>Do they have any effect?
They disturb the bourgeoisie. They're a break in the everyday, and fill our rulers with an anxiety that things might slip out of hand. There's a quote in the famous early 1970s McCracken report on inflation done for the OECD which I must track down again that made it clear that "inflation" also meant crowds in the streets and the palpable feeling that the ruling class was losing control.
Doug