What does Occupy Wall Street want? This has been the continual question from the media, and the critique from skeptics. The question "what do they want?" has been used to dismiss the nascent Occupy Wall Street movement as ineffectual, aimless, or worse, a self indulgent spectacle.
Still, the question is legitimate; and as Occupy Wall Street continues, it will be come crucial. Asking what someone, or a group of people, wants is not really a question directed at policy or electoral politics, which seems to be the answer that outsiders are looking for. Rather, asking what someone wants tends go deeper into questions of vocation and underlying morality or principles that people are willing to commit their lives to and sacrifice for.
As the weather gets colder and occupying gets harder, and the media gets bored and turns away, the question of what those involved with Occupy Wall Street want will become very important. What kind of justice are they seeking for the 99 percent, and what kind of ethics will guide their actions to get it.
But this question begs another that nobody seems to be asking, which is:
What does Wall Street want?
Occupy Wall Street has turned the spotlight in the general vicinity of Wall Street, but unfortunately it has yet to force Wall Street to articulate its own reason for existence. And that is where our attention should be focused now. How do individuals on Wall Street, or Wall Street as a whole, answer the questions concerning vocation and underlying morality and principles? It comes down to the question: What moves Wall Street?
And the obvious, sad, simple answer is: money. More specifically, what moves Wall Street, and what Wall Street wants is not money for the middle class of America, and certainly not money for the poor of America -- what moves Wall Street is money for themselves.
And this seems to me to be the problem. Most of us still are happy that we live in a capitalistic system, especially those of us who value freedom not guaranteed under the experiments with socialism we saw in the 20th century. A capitalistic system requires something like a Wall Street to exist. Yet, for a capitalistic system to work for all of society, we need a Wall Street that has what Cornel West calls "moral maturity."
Moral maturity seems sorely lacking in Wall Street, largely in part because Wall Street does not understand its role in America and the world's economy in a mature way. In 2009 I gave a talk on the Morality of Capitalism at the Chautauqua Institution in which I critiqued Wall Street for the 2008 financial meltdown. After the talk, a gentleman approached me from the Cato institute, who apparently was a spokes person for Wall Street and capitalism as a whole. He claimed that the financial problems were not Wall Street's fault, but just "happened" and that it was not fair to blame the financial industry.
But Wall Street is responsible for what happens to the financial well-being of America. We have entrusted them with our economy, but they seem unwilling to truly grasp what that really means. Economy, like the terms ecology and ecumenism, has the root word oikos, a Greek word that translates as family or house. Any economic system should be judged on its ability to provide for the needs of the human family it serves. An economy should also have a sense of purpose in which success should be understood by its ability to provide for the entire family. And this is the vocation that Wall Street seems intentionally unwilling to claim. Instead, they settle for a small goal of making the most money they can for themselves in an atmosphere that most closely resembles the morality of the Lord of the Flies.
The fact that the financial industry continues to give enormous bonuses to its employees while Americans are hurting in so many ways shows that Wall Street does not care about the 99 percent of America, it cares about the 1 percent, which they themselves represent. For a vivid example of this, look to the Chicago financier who tossed out hundreds of pieces of paper with the proud message: "We Are the 1%."
All of this is lamentable. Having worked at Princeton University for the last eight years, I know that some of the smartest, and well-intentioned students I worked with are now working on Wall Street. They are very smart, and very good people. Occupy Wall Street should inspire my students and all of those who work in the financial industry to really reflect on what they want.
Wall Street, are you willing to tie your bonuses to the well-being of the overall economy and not just the privatized bottom-line? What morals will guide the way you do your work? Will you sacrifice the quick buck to build an economy that will last and grow? Is it really your vocation to make so much for yourselves when so many people are hurting so much?
What do you really want, Wall Street?
Follow Paul Brandeis Raushenbush on Twitter: www.twitter.com/raushenbush
Occupy Wall Street | NYC Protest for American Revolution
Countless Americans have lost their homes, their jobs, their savings, their health insurance and their faith in the representatives they elected to speak for them. And the mainstream media and cable talking heads keep rolling their eyes and casting this very important social movement as a bunch of drum playing hippies - nothing could be further from the reality. Occupy Wall Street is populated by veterans, teachers, union workers and the steady middle class heartbeat of our country, all of which who have denied access to the fundamental resources we all need in a civilized society.
Please stop asking the same question about Wall Street's moral motives, we have seen their morality, it is to enrich themselves at peril of the middle class. Start asking where are the legal authorities in our country who have been charged with keeping law and order.
People that create wealth want to take a percentage of that wealth that they have created.
People that just want to take other peoples creation are called thieves.
Wall street wants to be left alone to do what they do best.
They create wealth and will share it with people willing to take a risk.
Freedom created wall street.
