You're exactly right: Governments remain stable when the vast majority of the population has jobs, lives, homes, and other comforts. I've long argued that Israel could solve its problem with the Palestineans by simply providing them with all those things. And at the same time, y'know, help the Palestineans become happy. If the Israelis cared, it would have happened decades ago. Doesn't take rocket science.

Now that we have double-digit official unemployment numbers and a growing population of homeless and poverty-stricken Americans, we might well start to see real citizen unrest.