mrfish wrote:My hunch is that this Wall Street protest is just a general response to the bad economy. Kind of like the tea party movement only coming from the left and seeing totally different reasons for our current problems. I doubt much will come of it though because people on the left are more diverse than those on the right and so no coherent movement will emerge. Not to say that the tea party is actually a coherent movement, but they all feel some kind of commonality even if it's not very well defined. The corporations are people BS has really got to be done away with. The proper roll of government is to protect the rights of citizens and that means that the government must protect us from corporations and not oppress us in any way! The problem is that things are backwards right now with corporations more or less controlling government which is probably how some of the Wall Street protesters see things.
"Reality is so complex, we must move away from dogma, whether it's conspiracy theories or free-market," says James Glattfelder. "Our analysis is reality-based."
Yes, there always going to be rich and poor. But we used to live in country where rich owned factory and make 30 times what factory worker make. Now we live in country where rich make money by lying about value of derivative bonds and make 3000 times what factory worker would make if factories hadn't all moved to China.
Capitalism great system. We won Cold War because people behind Iron Curtain look over wall, and see how much more plentiful and delicious cookies are in West, and how we have choice of different bakeries, not just state-owned one. It great system. It got us out of Depression, won WWII, built middle class, built country's infrastructure from highways to Hoover Dam to Oreo factory to electrifying rural South. It system that reward hard work and fair play, and everyone do fair share and everyone benefit. Rich get richer, poor get richer, everyone happy. It great system.
Then after Reagan, Republicans decide to make number one priority destroying that system. Now we have system where richest Americans ones who find ways to game system -- your friends on Wall Street -- and poorest Americans ones who thought working hard would get them American dream, when in fact it get them pink slip when job outsourced to 10-year-old in Mumbai slum. And corporations have more influence over government than people (or monsters).
It not about rich people having more money. It about how they got money. It about how they take opportunity away from rest of us, for sake of having more money. It how they willing to take risks that destroy economy -- knowing full well that what could and would happen -- putting millions out of work, while creating nothing of value, and all the while crowing that they John Galt, creating wealth for everyone.
That what the soul-searching about. When Liberals run country for 30 years following New Deal, American economy double in size, and wages double along with it. That fair. When Conservatives run country for 30 years following Reagan, American economy double again, and wages stay flat. What happen to our share of money? All of it go to richest 1%. That not "there always going to be rich people". That unfair system. That why we upset. That what Occupy Sesame Street about.
Rarely have so few imposed such damage on so many. When five conservative members of the Supreme Court handed for-profit corporations the right to secretly flood political campaigns with tidal waves of cash on the eve of an election, they moved America closer to outright plutocracy, where political power derived from wealth is devoted to the protection of wealth. It is now official: Just as they have adorned our athletic stadiums and multiple places of public assembly with their logos, corporations can officially put their brand on the government of the United States as well as the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the fifty states.
No one likes to pay taxes and most people will admit to doing what they can to keep their tax obligations as low as possible. And most of the people I know including small to medium sized business owners cannot afford a lobbyist to ensure that their tax obligations remain at zero or below. A report recently released by publiccampaign.org shows that 30 large corporations in America including GE, Verizon, FedEx, PG&E, Wells Fargo and Boeing paid more for lobbying than they paid in federal taxes in 2008, 09 and 10.
Colbert educates viewers on America's arcane political machinery, while schooling mainstream journalists on how to properly inform the citizenry.
"The scariest thing about all this is that corporations have the ability to write the laws most directly, by putting their own officers and advocates in office," Rushkoff concluded. "The people have been disconnected from the last form of feedback they had, voting through the democratic process."
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