Article: America's tenth decile, the "sitting around guys."

Two of Friedman's comments resonate. "September 11 is not about the poverty of money, it is about people feeling humiliated. It is about people feeling a poverty of dignity as they compare themselves to the West." And, "We have treated Saudi Arabia all these years as just a big, dumb gas station. All we cared about was that when we drove up, the pump was open and the price was low." The unemployment rate of those Friedman called "the sitting around guys," males between 18 and 35 had been, as they yet remain, a chronic 40 percent. Except for the radicalizing Madrassas, which the Saudi government paid off, to keep the mullahs quiet, the "sitting around guys" had either no, or very little, education. Yet, if in their sitting around idleness they got out of hand, or the government felt they were posing a threat to its iron rule, they were dealt with . . . harshly. And the West did not care what went on out back, so long as the pump remained open and the price was low. Seething resentment roiled just below the surface. That made of them easy, very wiling recruits for bin Laden and his organization.

"Sitting around guys," keep that -- and September 11 -- in mind, though neither this nor Hebert's column concerns some potential attack from al Qaeda.

All of us have heard at least passing reference to the Latin Kings, the Crips and the Bloods, to Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), to the NorteÃ �os and the SureÃ �os, or the SureÃ �os' offshoot, the Sur-13 that can be found in every urban center in the country, even in erstwhile sedate Chelsea, Michigan. We've all seen the walls and posts where they've tagged their turf, we know how ruthlessly they defend it, and how local cops prefer to not patrol at night the areas under their control. There are parts of LA, of Oakland, of Chicago, of Philadelphia, of Detroit that fit the description. I wonder, how many have heard of the Hidden Valley Kings, the Charlotte, North Carolina street gang that was recently featured on the History Channel, and that has made of that city the most gang-ridden in the US? "Sitting around guys." All are part of that tenth decile.

Whether from the Right or the Left, Republican or Democratic leaders, or Tea Baggers, or Obama, or media pundits, every word issued has been about the middle class, how it has been devastated by the Great Recession, and what might be done to fix it. Not one word has been even whispered concerning the horrid travails suffered by that tenth decile, America's now extant, grown to huge "sitting around guys."

The middle class and the recession; here are some data, as provided by Hebert. The far to the bell curve right decile, those with incomes above $150,000, have an unemployment rate of 3.2 percent; well below anyone's accepted full-employment rate. Households in the $40,000 to $49,000 income range sustained an unemployment rate of nine percent. Those from $50,000 to $59,000 were at 7.8 percent. And those whose incomes ranged $60,000 to $75,000 were 6.4 percent unemployed. Not by any means to dismiss the difficulties anyone who is un- or underemployed is suffering, but as full population segments and the attention they're getting, relative to the lowest two deciles . . . I understand that: They vote, or likely will. Their anger is in our faces, and in the faces of our governing leaders.

For all who weren't alive to recall them, I strongly recommend typing "1960s urban riots" into the Google search box. Detroit. Newark. Watts. Just a few. Exploding communities that had been on a long fuse of frustration. Then, even for minorities, the devastation that was visited on their sense of self esteem, their dignity, as a consequence of having long endured racial and ethnic stereotyping and discrimination, was not directly related to an excessively high level of unemployment, though the employment options available to this demographic certainly was a significant contributing factor that exacerbated the extant feelings of resentment.

We damned sure ought not to be ignoring those Americans, trapped in that tenth decile, as we have. From, as Janice Joplin sang in "Me and Bobby McGee," (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FMhnl0__Vo ) ". . . freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose," I earnestly recommend against tangling with anyone who feels he or she has "nothin' left to lose." They can sew explosives into their underwear, wrap their torsos with high explosives, fly airplanes into buildings, and burn cities to the ground.

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