Posts Tagged ‘99-percent’
Source: West Coast Port Shutdown on Facebook
Because nothing says supporting the 99% like keeping hard-working Americans from showing up and getting paid for an honest day’s work!
Is it any wonder the MSM loves them so?
The Occupy Movement talks a lot about the 1% and the 99%, but the fact is, they’re targeting the wrong 1%.
Most of OWS puts the blame on Capitalism itself, the “banksters” and those greedy CEOs out to make ungodly amounts of money. You’ll find many Occupiers speaking about corporations putting “profits over people”, apparently oblivious to the fact that a large majority of the 99-percent are deeply invested in the stock market, either directly or through retirement accounts & mutual funds and the success of the investments of the 99% requires those greedy CEOs and board members to focus on company profits as their number one responsibility to the shareholders.
For all the Commies and Socialists coming out of the woodwork at these protests, blaming Capitalism is a joke. You want to talk income disparity, just look at the disparity between Capitalist countries and everything else that’s been tried on the face of the Earth. (Fun fact for the day: the poorest 5% of Americans are richer than nearly 70% of other people in the world.)
It also doesn’t make any sense to blame a banker or a business person for taking the bailouts or loopholes that were there for the taking any more than you would blame a regular tax payer of the 99% variety for trying to make use of all the tax breaks and deductions available to them.
We can’t even blame bankers or business people for lobbying the politicians, because you know that you and I both would do some lobbying in our own self-interests if we had the means to do it as well. (And ask yourself, did it ever stop a state union from lobbying hard for bigger pensions and better benefits every year even when it’s obvious that it’s more than the tax base can afford, that the pensions and benefits are bringing about levels of spending that are unsustainable and that they’re pushing the entire state into bankruptcy?)
There’s only one target OWS should be focusing their anger on and that’s the 1% in Congress and the White House, the 1% who make the rules, the 1% who dole out billions of dollars in stimulus funds to their biggest campaign donors, the 1% who have created an entire system where even an honest person could get elected, go to Washington and in only a of couple years probably find themselves corrupted to the point of selling out their ideals and whoring out their votes just like everyone else in D.C.
Businesses and business leaders making more money than you and I can possibly comprehend are not the problem, because no one from Apple is putting a gun to your head and forcing you to buy that latest version of the iPhone.
You want change? Stop wasting your time hating the rich and march against the government which makes the rules, or even better, stop justifying shantytown takeovers of public places by imagining you’re making a difference carrying signs around for an hour or two and instead, start talking about specific laws that need to be changed, ways in which the political system needs to be reformed and the kind of candidates we need to find to replace the current ruling elites in Congress and the White House.
Next time you see the Occupy Movement claim they are the 99%, consider this latest poll from WSJ/NBC:
Do you consider yourself a supporter of the Occupy Wall Street Movement?
28% Yes, 63% No, 2% Depends, 7% Not sure
source: WSJ/NBC Poll via The Washington Examiner
When 63% of America does not support you and only 28% does, you are NOT the 99%! You are the misguided people marching against business, industry and Capitalism in general when the real source of your grievances are all created by the 1% running the government and making the rules.
If you ever want to regain any credibility with the 99%, stop harassing the 99% just trying to make it to their jobs, stop making the 99% late to job interviews, stop making the commute home a nightmare for the 99% and start marching on the 1% in Congress and at the White House.
Cartoon courtesy of Nico at Endless Origami.
Here are two facts that everyone who aligns themselves with the Occupy Movement should know before voting in the 2012 election.
1. While the 99-percent suffer under unprecedented economic hardship, Wall Street firms have earned more in 2.5 years under Obama than all 8 years of the Bush presidency. Think about that, more corporate earnings in Obama’s 2.5 years than Bush’s entire 8! (Over 85 billion dollars compared to 77 billion.)
2. Barack Obama has raised more corporate donations than any president in 20 years.
Barack Obama is the king of corporate cash. He had two years of Democrat control of Congress to do something and things only got worse – much, much worse. He may talk a good game, paying a lot of lip service to reigning in the excesses of Wall Street, but Barack Obama is the all-time, undisputed king of corporate cash, both in raking it in and in letting the fat cats make it.
That’s the reality of the HOPE that most of OWS voted for and nothing is going to CHANGE if we make the same choice in 2012.
