The Occupy Wall Street movement may be easily dismissed by the right wing of Republican Party (sounds like a redundancy), but its validity can not be disputed. In the last twenty years we have seen fundamental changes on a tectonic scale in the world of business, technology and geopolitical alignment.
The Federal Reserve under Greenspan with ultra low interest rates and politicians in Washington advocating home ownership for everyone regardless of their ability to pay created a housing bubble of gigantic proportions that will take many more years to unwind. During that time China and India powered onto a global economic stage with a huge, very cheap and very hungry workforce which directly affected the US middle class in a very negative way. While health care, education costs and everyday expenses soared, incomes of the middle class have been stagnant since 1996.
In 2008 when major Wall Street firms were bailed out by US taxpayers and went on to come back with record profits it became abundantly clear that the system was rigged in favor of haves and have nots were left holding the bag. I think the central issue for most people is fairness. One only needs to look at what happened at Hewlett-Packard in 2005 when Carly Fiorina was dismissed with a 21 million dollar golden parachute after doing a very poor job as a CEO.
It has become a modus operandi to reward bad performance in the corporate world with huge paychecks reserved only for top brass and dismiss average Joe on the spot for a job done poorly.
America has always tolerated failure -- hell, one may say embraced it -- because of our culture of entrepreneurship and seeking new fronts to fight another day.
It can be said that optimism, never giving up and getting up after a knockdown were invented in a very unique way in this great land of ours. In a democracy such as ours most people applaud success, celebrate and respect great fortunes earned thru hard work, innovation and risk taking. However what most people detest and will not stand for is crony capitalism delivered on a silver platter or through special legislation by our representatives in Washington. Most hard working Americans feel trapped, cornered and disillusioned by the present system based on political connections, corrupt politicians and overwhelming odds stacked against them. I believe that the protests started around Wall Street because it is a symbol of our times.
It should be said unequivocally that most traders, asset managers, and speculators are accountable for their losses and the Federal Reserve, politicians in Washington and US Treasury do not come to the rescue when we get clocked in the markets. As we now know the rules were different for a chosen few, after they blew out with their hugely leveraged derivatives, after creating financial nuclear winter they were allowed to come back with our money and get rewarded all over again. What a country!
So to those who say OWS is a movement against the rich, I say hogwash it is clearly a protest against unfairness and giving advantage to those who need it the least.
Glen Pearson: The 99% Are the Truly Rich
Jeremy John: The Occupation of the Lord's Prayer
The airline negotiated a stock market scam with the negotiators. It proposed that the employees threaten to strike and its stock prices would fall upon the news. After the stock prices hit record lows buy the stock, then remove the strike threat and the stock prices will go back up and they will have made up the difference in pay rates and benefits with the money gained in the stock market. The strike threat was removed, the stock prices went back up and the employees publicly caved in on their demands.
Relatives made a bundle.
The system is rigged.
I used to work at a TBTF bank. After leaving and going to a financial institution who doesn't give money for lobbying, who cares about their customers without fleecing them with hidden fees, and who takes their corporate mission in a responsible manner...I have come to realize that what is being sold to Americans as "capitalism" is really nothing more than a rigged game designed to benefit the few, but not the majority of Americans.
Banker supporting OWS and ethical capitalism.
Might also be worth noting here the positive benefits to the overall economy of greater income equality (see, for example: http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2011/10/13/the-instability-of-inequality/)- more people with some money to spend is better for growth than a tiny number of people with lots...
The fed was indeed heavily promoting home ownership and greenspan was even cheerleading for a bunch of terrible mortgage products. However it didn't force the banks suddenly make poor lending choices. That part [regardless of their ability to pay] came about because of a few other factors:
1) Everyone involved on the banking side thought they were selling off the risky part of the mortgages to someone else
2) Most believed these mortgage backed securities were safe anyway because of their AAA rating
3) Because the fed kept rates so low, there was huge demand for higher rate securities. Mortgage debt fit the bill perfectly and much to the delight of those originating these mortgages, subprime loans were more profitable than high quality loans.
So yes, they were encouraged to help low income families purchase homes but they weren't encouraged to throw sane lending principles out the window. Greed led them to make that decision.
Hey Marek, OWSers have stated that the movement is against the rich along with a billion other things. When you figure out what they are really for and against, please let us know. No one seems to understand it including OWS.
And, I say this as someone who unwaveringly defends OWS from all attackers.
Not all of the 1% are people who unethically use the existing system to their own enrichment and the impoverishment of others. There are many wealthy people with consciences and senses of shared responsibility.
It's the unethical foundations that have been woven into our present system that are at fault. The system, including our tax laws, look upon work as an inferior way to make money. *Work* for a decent paycheck, and you pay a higher tax rate than someone who merely moves money around and lets the work of *other* people "grow" his money *FOR* him. Work for it, pay upwards of 25% in federal income tax or more. "Grow" it without lifting a finger of your own, and get off easy at 15%.
This system benefits the already-haves in direct proportion to what they already have.
But the Republicans, rather than correctly pointing out the error in demonizing all of the wealthy, choose to defend the faulty, unethical system.
Stick with the fairness angle, OWS, and you'll have the ethical upper hand.
Let's face it: as per http://www.opensecrets.org, in 2010 the sum of $3.51 Billion (that's with a "B") was paid by 12,941 full-time ... bribers ... to the roughly 650 people who are in Congress. There is absolutely zero way to consider this to be anything but bribery; anything but corruption. (The very lame attempt by "Citizens United" to say otherwise is, frankly, the proof of the pudding.)
To continue: We see more than $1 Trillion being spent on Wars that were never declared, that were never authorized every two years by Congress, both as the Constitution demands. Why? "Ike" knew the answer. There's gobs of money in it, that's why.
To continue: We see outrageous financial swindles being committed, and the SEC is "settling" just as fast as they can and shredding papers by the truckload. Why? "The fix is in."
OWS reminds me very much of "driving the money-changers from the Temple." This government, and the country that it governs, is not a place of business and it most certainly is not a venue for high crime.
High Crime is Real Crime.
There are a list of monies that are permanently gone. How about the executives from Fannie Mae that are asking for another $7.8 billion but are in congress asking them not to interfere with spending $21 million for 13 people bonuses.... because $900000 a year isn't quite enough.
Sigh why do I bother.
I'm going to start spotting the David Pulliam bots as faux news zombies....