so they can eat it, that is what they want, civil war between those that have food and the hungry. it is illegal to beg in most places, you cant beg, it is illegal, may as well rob, sell drugs, or be a prostitute at this point, look to the ghettos for inspiration, that is what people there have been doing for years., newly poor and soon to be homeless need to start organizing their own street gangs, i am serious about this.

[RandomThoughts]

41. Yea thats why I listen to music and watch movie clips.

:shrug:

Might as well sing some songs if your not going to do those things. And have some fun at times. Although I like what I see in the songs, even if it is not the same as everyone else sees.

[reggie the dog]

44. i listen to music too

but i also have a full belly and have never ever had to choose between buying food and buying grass... of course i will buy food for me and my kid and not grass but i will know i am dirt poor when that happens... i manage to get 50 euros of hash a month, eat and pay the rent!!! luckily i stumble into "overtime" or extra english classes and i hustle up vacation money off of that....but that is never guarenteed and very sporadic.... for others in the usa where the social net has, how can i put this, much larger holes people will be pushed to the limit...

[Orrex]

4. They'd probably be arrested

And then they wouldn't be homeless anymore.

Problem solved!

[DemocratSinceBirth]

6. Arrest Fifteen Million People?

And aren't the laws on panhandling different from locale to locale.

[Occulus]

13. Arrest 15,000,000?

Why, yes. That's what private prison corporations want.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

22. Who Is Going To Take Care Of Their Families? Social Services Is Already Overwhelmed

It would be chaos... The prisons and jails are already full.

And in some locales the homeless have "won". In Fort Lauderdale they are so ubiquitous the police don't even mess with them.

That's why there is a safety net. It's not out of altruism that it exists but out of self preservation by the ruling class...

[katnapped]

24. Govermint got plenty of room

Remember the FEMA camps?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

25. If You Have To Put The Poor In Concentration Camps You Have Ended A Civil And Orderly Society

That's why nations have safety nets. It allows for the elites to lead their cushy lives while almost everybody else gets just just enough to remain quiescent.

Remove the safety net, society eventually breaks down, and everybody suffers, including the elites.

Why has communism failed in America?

Because the average American is fat, dumb, and happy. And it's in the interest of the elites to keep him or her that way.

[SpiralHawk]

5. We don't need no more steenkin Palinhandlers

Too damn many Republicon grifters already.

[Uben]

7. They don't care if you have a sign.......

....in fact, that's what they want! You think they care about negative PR? HA! The republicans are already laughing stock.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

8. There Would Be Chaos If You Had Fifteen Million People

There would be chaos if you had fifteen million people "panhandling" throughout the landcsape.

[Uben]

18. There would be no chaos....

...just a bunch of hungry tired people carrying signs. When are you going to understand that poverty and need do not move these bastards? They know very well what Americans are having to endure and they refuse to extend benefits. Get those 15 million in Washington and surround the capital and you might get a favorable response. Anything less would just have them looking out the window and cursing the people that pay their salaries. If these bastards had a conscience there would be no republicans.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

20. I Just Think With Those Numbers

There would be panhandlers near every place of business in the nation. That would be an unprecedented situation. The hue and cry to have something done would be deafening. You can't lock em all up.. And many of them have families. It would be chaos...

[Vinca]

9. Republicans would use it as an excuse to bring back poor farms.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

10. Back To My Original Point

It would make America a joke. That's the one thing the American chauvinsts could not handle. China and Cuba could lecture us on our human rights abuses.

[Vinca]

15. One word, dear DemocratSinceBirth: Palin. We're already a joke.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

16. France Had LePen (Sp) Russia Had Zhirnowski (Sp)

You can not have a modern, industrialized society with millions and millions and millions of beggars. It would be socially disruptive and chaotic. The way most locales deal with the homeless is to move them somewhere else. If there's millions and millions of them there's no place to move them.

Imagine panhandlers on Worth Avenue, Rodeo Drive, Sixth Avenue for starters...

[Vinca]

17. I actually agree with you, but would the world see?

One pretty blonde girl goes missing and there's your 24/7 "news" coverage.

[laughingliberal]

11. It's a great idea. nt

[WinkyDink]

12. What if they took to taking pitchforks to DC?

[steve2470]

14. At least one of the freeper types thinks that MAGICALLY all these people will get a job and go back

to work. You see, they've been lazy sitting around collecting benefits :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[polmaven]

21. And who was that idjit

on Morning Joe yesterday who said that the unemployed will spend as little of their UI checks as possible and "hold on" to the rest - sock it away? The uber-rich, by the way, will spend every penny of the tax cuts they so urgently need to be assured of keeping. ....!!!!! Wow!

