This is essentially the  question that Tim Iacono asks on his site in the post “Why aren’t Americans rioting?” based on an article from the leftist site Alternet.  I have wondered the same.

Here you have the financial services sector being bailed out left and right.  Large automakers are lining up for handouts.  The steel industry has successfully inserted itself into the stimulus package by appealing to economic nationalism and “Buy America.”  Meanwhile, ordinary Americans lose their jobs, their homes, and their retirement investment.

There is a deep sense of apathy in the United States regarding this massive economic implosion that remains stunning.

Just yesterday, a reader sent me the following list of civil unrest due to the credit crisis and Depression.  The United States is nowhere on the list (hat tip Scott).  Apparently, Americans are a civilized lot.  The Tom Daschle affair may be a watershed in terms of the ‘populist revolt’ in America.

Here are some details of protests and developments as a result of the global financial crisis: 

* BRITAIN: 

– A decision by France’s Total to bring Italian and Portuguese workers to build a unit at the Lindsey oil refinery has triggered a week of protests by thousands of energy workers. 

– Hundreds of contractors at the refinery walked out again on Tuesday and 600 contractors at a plant owned by ConocoPhillips on the east coast also downed tools.