Comment "Heaving Underclass" is maintained by the State. (Score 0) 376
We inherited a baseline underclass which was useful when manual labor was valuable. Now, most manual labor is not valuable yet deliberate policies ensure immigration (legal or otherwise) of people who are unskilled and compete with domestic unskilled people for the economic scraps remaining.
The War on Some Drugs coerces people to immigrate to the US for safety, but they have few jobs and end up ghettoized, disenfranchised, and self-destructive.
A variety of political calculation by both Parties ensures open borders and destroys what exclusivity (overloaded lifeboats SINK, the Industrial Revolution is OVER) might somewhat protect.
Underclasses are a result of surplus people. Too few humans of the right age mix weakens an economy, too many for available jobs (which are rapidly being destroyed by technology) and there will not be work for them so the State must provide bread and circuses. Populations which practice birth control including abortion have high quality of life. Uneducated groups who breed what they can't care for (even if Uncle Sugar is paying for the food) have chosen a lower quality of life.
When members of the underclass reject the old ways (consider the increasing number of Black women in higher education), they move up the ladder.
The only "solution" is "every man for himself" and his politically active subgroup. As long as we are rich enough to feed the underclass, we'll have domestic peace. People revolt for lack of food, nothing else.