WALL STREET WANTS YOUR MONEY...ALL OF IT AND THEY'LL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO PERPETUATE THEIR POISON.
END THE ILLEGAL GAMBLING ON WALL STREET AND SAVE AMERICAS FUTURE.
STOP THE EMERGING GLOBAL ECONOMY THAT WREAKS HAVOC ON THIS COUNTRY AS MILLIONAIRS AND BILLIONAIRS FROM OVERSEAS HAVE MORE INPUT INTO AMERICAN POLICY THAN THE NINETY-EIGHT PERCENT THAT LIVE IN THIS COUNTRY DO. THE PROBLEM WITH THE OCCUPY WALL STREET MOVEMENT HAS IN COMING UP WITH ISSUES TO PROTEST IS THAT THEIR IS A TON OF THEM. JUST ASK THE COMMUNITY THAT HAD IT'S PARK AND CITY GOVERNMENT STOLEN BY A REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR THAT FELT IT WAS MORE IMPORTANT TO BUILD A GOLF COURSE THAN IT WAS TO ENSURE THAT AMERCANS IN THAT TOWN KEPT THEIR FREEDOM OF CHOICE.
JUST ASK PEOPLE THAT HAVE LOST THEIR HOMES IN CONSERVATIVE STATES IF THEY WILL BE ALLOWED TO VOTE BECAUSE THEY ARE NOW HOMELESS OR HAVEN'T BEEN REGISTERED AT THEIR NEW ADDRESS LONG ENOUGH TO REGISTER TO VOTE.
WHEN OBAMA STARTS ADDRESSING THESE TRANSGRESSIONS INSTEAD OF HIS BATTLE TO SAVE THE BANKS...YEA, I MIGHT CONSIDER VOTING FOR HIM AGAIN. I HAVE TO GIVE HIM CREDIT ON THE JOBS BILL THOUGH...IT EVEN HAS PROVISIONS THAT BENEFIT THE TOP TWO PERCENT. HERE, WE WILL GIVE YOU MONEY IF YOU START HIRING...LIKE THATS A HAPPENING THING.
Twice in the last 40 years, the Government has reduced restrictions on what Banks can do, and twice in the last 40 years we've had disasters from it...
Trying to argue some sort of Moral guidline is absurd in any market, anywhere in the world..
Wall Street doesn't "want" anything...it just IS...what it does is up to Washington....
They want your money and as much of it as they can get if not all of it and could care little about anything else including your personal freedom to speak up here on the HP addressing concerns of their greed and hoarding at everyone elses expense.
This is not about a mechanism...this is about people who will stop at nothing to get your money and when thats gone they will and are going global to take that money too. They and their mechanism could care less about people. To them it's about dog eat dog and may the dominant dog win. Thats what we see now everyday in politics and business. Well I've seen people who have lost everything thanks to their mechanism of hoarding. Be careful if you want to survive.That poison is working its way higher into the tree and it will steal you blind too. Of course, we could just let them keep their policy of moving jobs overseas because it's CHEAPER. I wonder how much less they would have to spend if they moved your job overseas. The poison is spreading...
Wall Street reacts to the world economy, not the USA alone....we are not the country we used to be and haven;t been for years. We now have HUNGRY competitors...and they want what YOU have...
Wall Street exists because a government allows it to - and in the US that is a government for and by "the people". If the activities there no longer serve the good of the people (and I'd say the good of the 1% is certainly not "the people") let's change it.
We can expect complaints from many of the 1% because in essence we're stealing the candy (or heroin) ...
There are those who don't appear as addicted but are in the 1% - we ought to be looking to that group for whether we're headed in the right direction of balancing self-enterprise with appropriate contributions to the commonweal.... Warren Buffett lives modestly - he has made money because he enjoys it as a vocation - not because of its rush in the sense of acquisition of material goods.
Where has the conservative media been since 2008?
They want financial fairness and justice for the people!
They'll fizzle out quckly unless they can agree on a concrete set of demands, and be prepared to back it up with BATNA's (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement.)
This is a good idea in principle...but reading the OWS website, or anyone of the dozens that support it, can be dizzying. There are a zillion articles, hundreds of subjects...make your own clothes, start a food co-op, communal living, free computers, etc, etc, etc. How does this help ME? Middle aged, no retirement (since my IRA has depended on Wall Street, and has LOST 50% of its value.) a house that has ZERO equity in it.
Young people just graduating are facing a world without the same options and choices that our generation had. My daughter just got a BS from a highly acclaimed college; graduated in the top 10% of her class, and is, brilliant (and of course, I'm not prejudiced!)....the best job she could find in her field pays her $11.00/hour and keeps her work week just shy of full-time, so that she isn't entitled to any health benefits. Her issues are different than mine.
I'll keep watching...this is either going to get very interesting, or it will just be another failed attempt to change the course of our country.