Occupy Movement

They shouldn't create a mess. I remember some homeless people were complaining about it on some video on youtube. What happened was some occupy group members set up some tents and stuff. Then they left the area as it was.

Other than that I think it is good the Occupy Movement is trying to do whatever it is trying to achieve. Power to the people!

 

This, though, is why Occupy is fatally flawed. They don't know precisely what they want, nor how to get it. All it is is complaining about an unfair system, which is no one entity's fault. If anything is to come of it, they need to think up some real goals and a method of protest that works towards their completion.

 

^ I think they are trying to gather as much people as possible. If they start setting goals now then it might deter people from joining. It also makes it much more difficult for the mainstream media to criticise the group as they are not exactly parading their views apart from declaring GRRRRRRR HATE BANKERS SMASH BANKERS SMASH!

Eventually I suppose they will start formulating an actual plan.

 

^ I totally agree. The cops in America are so vicious towards protesters.

 

It needed to be either a full-blown revolution or riots or a well-organised, civil protest with specific aims and a deliberate method of disruption to commerce. As it was neither, all it was was a bunch of people thinking they could do something by holding posters and complaining about a something they didn't know how to fix.

Protests need specific goals and specific disruptions. They could have done a number of things such as blockades on oil tankers (there was a very damaging protest in Britain under Blair that stopped petrol supplies, but I can't remember the details), or actually occupying banks to stop their functions.

It was well-meant for the most part, but it wasn't specific enough for it to do much. The best that did happen was the introduction of the idea of the 99% and the 1%, and a lot of media attention. But it had minimal achievements due to lack of unity, so the whole thing was, in practical result, just as useless as the protesters in Guy Fawkes masks thinking they understand anarchy because they watched a movie.

 

Police only abuse/harass liberal protests. When the racists (Tea Party) took to the streets, nothing ever happened to them, but as soon as people started speaking out against economic inequality, people started getting beaten and tased.

 

Honestly, it just seems like a bunch of spoiled 20-something's who want 6-figure jobs without having to work hard. The whole 99% vs the 1% is just an us vs them thing, and not our fault. Ok, some rich people are A-holes, but it takes hard work to make lots of money. You don't just waltz into a company and expect to make 6-7 figures from the getgo. That takes time and hard work.

I'm biased, since I live in a super-rich area of the US, my dad works at a certain financial company, and my mom comes from one of those rich old New England families. But, I was raised not to expect things to be served to you on a silver platter, which is more than I can say for some of the people in my town <_< And I do think that trickle-down economics (super rich have low taxes, which means that somehow they'll hire more people or give money away instead of just taking the money and running) is a wad of lobbyist BS.

Anyway, isn't this kind of old-hat? Didn't it end in 2011?

 

Well, that's a load of classist bullshit.

The makeup of company boards tends to be upper-class white men. Heaps of the protesters were fast-food workers and students struggling for a living. Spoiled kids wanting to get big salaries tend to be the already-rich at elite universities who can ease life; the children of the bankers and politicians and financiers.

Do you really think the super-rich work any harder than the poor sod who works three jobs to feed her husband and kids, while he also works, and the kids sometimes have to? Especially given that the main resentment was against financiers; people who do absolutely nothing but enrich themselves and meddle with the markets because they care more about what speculation can give them than ensuring the stability of the economy's backbone; production, workers, goods, and regular circulation of money.

Oh, and you are expecting things to be on a silver platter; do you think you deserve what you have, that your parents deserve it more than workers, people mounted with debts in order to afford the education that's supposed to (but fails to) give them a better life?

This was about the minimum wage, corporate corruption of democracy, employers abusing their workers, and the massive gap between wealth and poverty. Not about middle-class kids wanting to get elite positions.

 

All the Tea Party did was make a lot of stupid statements.
Beating and tasing people for doing that is bound to cause uproar.
Personally, I'm not a fan of the Tea Party- no, we should not "put God in government", no, I don't approve of the Libertarian party being associated with these dumbfucks, and, no, they're not even newsworthy and the press is pretty biased anyways.

Occupy Wall Street is like the liberal version of the Tea Party, so I really can't approve of them, either.

Protests won't do shit- actively trying to fix the problem is what helps.

 

And how do you propose the poor actively try to fix problems without going out and trying to draw attention to them; fixing them?

 

You're right. I like how you think, man. Trickle-down economics skews the playing field way too much. It's already hard to get to the top without being biased towards those who don't need the advantage.

 

The only thing that I can think of in relation to this critique is how we handle change in our country.

Think of it this way.

Say you're on a bus. You're on your way to work. All of the sudden, it stops and you hear "ohh, we have to wait for a few minutes...the protesters have blocked the way."

How many people are going to say "oh, that's fine! Tell them to take their time!" ?? Probably none. Our society is a go, go, go go you-get-in-my-way-you-are-sunk society. I live in a small town, but even I can see aggressive drivers and irritation at certain parts of the day.

I'm just saying that if protesters end up disrupting our lives and such, then they should be faced with critiques. The tea party is a way of life for a lot of people...I don't equate it with a protest group. They aren't camping out. They just believe certain things.

 

How are you supposed to do that?

I get the impression your trolling lol. Not you. I mean the other member ROFL

 

You say that it's just a belief, but remember that real people get affected by what these rich white people believe in. It's easy to say they're just a set of beliefs when it's not your country being invaded, not your body being controlled, not your life being destroyed so the rich can make a quick buck.

Politics aren't just a set of beliefs. Real people get damaged or helped by every choice made, and what for some is just a hypothetical concept, a far-off, almost unreal situation, is to many a very real, very disastrous thing.

So if your bus is is held up, just remember that the protesters are doing it because their entire lives are held up by people who don't need anything more than they've got.

 

Haha if you think only the wealthy work hard. Ever heard of lotto winners? Step into a factory some day, where you'll see a woman with kidney stones fighting thru tears because she can't get a day off. The only difference is the 1% gets paid way more and was born with the capacity to figure out how to screw the other 99%. It's at least as much about who you know as what you deserve. This is coming from someone about to start at a top 5 business school, but at least i'm not in denial. Class mobility in US is lousy.

 

I don't have a problem with people being rich but when they are so rich that their is an economic disparity where there is poverty in the UK and the US, it is a problem.

Do you seriously think that if you work hard then you are going to somehow become a multi-billionaire? You'd be lucky to be a millionaire. Warren Buffett has something like $60 Billion, the richest %1 are as rich as rich as the %99.

If you seriously think that some people deserve to live in poverty because they didn't work hard then I'm disgusted, regardless of whether someone works hard or not they shouldn't live in poverty. If everyone had a somewhat decent amount of money the world would be such a better place, their would be no stealing for example.

The world needs to replace the democracy or shall I say dumbocracy with meritocracy or a resource based economy. When people die, there wealth should be redistributed amongst the people!