What is the goal of all the “Occupy Wall St” protests? What are their demands? What are they trying to achieve? Anybody? Most useless, sad, protest I have heard of in awhile. It is truly complaining for no reason other than to complain.
The protester’s have reason to be upset. They have lost their homes, jobs, livelihood while these fat cat bankers are ranking in millions. Unfair! Ok…so…what do they suggest? Cap how much bankers can make? Should we also cap how much investors make on the investments they make with these banks? How about the insurance companies, schools, and pension funds that invest with these banks? Sometimes they make a nice profit on those investments. And what should we do with the excess wealth not going to the bankers anymore? Send it to the government? More taxes? Where will that money go? Will it fix all the complaints?
The economy is stuttering. Our GDP is at an ugly 1.5-2.5% increase and there is little trust in our stock markets. Consumer spending is at a low and unemployment is around 9%. An estimated 1.2 million US homes will be foreclosed in the next 12 months (as soon as the banks get to it…they are busy foreclosing on another 750,000 homes). We just went through one of worst financial crashes in capitalist history and it ain’t over yet people.
So I suppose the best course of action to jumpstart our economy is to plan a big camp out in the middle of cities! Can’t lose. Somehow, our leading economists missed this tactic.
Is it awful that someone lost their job? Absolutely. I wish everybody could be employed. I wish that the company that fired that person wasn’t losing money hand over fist and could afford to hire everybody who submitted an application. Is it awful that someone can’t pay their school debt? Absolutely. They should have gone to a public school or to a school that offered them a scholarship. Harsh? Sure. They took the risk of taking out a loan to go to school in order to, most likely, increase their future earnings and pay off said debt. The risk didn’t pan out.
I don’t want to go into an entire capitalism debate but mainly I just wanted to ask how are these people not making one demand? Besides the ultra-realistic “stop being greedy America!” A bit too vague. Can we get someone organized who actually understands the economy point out some actual possible fixes? Or…just keep relaxing in the park thinking of new picket slogans. Either one.
Lastly, I find it insulting to the people who are waiting hours in lines at job fairs fighting for work when these people are camping out getting free food and help from local businesses.
