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Re: Occupy Wallstreet
Old 10-28-2011, 12:13 PM   #8
thatmariolover
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Default Re: Occupy Wallstreet

I think this movement is underestimated by a lot of people. In part, this is because the mainstream media coverage has been shamefully bad. But also, because many of the people who should be protesting are the people who can't afford to leave their jobs to do so.

As I see it, the main roadblock to progress between protesters and those on Wall Street (and frankly, a large portion of congress) is a difference in psychology.

Most successful individuals tend to give themselves credit for everything they've earned, and think people that are unsuccessful must be lazy, apathetic, or otherwise undeserving. Less successful individuals tend to see the cards stacked against them. Regardless of who is right and who is wrong, history warns that telling the masses to eat cake is a bad idea.

The Occupy movement, in my opinion, is about more than just economic reform. Obviously, a lot of people are frustrated that the list of demands seems somewhat nebulous. Part of it is that we haven't had a large demand for social reform in a long time, so a lot of different groups are trying to get their concerns tacked on. But I think many of the changes being asked for are quite popular and some will stick.

Something I would like to highlight is some of the police tactics that are being used to clear out parks of protesters.

A two-tour Iraq vet protesting in Oakland that was hit by either a rubber bullet or a tear gas canister is undergoing brain surgery today as a result. After he was hit, a riot cop ran up and through a flash bang into the crowd of people trying to provide him medical assistance. Dozens of people complained of police using rubber bullets, police called them liars until people started posting pictures of the bullets found in the park the next day.

Meanwhile the police union in Oakland is threatening to sue protestors who injure cops when not one cop was injured by a civilian (though the opposite was true), the people throwing stuff are a tiny minority, and cops have no legal way of suing individuals. Despite all of this, the DoJ has officially stated they won't even be looking into the matter. Most major news outlets didn’t even report the clash between police and protestors on their websites until thousands of people on Reddit and other social networks started a campaign to harass them about it.

Isn’t it fascinating that when riot cops in Egypt used tear gas and batons to clear out Tahrir Square our own government condemned it, but our protests (which have been more peaceful) bring no such attention despite tear gas, rubber bullets, and batons all having been used?

But enough about that.

What I’d ultimately like to see:

• Money being removed from politics.
• Corporate lobbying power diminished.
• An end to corporate personhood.
• Adjust average hourly earnings for inflation (hasn’t increased in 50 years).
• Better hiring incentives and significant consequences for firing workers while raising executive pay.
• Harsher punishments for white collar crime (with great power comes great responsibility, not impunity).
• Limits on executive bonuses, raises, and incomes.
• A complete audit of the Federal Reserve.
• Revelation of the secret interpretation of the Patriot Act and/or its abolishment.
• Legislative/Congressional reform (takes too long to pass important legislation).
• Demilitarization of America’s police forces.
• Sensible reforms to the drug war.

Good read about the financial side of concerns:

http://www.businessinsider.com/what-...t-2011-10?op=1

Last edited by thatmariolover : 10-28-2011 at 12:24 PM.
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