Thoughts about Occupy Wall Street?

[JordanMaria]

One of my friends posted this on their status:


"Why do some people think they are owed something and always need people to do things for them? I say work hard at job and family and don't be so lazy...especially those losers in NY camping out cause they're jealous they don't have as much $ as they hope."

What do u think?

[paul]

It is interesting on a couple notes to me. First, it isn't what it appears. Many of the protestors are paid to be there. Second, not everything they say is incorrect. Corporate greed is neither a new problem, nor an easily solvable one. Finally, the solution, I don't personally think, is to just tax and redistribute. (Which seems to be what they are calling for, at least to some degree.)

[laurat99]

My first thought is how the protesters are supporting themselves if they can be off the job for 3 weeks to protest.

The second thing is that if all corporations are evil, according to the protesters, how can they be so plugged in without the evil corporations? The makers of cell phones, computers, iPads , and the voice/data providers are all corporations.

[Persnickety Polecat]

(10-13-2011 07:28 PM)JordanMaria Wrote:  One of my friends posted this on their status:


"Why do some people think they are owed something and always need people to do things for them? I say work hard at job and family and don't be so lazy...especially those losers in NY camping out cause they're jealous they don't have as much $ as they hope."

What do u think?

I think calling poverty a result of laziness is simplistic (not that I think you were doing that). That said, I think anyone who can afford iPods and other gadgets while running amok on Wallstreet probably isn't wallowing in true poverty.

<---Libertarian Anarchist and proud of it.

[Elijah Craig]

I think certain (mostly conservative) media figures are picking and choosing which protestors they talk about. There seem to be a lot of conservatives among them. This kid doesn't seem liberal to me:





That being said, the only two people on my Facebook who talk about Occupy Wall Street are on the hard left who constistently call Republicans "EVIL!" and insist conservatives want to starve babies and kill grandma and that anyone who doesn't support Obama is racist.

I think the left is trying to claim this as their own, and unfortunately many on the right are willing to help them own it.

The Tea Party started out as something similiar, but was quickly co-opted by Glen Beck, Sarah Palin, and others. A mass protest on the National Mall against bank bailouts turned into God & Country speeches.

[Naomi]

(10-13-2011 07:41 PM)laurat99 Wrote:  My first thought is how the protesters are supporting themselves if they can be off the job for 3 weeks to protest.

Maybe they don't have jobs. We do have pretty high unemployment right now. It's possible to buy an iPod or iPhone and then lose your job/have a medical emergency/lose your home.

This has a bunch of graphs about the financial situation in the US:
http://www.businessinsider.com/what-wall...11-10?op=1
The top 5% of Americans own 70% of the wealth; the bottom 80% of Americans own 7% of the wealth. (I don't care what political views you have; this isn't sustainable.)

This has stats on unemployment among young Americans:
http://www.slate.com/articles/business/m...erate.html
It's really high.

I don't think it's about jealousy. I think it's anger at corporate misconduct, and government being in bed with corporations, and the effects this has had on the "middle class" and lower class. I'd call it plutocracy, Donb123. A lot of people in the US who never expected to be poor are now finding out what it can be like. And it can be really terrible: http://www.salon.com/2011/08/09/america_crime_poverty/ "The poor aren't just struggling during the recession; they're being actively hounded by urban officials."

[elfdream]

There are groups there who do nothing but take care of the protestors. Feed them and make sure they are comfortable. Sort of like what The Hog Farm did at Woodstock. I have no idea who those people are though.

Our son and his friends often go to DC at night to hang out. They tried to get in and vsit with the protestors down there but the police had them barricaded off.

Speaking of Woodstock its not a real protest until we get some decent protest anthems out of this.

[fundyvangelicalcatholic]

Why are we looking to Washington or Wall Street or anywhere else to change our life. We need to change our life. If that means you have to work two jobs where just one job fed you in the past - you do it. We are responsible for ourselves. If the people who are waisting their time protesting took it upon themselves to go out and earn a living by providing a good or service for their employer or themselves to an end user in the open market, they could pay their bills.

Personal responsibility.

[FmrMarine]

(10-14-2011 09:56 AM)fundyvangelicalcatholic Wrote:  Why are we looking to Washington or Wall Street or anywhere else to change our life. We need to change our life. If that means you have to work two jobs where just one job fed you in the past - you do it. We are responsible for ourselves. If the people who are waisting their time protesting took it upon themselves to go out and earn a living by providing a good or service for their employer or themselves to an end user in the open market, they could pay their bills.

Personal responsibility.

A job has to be available for one to obtain it. Therein lies part of the problem. Corporate profits are at near-record highs but companies still aren't hiring and wages are stagnant despite the strong profits.

[Naomi]

(10-14-2011 09:56 AM)fundyvangelicalcatholic Wrote:  We need to change our life.

What happens when you can't get a job? What happens if there are no jobs? What happens if none of the employers will (or can) give you health insurance, and you get sick and go bankrupt? What if your child has a disability that requires full-time care? The real world can get pretty complicated.

Sucks to be you, I guess. Do libertarians not believe power exists?

If people could fix things for themselves, I'm pretty sure they would have. It astonishes me how many people I talk to who have been living on the edge before assume that just because they got lucky and never fell over, that they are better than those who weren't so lucky (and who had just one more medical emergency, just one more thing break down, etc.). Even though they know how hard they were willing to work to stay afloat on their own, they assume that others in the same position are just lazy moochers with jealousy issues. The US has serious empathy problems.