Economics Not the Problem in Egypt, Freedom Maybe

Many in the media make the claim that Egypt's original uprising and continued discontent has more to do with economics than anything else (poverty, income inequality, etc).

However, something I stress in my macro class, is that statistics don't seem to bare a lot of that out - particularly when you compare Egypt to the Untied States (where there is no US Spring).

Egypt has less income inequality as measured by GINI (the data is a decade or two old but I don't think that affects the analysis much):

The Egyptian economy, additionally, has grown by 25% as measured by GDP per capita from 2000-2008 - before the Arab Spring.   During this same time, the US has grown by a measly 9%.  

The unemployment rate in Egypt in 2009 leading up to the Arab Spring was 9%, which was actually less than the unemployment rate in the United States during the same time-frame.  Even looking at just youth unemployment - the rates in Egypt are not really that out of line compared to its neighbors or even the United States.

So, I for one simply don't buy into the fact that the Egypt uprising is economic.   It is far more likely that it is more about political freedoms than anything else.   I think that that is supported by the new uprisings taking place - which are stemming from the government failing to create legitimacy among the people.  

Either that or this begs the question - why aren't WE in uprising?