No one really knows what the underlying causes of the riots are. Maybe it’s the political daily double of money and race (Duggan was black). Maybe it’s those in poverty acting criminally, or to put it cynically, criminals acting criminally. Maybe it’s the only reaction the unemployed and disenfranchised youth of the U.K. can have in light of their plight. Maybe it’s mistrust of the police force manifesting itself in rioting. Although all of that is important and shouldn’t be taken lightly, there’s a much more pressing idea on this side of the pond.

If it happened there, it can happen here.

America has a long, storied history of sweeping our financial, sociological and political differences under the rug, right up to the moment they explode in our face. The Civil War, the Los Angeles riots in 1992 and the reaction to the federal illegal immigration legislation of 2015 are all examples of this.

Fine, that last one isn’t a real thing, but it illustrates my point: Current dissatisfaction with the direction of the country can’t be swept under the rug this time. Tensions are simmering here for both blue-collar and white-collar people alike. An overwhelming majority of America is not happy right now with the job being done in Congress. According to a recent CNN/ORC International poll, Congress’ approval rating stands at a paltry 14 percent.

The issues: There are still not enough jobs, and even worse, it seems there’s no impetus to create jobs in the near future. The recent downgrade of U.S. credit ­— thanks to the overly contentious and completely unnecessary debt ceiling conflict ­— has sent the stock market into a schizophrenic frenzy. People in America are frustrated, and there appears to be no plan to appease that frustration.

That’s not to say there will be fires in the streets if no jobs are created soon, and people aren’t going to break into Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC’s headquarters in New York and start stealing things in protest. But the people here are just as frustrated and angry as those in London. There are legitimate issues that are at the forefront of our future as a nation, and they need to be addressed by those in power.

I’m sure that Parliament, while on holiday, didn’t think there would be riots in the U.K. right up to the point where the riots started.

This isn’t a promise of the threat of riots if things don’t change in this country. I can’t threaten the American government with the promise of riots unless it changes its ways — no one can. But the combination of high unemployment and ingrained poverty and the possibility of a single incendiary incident leads me to believe that a similar reaction could happen here.

That said, I hope the scenario in London is resolved peacefully and without excessive further damage. I hope the root cause of the protests — as soon as we discover it — is addressed in a way that best benefits London’s future.

I hope what happened there doesn’t happen here. I hope the coming months result in solutions and sensibility from a Congress that seems to have forgotten the definition of those words. I hope social, economic and political change can come to this country without the spark of societal uprising.

Change does need to occur. But change shouldn’t require violence as ignition.

Lazarus Jackson is the State News opinion writer. Reach him at jacks920@msu.edu.