The divide and conquer strategy has been a staple of the wealthy/elitist classes since the start of the republic. In recent times, though, it certainly feels as though this strategy is being applied with an even greater degree of pressure. Criminalizing the feeding of the poor, the reemergence of debtors prisons, trapping minorities in jail because they can't pay bail (and they end up agreeing to lesser charges just to go free), interest rate apartheid (rich banks get Fed funds rate, rest of us schmucks get??), tax benefits that only increase the farther up the economic foodchain you go, points and cashback for people with the ability to spend more money (if you have more you get more...), and on and on.

Where is the breaking point? When does life for the poorest get so miserable they fight back? Will the next economic shitstorm (the popping of multiple bubbles...real estate, stock, bond, global debt) be the catalyst for massive social change? Or will the oligarchical architects fashion a new system of control like they've been doing successfully for hundreds of years? Time will tell, but I'd like to think that the next big economic upset will finally prick the conscious of the mass of people and that a washing away of the extant systems will begin!!!