Today I visited Westlake Center to see what I can see amongst the Occupy Seattle group. A good thousand people were there. The energy was high, many of the homemade signs were clever and creative - my fave so far was Only Boehner's Tears Trickle Down. One sign had an Elizabeth Warner quote "The rich didn't get that way by themselves"; I had a nice chat with the lady (my age) holding it.
About 70% of the people were under 30, but there were a number of people my age also.
This whole thing, though, reminds me of the first day of the WTO riots before the anarchists came. And the anarchists were there, ever hopeful. Fewer black hoods and more Guy Faulks masks. I picked up the anarchist newsletter (which seems oxymoronic) where an article also compared this to the WTO riots.
Anybody else in a city with an Occupy group? Anybody else visit it?
Occupy Seattle
October 16th, 2011 at 02:28 am
October 16th, 2011 at 03:43 am 1318736597
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October 16th, 2011 at 05:51 pm 1318787473
I wonder if some of these people realize that taxes are paid on work. If you want tax dollars to pay for your student loans, insurance, 3 years of unemployment etc, someone has to work to pay the taxes to cover those costs. You may not be working and may think you should have government cover you for that reason, but someone else has to work and give up some of the things they want to cover your wants.
I'm very leary when people start talking about taking money away from one group of people to give to another. Once you take money from the first group, you have to go to the next tier, and it keeps 'progressing' until it gets to your level and then I wonder how you feel about forced 'redistribution' of the money you worked to get.
In my opinion government is the least efficient way to get money from one group to another. If government wasn't involved I think a lot more money would be going into the economy than is now, because people wouldn't be afraid of what will change next week and would be more interested in investing and hiring and spending.
October 16th, 2011 at 10:16 pm 1318803374
Also, if you talk about "redistribution of wealth," remember that it goes both ways. Banks and corporations (with help from government which they get more input in choosing than individual voters) have changed the rules and the playing field so that more and more money goes into the top 1%'s pockets. That is redistribution of wealth. It's happening right now, it's been happening at least since the 1980s but it's accelerating every year.
Here's a really good article from a 99%er trying to explain what Occupy Wall Street is all about: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/10/12/1025555/-Open-Letter-to-that-53-Guy
October 17th, 2011 at 01:17 am 1318814262
I very much understand the why-are-we-paying-for-your-F-up argument and boy I wouldn't want to pay for a car or even someone's college education. However, I remember back in '08 that we as taxpayers bailed out the biggest banks and Wall Street entities via TARP. The threat was that if we didn't, it would be Great Depression v.2.0. The anger here is that for many, it is Great Depression v.2.0 anyway and that the taxpayer money ... even though "paid back" was money down a rathole.
October 17th, 2011 at 05:37 am 1318829821
I plan on having a discussion about the virtues and vices of Wall Street with my class tomorrow.
We've been pondering the Keynes quote: “Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.”
October 17th, 2011 at 12:58 pm 1318856292
The press quoted a 69-year-old woman who was buying tickets to see a show on Broadway the other day. She said, those protesters need to go get a job. Umm, duh. I don't think she had a clue, other than that the ruckus they were causing was disrupting her experience of 42nd Street.
I'd give anything to sit in on My English Castle's class.
October 17th, 2011 at 07:21 pm 1318879306
There's been a lot of reporting on many of the occupy wall street crowd wanting government to pay their student loans, so don't think that was out of context.