Ironically, Jessica, your only hope is given in that title. When you have nothing left to lose, you don't fear losing anymore and you begin to feel the strength of your position. It's the people who oppose you who have everything to lose and they fear losing that.

I used to live on a pretty rough council estate in England and there were a certain class of people who would cause trouble for everyone else. There were no real threats you could aim at them because they were so poor they had nothing left to lose. Even the threat of imprisonment would be laughed off because that would at least give them food and shelter. If you threatened them with violence they knew that they would ultimately win that feud as you would stand to lose far more than they would.

The US may well be at the start of a revolution where those with nothing loft to lose decide to fight back. If strike action is met with violence and imprisonment it could be the touch-paper that ignites a civil war.