Where Are the U.S. Riots?

London is on fire. Greece has seen raucous riots and we have witnessed unrest all summer throughout the Middle East. The cause for the flames and rocks thrown boil down to the current list of ailments: the disappearance of jobs, the worries over mounting debt, and brutal cuts to long-promised benefits and services.

Some of the violence is noble -- in places like Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, which cry out for freedom. Sadly, this isn't the case in the UK where it appears to be an excuse to break shop windows and grab iPods and flat panel TVs.

Some thoughts: First, it's a good thing this is happening in London now and not next summer. The UK will get its police matters in order and stray hooligans in their hoodies will be rounded up and sent to prison or scared off from acting up again. The broken glass will be swept up and shelves will be restocked. Bank officers and insurers will then have to deal with the millions in pounds in lost revenue and the insurance claims from those plundered businesses.

(Why don't the police in the UK arrest or detain anyone wearing a hoodie? It's August afterall.)

After all, London wants to show off the city that held a peaceful and very British royal wedding earlier this summer, and not the vandalism and mayhem we have seen in the past four days.

This leads to a second thought: Why haven't there been riots here in the US?

We have seen soaring unemployment, a widening pay gap where executives and bankers earn colossal bonuses while demanding federal funds to stay afloat, and the specter of fewer benefits is before us. And yet no riots. There have been Tea Party rallies but despite media reports that feared the worst, they were peaceful except for a few fingers pointed at politicians two summers ago during the health care overhaul. Likewise on the left, we haven't seen swarms on the streets when President Obama announced that Medicare cuts were on the table or when he increased troop levels for the war in Afghanistan.

In fact the only spontaneous public gathering came on a Sunday night in May when the president announced that US forces had found and killed Osama Bin Laden. In what must befuddle peaceniks, the crowds came to cheer and not denounce the military action.

So, why the lack of homegrown riots? Is it because we believe in Capitalism without the safety net of Socialism? Do working Americans aspire to be rich and think that it has to be earned rather than doled it? Are they too busy working if they have jobs and looking for work if they don't to break a few windows?

I'm not sure but I do think it's a reassuring sign that the American system is far from broken. People have work to do and they realize that change happens in the voting booth and not by running from a smashed window with an armful of stolen goods. Phil Albinus is the former editor-in-chief of Advanced Trading. He has nearly two decades of journalism experience and has been covering financial technology and regulation for nine years. Before joining Advanced Trading, he served as editor of Waters, a monthly trade journal ... View Full Bio