Occupy The Plutocrats' Lair, Occupy Wall Street

The OWS is mostly just a nasty bunch of whiney liberals who want to blame private corporations or individuals instead of the government, which has caused the economic uncertainty and meltdown.

 

Why are you not even addressing the democats ties to Wall street and banks, they have profited more from TARP than any conservative politicians. Banks and wall street gave millions to Obama, yet you still complain about the repubs.

 

Since the SC ruled on behalf of the corporate donations, unions and the Democrats have been screaming. It is politically linked to that one SC decision, which is why Obama and Pelosi is linking arms in unison! Can't have corporations out donating the unions, especially to the Dems. They are losing the battle of public opinion, and throwing one big tantrum!

 

Then why are OWS critics pretending corporate greed is neither prevalent nor threatening? And don't even try to tell me they're not.

No, it doesn't. If you payed attention to trends in economics over the decades you would realize the eras of higher government taxation and regulation of the private sector led to higher GDP and a more prosperous overall economy. Alternatively and matter of factly, the opposite shows true of every instance where conservative interests rolled back government regulation and taxes. History and examples in the modern day don't support your theory. Take a look at Germany and Norway sometime.

Once again, you have no evidence to support this. I agree, the current federal government IS too large but there is little to no evidence that supports that a large federal government kills the economy.

Since this is a lot of typical generalization and rhetoric I'm not gonna give it much focus, but I will say this, have you ever actually been to one of these protest sites or have you merely read news stories about them?

Funny how a populist movement is "dangerous and unaccountable" when it comes from the left but it's patriotic and admirable when it comes from the right.

 

When did politicians exempt themselves from insider trading laws? What happened to the laws that republicans were gonna pass in Contract with America about the revolving door between government and lobbying? We need to end the corruption, get rid of lobbyists, corporate and union campaign donations and lobbyists. This is something left and right should agree on, republican and democrat. Tea Partyers could agree with OWSers to end the corruption and call our politicians on it.

 

Simple, the republicans get a whole lot more, and do a whole lot more damage.


Example:

In addition to lobbying a sum of 400 million dollars on the federal government, major oil corporations also contributed an estimated 82 million dollars to federal candidates (circa 2000), over 80% of which were Republicans.

Guess who mandated energy policy and petroleum industry regulations at the time?

http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/347/oil-politics.html

 

There is a lot of truth in that, starting from the simple statement that the owners of this country don't really want to change the system.

But it's not the guys paying millions to advertize to voters or funding lobbyists to appeal to the voters representatives who own this country. The folks who own this country are the ones they're trying to influence, the ones who have the actual power, and who every year get exactly what they want: politicians and government that promise quick fixes and something for nothing.

The voters own this country. The mess won't get better until the owners are ready to make the hard decisions, accept the necessary sacrifices, and sign on for real work necessary to fix it.

 

The Tea Party is in agreement with this, end all funds funneled to the government on behalf of big organizations. Only accept public funded campaign monies. I believe McCain did this in 2008, Obama opted out, for some reason unions think they should be excluded from this end of the debate, while giving millions to the Dems

 

I think it has more to do with the unwarranted size and grossly expanding power of the megacorporations that are actually causing the chain of economic disasters, and quite deliberately at that. Sure, they used the government to help them do it, but just cutting the power of the government now that the damage is done removes our only realistic way of fixing that damage.

That's a theory, untested, and a convenient one.

More power to the wealthy at the expense of the voters is not a rational answer.

 

While I'll admit the voters are responsible for a lot of the garbage that is our federal government, we are most certainly not the owners of this country. Our power begins and ends with numbers and that's it.

 

Of course we own the country and like any absentee owner, we can only blame ourselves for it going to pot. Elections are won and lost by the numbers... we have all the power we need. As long as (as the video mentions) we start thinking critically and then vote accordingly.

 

The OWS has it exactly correct. The US has been purchased and is being run by the super wealthy, and it isn't beneficial to the MAJORITY of people who live here. They're speaking out against it and I applaud their efforts.

 

I'm not so quick to dismiss the "game" itself; after all, we have to play it, in order to affect/change it.

OWS will find its political "feet", but I think will play the game differently for the betterment of most Americans. How long that will take, no one really knows.

 

And I disagree with you.

 

if the fundamentalist christians and fundamentalist muslims want to kill each other why don't we let them? give them all swords and let them hack each other to pieces in a dessert somewhere. who cares?

 

Demonstrate that they are... because I am unaware of it. I am not being coy.

I do not think you understood at all what I was getting at. I am not an economist, claim no expertise on the subject, and generally avoid such discussions because it is not my area.

What I will tell you is that a central government has never been larger in than ours, and here we are. Once you start passing legislation making things illegal for the public, but legal for megacorps, you have done an injustice. It is illegal for me to grow, not only marijuana, but tobacco. I cannot buy anti-biotics over the counter, as if I am going to snort it. I cannot make and sell a car for 3000 dollars because it does not meet safety standards... but I can buy a motorcycle. I cannot drive without a seatbelt, but my children ride on government buses that do not even have seatbelts. I cannot build a deck on the back of my house because the government believes it must protect me from me. I cannot rewire my house. I cannot reverse engineer a program and make my own version. I cannot buy a DVD and make a digital copy of it because I tend to scratch things. I can make this list long enough to encircle the earth. Read my first signature line.

I don't believe that I said that, but can absolutely support it. However, instead I will say that the government passes laws. Every department is governed by a slew of laws. Every government employee is paid by the taxes of the private sector. As the government grows, the private sector shrinks. As the citizens are barred from performing functions, they are guided to government, and crony capitalists who buy the government. Your employment opportunities become limited to government/(*)(*)(*)(*)ty corporate jobs, and small businesses fold.

The government are the regulators. They are not going to legislate themselves fewer kickbacks. Thus they are not going to legislate an appropriate tax code. They are not going to do what we put them there to do. The superwealthy are not going to give up a god (*)(*)(*)(*)ed thing. You aren't going to accomplish a God (*)(*)(*)(*)ed thing trying to intimidate the wealthy. They can afford to keep you at bay. They will spend themselves dry to protect their interests.

The problem is the size of the government. It is the expansion of government that is the problem. Governance is achieved through legislation and enforcement.

Looking at your sig lines, just crushing 75% of the FDA's powers would make you happy. For me, eliminating 75% of the federal governments would. In my ideal world, most of your taxes would go to the state, and a very small margin to the Federal Government.

I am intimately involved in OWS.

The TP has no record of violence, and it has leaders.

Yes.
http://www.mercurynews.com/real-estate/ci_19292499?source=autofeed#
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/item_Wq8d8Q0M0W98jwaQAVPvYL

You have me twisted. I have been very vocal about those circumstances, to the chagrin of my conservative friends.

It would be... and the results would be (*)(*)(*)(*)ing disastrous... because as soon as you take up arms to overthrow my government, with your origins, I will take up arms against you.

Yes. I know. I hope you figure that out.

 

Thanks for the links to Marxist.com.

Are you personally giving classes of (*)(*)(*)(*)ting in the street?

 

Please take us to school! Take us to school like they did when Nixon won by the largest landslide in the history of the US after the leftists hippies ran violently rapid throughout the streets!

 

Weird thread merge.

I don't know if the mod was being funny... or what... but I am now very confused.

So what Carlin, and OWS has been saying all along is that we need Marxism?

Uncomfortable with this merge.

 

What are you gonna do, make us laugh to death? Put down the bong and go to class. Save the polemics for when you grow up to be a Republican.