Post by Jim HigginsPost by DLUYeah, hooray for good old unregulated Capitalism. It will take care of
you all right.
I'm not opposed to regulation that enforces what amounts to a contract
between employer and employee. I'm not even opposed to regulation
that does so preemptively, given the proclivity of too many to
otherwise put themselves into a position where they're unable to
perform. But that's not what the organizers of "occupying" Wall
Street are about.
These protesters in general do not understand why and how the economic
crisis occurred. But that is true of most of the public. There is that
group that gets their opinions from Fox. those that get their opinions
from Rush and other conservative pundits. Then there is just the plain
citizen who hears the most plausible conspiracy theory and believes that.
I have talked with people from all groups, and there is one thing in
common among them. They are not educated when it comes to how the
financial system works, was manipulated, and where the money went. I
have asked "Did you read the Angelidies Commission report? Answer: "He
is that California Socialist, anything in his report has to be slanted"
Even though it is a collection of facts, that is how those people look
at it. Have you read "Too Big to Fail?" Answer: "Nothing is too big to
fail." Have you read Hank Paulson's "On the Brink?" Paulson was Bush's
secretary of the treasury. Answer: "He is not a real conservative." No
matter that he is recognized as one.
I read the comment in the NY times opinion page, and opinions are
expressed as facts, which when checked simply are false, but the
responses are rife with them.
But my favorites are the ones who say, "Obama is the worst president
ever" showing an abject ignorance of history. They seem to have never
heard of James Buchanan, Warren Warding, or Herbert Hoover among others.
But these protesters are united on one thing. Their jobs are gone, and
they have nothing left to lose anyway, and Wall Street represents those
who have taken away their living and their homes. If it has not occurred
to you, that past 20 years of what seemed like economic prosperity was
an economy of debt. The more debt that was incurred the better the
economy looked, and it was the Wall Street banks that played this to the
hilt. It was collateralized debt that drove the economy, and the banks
needed more of it constantly.
The occupy Wall Street movement reminds me of the Viet Nam protests. It
does have a revolutionary flavor about it, and it scares the hel out of
the plutocrats. It tells them, their days are numbered, they had better
make some serious corrections of they will be thrown out.There is even a
Marxist theme to these protests. When an economic disparity reaches a
critical level, revolutions occur. Today the richest 400 Americans have
more wealth between them than the whole county of Los Angeles. Some of
these individuals are heirs to vast fortunes such as Campbell soup,
where three individuals each have 50,000,000 share of stock that pays
$1.10 a year. At the 15% tax rate on dividends these poor souls have
incomes of $175,000 A DAY or more. And they are not even in the top ten
percent of this group. They pay a lower tax rate than the average
working person, and the do not create jobs, build industries, or employ
thousands. They have yacht crews, private plane crews, gardeners and
servants, for their estates, here and in Europe. But their contribution
to the economy is zilch.
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