Reply #12: Here in America,

[Rincewind]

our society has a long history of blaming people for their problems. In other words, if you are sick, poor, unemployed or otherwise on the margins of society, it's your own damn fault. For years a lot of people have insisted that people lose their jobs because they are incompetent, lazy, or want too much money.At this point in time, so many have lost their jobs, that some commentators have decided to separate the unemployed into two groups, the worthless scum that would be jobless no matter what, and a few victims of the bad economy. They do this so that they can claim that they are not hating on all they unemployed, just the low life's. When the unemployment rate drops another couple of points, they will announce that everything is fine again, and that those who are still jobless, just don't want to work.