Don't Americans realize the situation?

We do, but there is no action because there is still so much to lose. You are not going to take a week off of work to go protest in DC when you'll lose your job in the process and never get another job when you have a conviction on your record.

During the labor movements of the 19th and 20th century, the workers had bargaining power and little to lose. There is no bargaining power today when there is unlimited labor (in terms of the size of the world market it services) available in Asia for 20% of the cost. That cannot be competed with outside of the high end white collar workers that Asia cannot provide enough of along with some high end manufacturing. Many people today do live paycheck to paycheck, but a job loss doesn't mean starvation - that was less certain 100 years ago.

Fox News didn't hide the fact that the recent $30 billion given to JP Morgan was a straight seizure of middle class assets. Some commentators described it as necessary, others, importantly, did not. There is a "reality" threshold at which the American media will report the truth - that threshold was hit after Katrina and we're hitting it again. Still nothing changes, and that's a triumph of early 20th century propaganda that taught us that this is the way things must be, which is now part of our culture. This is the main driver of inaction. It's not coming from the same language still being used today.

DailyKos isn't run by early 20th century propagandists or the corporate media, but the minds of the users were formed by them through the culture the users grew up in. And it shows. "Bootstrap deprogramming" - relearning our interests in this case - will take a generation. That's one reason it's pointless to rail against the American public, and let's be honest about what purpose these diaries serve - we're all getting an ego boost by writing our "told you so" pieces. Europe needs to remember it lives in the same world. Sarkozy's election is the most recent proof.

you are the media you consume.