[DemocratSinceBirth]

23. How Can You Save When All Your Money Goes To Non-Discretionary Spending?

~

[polmaven]

36. Oh, who knows?

Some of these morAns are so predictable!

[KharmaTrain]

19. Overstretched State & Private Services...

These people won't disappear. I know several how are 99'ers not to mention the millions of others who long dropped from the rolls and either are living off family or on food stamps and whatever state aid they can find. We're talking many millions who are either out of work or underemployed and that list continues to grow.

Where will these people go? They'll show up at pantries and shelters, ERs at state/county-run hospitals and whatever charities are available. And this will tax already stressed state and local budgets which is where the ire of most people will be directed. They will officially be cut adrift that will sure make those "official" unemploymen figures look better.

The pisser is the rushpublicans want the suffering to continue as they know they can stick it to this administration and Democrats. Right now all they care about is power and if putting millions more out on the streets can work to their benefit, so be it.

[BurtWorm]

26. What if they take to rioting

Probably too European?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

27. Street Theater>Violence

Non violence resistance was really a form of street theater. Ironically or maybe not ironically the violence came from the other side.

[reggie the dog]

28. they should sell drugs or become prostitutes

that way the christians can say how unholy they are for trying to eat.

[reggie the dog]

29. double

double

[DemocratSinceBirth]

31. The Latter Is Definitely A Victimless Crime

The latter is definitely a victimless crime and I would not pass judgment on a man or woman who entered that profession. I would pass judgment on a society that forced a man or woman into that profession because they felt compelled to do it to make a living.

[tom_paine]

32. Stock in Tazer, Inc., Wackenhut and Prisons For Profit, Inc. are going up up up!

:woohoo: :party: :puke:

"The negative PR would be unmatched in history."

No, it wouldn't. You seriously underestimate not just the ability of the RW Lie Machine/Corporate Media Fusion Centers' ability to eradicate reality and create false ones. Whatever gets through that first line of defense will be obliterated by the squid ink blasts RW blogosphere, amplified a million times by Fox News and the rest of the Mighty Wurlitzer - all parts operating together in perfect, focus-group designed corporate-type synergy.

This now includes attacks on even middle- and low-level union and media figures, as evidenced by Breitbart/O'Keefe's suprisingly juvenile but unsurprisingly (given the current state of the USA's National Mind and National Dialog) effective attack, smear and lie campaigns.

The trend of power emanating from Right Wing Propaganda Infrastructures continues to grow. In the minds of a majority of American Subjects, they have effectively rewritten history with a thoroughness Hitler could have only dreamed of.

Ol Adolf and his pal, Prescott Bush, didn't have access to the highly sophisticated marketing, advertising and PR tools available to the Corporate RW today. Today it's American Corporatists, as opposed to the German Industrialists of the 20s and 30s who helped with the last big RW coordinated marketing campaign.

Anyway, before I ramble on too long, let me just reiterate that there is almost no limit to the negative PR our RW Lie Machine Corporate Media could make disappear or flip on it's head, Orwell style.

Look at the Gulf spill. For the cost of a few million gallons of Corexit, the Gulf Spill was ransformed from one of the few situations the RW Lie Machine Corporate Media could not disappear to one which could be how?

From a PR perspective, sinking and dispersing the oil, even IF the damage is greater, it is also mostly invisibly spread out over time and therefore easily dispersed and disappeared by the RW Lie Machine Corporate Media.

"Many Poor People Die of Cancer on Gulf Coast. Who is to Blame?" In the realm of PR problems, that one is and always has been an easily disappearable problem, especially if no white people or people of means are involved. For every Love Canal exposed, a dozen more exist because the victims weren't White and Middle Class so therefore telling their stories would have moved no product on Corporate TV. (paging missing sexy white women!)

And so on and so forth. It's a PR drill we have witnessed a thousand times, growing more powerful with each incarnation. It is growing in power so swiftly I believe you underestimate it's magnitude.

I also think you underestimate how disconnected from reality and history the American Subject Populace now is. We live in a country in which Glenn Beck and Fox News have convinced a majority of the nation that not only is Obama a socialist, but that Hitler was actually on the same side as his Liberal Jewish and Communist victims.

And it is a country makes no difference that simply reading history or Hitler's own words completely disproves that thesis or that a simple reading of history shows Obama to be very much like Clinton, which is to say an Eisenhower Republican, which is not even close to a socialist.

