We are caught in a vise with the banking and political elites cheating us on one side and the minority welfare activists demanding ever more entitlements on the other.

Rather, we are caught in a vise with the economic system cheating many at the same time the majority contented class demands ever more entitlements.

The obstacle to a decline protocol is the existing contented class: the greatest generation, the haves, the wealthy. They run the show, not the hordes of welfare queens driving pink Cadillacs. We already have the political solution the dominant class prefers: business as usual.

Activists are next to powerless against the economic machine - at least if they try to work within the system.

cfm in Gray, ME

Yeah! Those damned entitlement parasites.
Why don't they just stay at home and die?
Whoops. They do. In Japan: the model of efficiency.