> According to the OECD, the U.S. has the highest lifetime incidence of
> mental illness in the First World:
>
> <http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Awfulness.html>
And the awfulness keeps getting worse. It's a difficult thing to describe to outsiders and people who have never lived in the US -- the slow death of the middle class, the crazed market fundamentalism, the monstrous colonial wars, the sheer bedrock viciousness of a society which makes a few thieves fabulously wealthy while making 1/4 of all its kids go physically hungry.
For me, it didn't hit home until 2002, when the lit-crit profession (the canary in the Imperial mine) expired, leaving me and my entire cohort without jobs. A few struggle on as lecturers and adjuncts, with no benefits, massive overtime and minimal pay. I still don't have the words to describe the anger, rage and depression I went through. Of course, I was damn lucky -- I had the privileges of being an upper middle class white guy, with a supportive family and the mental knowledge that The System was at fault, not me. But it was still hell.
And no, poverty doesn't make anyone more noble or prone to rebel. It just f#&*s you up.
-- DRR