[NorthCarolina]

33. I think the Government would respond by erecting new street signs

[DemocratSinceBirth]

34. I Am Underemployed And My Girlfriend Is Unemployed

But we still try to hope the homeless as much as possible. In Fort Lauderdale they are everywhere and aggressive, even on the beach. It is to the point where people avoid the beach. I can't imagine that situation writ large. The police ignore them because they are many and to arrest them would take time from dealing with real crimes.

It's just cheaper to throw the poor a few crumbs...

[surrealAmerican]

35. I have never known a time in this country ...

... when there weren't people begging in the streets.

Of course, two million people won't be begging. There's no point begging when there's nobody left to beg from.

[Greyhound]

53. I remember when it was so rare that we gave them something every time

we saw someone doing it. Especially the guys with the "I just want a drink" signs. I was a teenager when Raygun flooded our streets with people that used to have a place to stay and people that looked out for them. They often did a bad job and the system did need improvement, but what he did was shocking.

I'll never forget my first personal encounter with a newly homeless man...

[Le Taz Hot]

37. In front of their local Congressional/Senatorial offices.

And call the local media.

[bluetrain]

38. Everybody ready for the crime rate to soar?

[L0oniX]

39. They will make it illegal to panhandle ...just like they did in St. Pete and Orlando. The news...

won't cover it because poor people don't buy tv advertisement ...just like the politicians won't do shit because poor people don't contribute to their stinking campaigns.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

45. Millions Of Panhandlers Would Literally Overwhelm The Criminal Justice System

They would have to ignore every other crime including violent crimes and property crimes.

[L0oniX]

51. How are you going to get them all in one area?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

54. That's The Point

Every area in the country would have a homeless problem. Even under ordinary conditions the homeless have overwhelmed Fort Lauderdale.

[RainDog]

40. They should ALL meet on the steps of Congress to do so. n/t

Churches could supply buses to bring people to DC so that Congress can look these Americans in the eye - every single day.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

43. What If They Stormed The Bastille............

It amazes me how little people learn from history.

[guitar man]

46. What if they started building guillotines?

At some point people are going to get fed up and it's going to get ugly. When that will be is hard to say, but 2 million formerly employed, aggravated, frustrated angry people with nothing left to lose is something I wouldn't take lightly if I were at the helm.

[spanone]

47. what if they went and sat on the steps of congress

[guitar man]

49. better yet

what if they went and shat on the steps of congress? :D

[raccoon]

58. You rock! nt

[Matariki]

48. If that were to happen laws would be passed to outlaw panhandling.

And the increased prison population would be put to work as cheap labor.

Sucks, doesn't it?

[nadinbrzezinski]

50. Echoes of history

“…but get themselves to lie idly by begging and procuring of alms of the people to the high displeasure of almightily God, hurt of their own souls, evil example to others and to the great hurt of the commerce wealth of the realm.”

From the 1531 Poor Law...

[HughBeaumont]

52. America already IS a laughingstock. This will make it a disgrace.

And how will America cure this problem?

Well, by blaming Obama and the Democrats, of course, and putting three decades of Bush II On Steroids presidents to ruin it even further. Never mind it was the predatory "scorch-the-Earth-while-we-hover-over-it-safely" wealthy, their Republican gatekeepers (some with a "D" in front of their names) and the crapcake known as unbridled capitalism that caused this problem to begin with.

As long as THEY control the message, it will now and forever be the fault of the DEMOCRATS and the LIBERALS (search me why, but hey, it's 'Murka).

[PVnRT]

55. I'd prefer if they take to the streets

In fact, I'd prefer it even more if they set up a nice ring around Capitol Hill.

[Buns_of_Fire]

56. That would probably even create a few jobs...

...for the contractors who'll be busy building a congress-only tunnel so that the weasels within can avoid any face-to-face contact with the results of their handiwork.:mad:

[WinkyDink]

57. They'll live off the fat of the land!

OK.
Someday...
we're gonna have us a little house and a couple of acres,
and a cow and a pig and chickens. - Pig and chic...
We gonna live off the fat of the land, and have rabbits.
And have rabbits.

George, tell what we got in the garden. - OK.
Then tell about the rabbits in winter, and about the stove and, uh...
how thick the cream was on the milk. - Yeah.
Go ahead, tell it.

Why don't you do it? You know all of it.

George, no! George, no, it's not the same when I tell it.
That's not the same.
Tell, um, what... how I get to tend the rabbits.

We're gonna have a big vegetable patch and we're gonna have a rabbit hutch.
- And down in the flat, we'lI have a... - ..little field of alfalfa for the rabbits.

And I get to tend the rabbits.

Yeah, you get to tend the rabbits.
When it rains in the winter,
we'll just say "The hell with going to work,"
and we'll just build a fire in the stove, and we'll just sit there
and we'll listen to the rain.