Occupy Wall Street

[Cannon Shell]

Originally Posted by GenuineRisk

They're not protesting "greed" so much as they are protesting a system they see as rigged against the middle class.

Michael Moore lives in Michigan.

I agree with you about the state of economic affairs in Europe.

The system has always been rigged. You can throw out all the charts and numbers that you want but the thing that is different now than it was years ago is that because of consumer credit, govt intrusion into programs for political purposes and simple evolution of social means what the "middle class" means are far greater than what it once did. Seriously think of middle Amercan 50 years ago and then think of it now? Outside of healthcare being a far greater expense now the midle class lives a far more prosperous life than it did.

The Gov't caused the housing bubble that burst just as much as the banks. BUT what are we going to do about it now? What do you do with people that can't pay thier mortages (despite record low interest rates) yet never should have been in that home in the 1st place? Don't they share any blame? Or the people who maxed out credit cards and now find that their credit sucks. Is that the banks fault for giving them the cards in the 1st place? Laying blame is a tricky thing as usually all parties share some of it.

The amount of money the rich has is really immaterial in many ways as so much of it isn't tangible anyway. If I was worth 1/2 billion dollars but the vast majority of it was in Solyndra stock, well how is that holding the common man down? Hell I'm broke now too! Too many people that think that they are being held down by the system don't look at themselves. Sure if you are from old money and get chauffered into Yale or Princeton you are born with an advantage. Sure the rich (really rich not the nouveau rich) manipulate the system but they always have. But that same system allows people that come from nothing to prosper if they come up with something original and work hard at it.

Protesting is great if it brings light to your cause. But you have to have a plan to further that cause and I'm afraid that the general message that most people get from Occupy Wall Street is those people are mad and fed up but really have no clue as to how to change anything. This is different than protesting a war or civil rights. A war can end and civil rights can be enacted via laws. How do suppose you "change the system" or rid the Earth of greed?