Occupy Wall Street - Discuss

[Jeremy]

May as well have a fun debate this week, and what better topic to throw out there than the occupy movement going on right now.

Personally I think all these people are the most disorganized protest group I've ever seen. Aside from all the freebies and cash being sent to NY, do these people even really have a "plan" or know what they are protesting?

Likewise Occupying Wall Street is the wrong group to go after. While Wall Street is at fault for the economic meltdown, much of the liability falls square on the shoulders of both political parties in the U.S. government. Further to this, the whole 99% thing is stupid. Half this country doesn't pay a dime in taxes, yet freely utilizes all it's services and handouts. I'd like to start my own group called the 53% who pays taxes and supports all the freeloaders.

Occupy a job, stop being lazy, and most importantly accept some personal responsibility. I am the 53%

There ya go, discuss. This should be fun.

[ak]

Never been a big fan of handouts but I have seen hard working Americans struggle because of the short few 1%. Yes I will call them greedy and because of it I have no problem on helping people with hand outs. Corporations do not pay employees what they are worth anymore like they did in the 70's. It's all about bringing in the highest percentage possible to the 1% if that's in the stock market or the ones sitting at home collecting on it. Sorry got to disagree with you on the entire concept however do agree they need a leader to stand up for the group.

I'm almost Positive a majority of these "99%" would not be bitching if they could pay the rent or feed the kids. I hope we all agree the percentage of middle class Americans is almost zilch these days and not by choice.

College ? Let's not even get into that.. Arguably some would say it's a waste of time and resources these days.

[makeitso]

Likewise Occupying Wall Street is the wrong group to go after. While Wall Street is at fault for the economic meltdown, much of the liability falls square on the shoulders of both political parties in the U.S. government. Further to this, the whole 99% thing is stupid. Half this country doesn't pay a dime in taxes, yet freely utilizes all it's services and handouts. I'd like to start my own group called the 53% who pays taxes and supports all the freeloaders.

Occupy a job, stop being lazy, and most importantly accept some personal responsibility. I am the 53%

There ya go, discuss. This should be fun.

I honestly haven't followed this closely, but my main thought has been almost exactly this. They are going after the banks (and Wall St.), but the banks (and Wall St.) aren't the problem. They're just a result of the problem, which is the government having their hands in pretty much everything and fucking it up. I'll have to read up on it more, maybe I'm just misunderstanding the point.

I wish someone would protest the government/Congress instead of Wall St. - occupy D.C. haha! I don't know even what they are hoping the end result will be. Companies aren't suddenly going to hire more people because of protests.

[Jeremy]

[parttimepoker]

I think people need to start blaming other people more and corps / govts less.

If people hadn't taken out loans for homes they couldn't afford, ref'ied homes that were obviously growing in value at an unsustainable pace, racked up credit card debt buying shit they didn't need or taken out tens of thousands in student loans for degrees with little to no practical economic application, we wouldn't be in this mess - or at least this mess would be far less severe.

Credit is a choice. You could have rented - it was cheap. You didn't need to redo your kitchen again. You could have made a budget. You could have gone to community college for two years or waited to chose a major until you had the sense to understand what job you could possibly get with it.

----

That said, the current economic system of a corporate base motivated almost exclusively (with some notable exceptions) to achieve short-term profits is certainly unsustainable. Feeding the savings / retirement of a nation into that system is also proving to be a disaster.

As for the govt, it is what it is. Without it, the poor would be even more fucked, and while people hate taxes I can guarantee you that if all the services the govt provides were privatized and taxes were eliminated, your paycheck would ultimately be even smaller than it is now.

[thefarang]

Typically, I'm a fiscal conservative but I can understand the OWS frustration. It's not about blaming Wall Street or blaming the politicians because who do you think lobbied the politicians to pass laws that allowed the banks to engage in activities that resulted in the financial meltdown? Oh, Wall Street.

It's never a good thing when too much wealth accumulates to such a small percentage of the people. It simply doesn't work in the long run.

But do I support freeloaders? No. But I do support the call that we make the rules more fair.

[ak]

It's not about being a pot head or an unemployed bum. That guy is wrong in almost every comment he made towards "them people"

People want to work, People want the American dream, People want to live middle class. Don't we all ? 400 billionaires did not get rich by "intelligence" they got rich by owning a product and throwing the people that built it under the bus. They hire illegals if Americans won't do it for dirt cheap. I think it all comes down to many downfalls within the society but Greed being a huge reason because of it.

Cute, but this guy misses the point. If he was around in 1776 we would still be singing God Save The Queen! He's the one that is a fucking idiot, it's the banks and it is the corporate hierarchy. 401K? Don't make me laugh, my 401K turned into a 101K a long time ago while everyone of those 'Captains of Industry' were still getting the bonuses and bail outs with TAXPAYER money.  Don't make me laugh...JERK.

[ak]

John Adams--

The united states will fall not from a force outside but from within. When political parties take over the government and greed and ownership is within the beholders.

BTW Jeremy, your friend Ron Paul is for the movement for Occupy Wall Street

[jdwanchalk]

They're jerkoffs. /thread

[Mike]

They're jerkoffs. /thread

+1