Today, Thursday starting at Old Market Square Downtown which is on Travis and Congress. March to Chase Bank nearbye and City Hall. You are one of the 99'ers; so be there. I work down there so I will go with some of the coworkers at least for an hour or so. We are the 99!!! Too big to fail.
Not that I am against this, but what exactly do these protests hope to accomplish? Are they going to form a new tea party like political movement? If so, what issues do they want to promote for and against?
I agree, if you are just protesting the general redistribution of wealth without an agenda for it, what is the point? DD
In many cases the redistribution of wealth is a near life or death situation. Go volunteer in a soup kitchen and talk to people or perhaps do some research online. Well, the lower 99% and particularly the lower 50% and even more so the lowest 20% will live longer and be more productive. I think that is an important point. Many young people will have much less student loan debt. this will enable them to be productive and eventually start middle class families. I think that is a major point. We will return to the type of more middle class country we had in the past. Many folks will not be evicted from their homes or have jobs. I think that is an important point. Wall Street is one of the key actors buying our politicians and getting them to act on behalf of only the top 1% or so. Abuses like allowing hedge fund managers to call their income "capital gains" and pay taxes at a lower rate than regular workers or business owners is one of the reasons why we have cut backs on such programs as mental health clinics or we have increases in state tuitions for middle class students.
Reporting live from city hall, pretty impressive sight. Strategic command from hpd and hfd is set up at the hobby center parking. Lots of mounted patrol. I gots the deets.
Great Glynch, I am all for it, how do you go about doing that? BTW - We are doing a soup kitchen for Thanksgiving this year, it is time my boys got to see how some folks live... DD
Right, how do you redistribute wealth? Taxing the wealthy more does not guarantee a redistribution of wealth. For example, how will someone living on $20,000 directly benefit if Lebron James' dividends are taxed at 30%?
I do agree the wealthy should be paying more though. The problem right now in this country is our government has overspent, and not on important domestic growth, but on erroneous wars, and the military etc. We need to raise taxes on the rich, and cut some government programs, while creating new ones that create jobs for Americans. We need the WPA back to get our roads and bridges back in shape.....invest in the USA.....first. DD
Only if most of the 99% agree on what they want to accomplish. Protesting, just to protest is ok, but what is the point? DD
If it's merely to attract attention, then mission accomplished right? I see no banking reform. The fed isn't stopping their presses. Power to the people and all, but I'm sitting this one out and counting my gold.
I'm sure you understand that it's not a question of taking money from person A and giving it to person B. It's a question of having adequate revenue and allocating it where it most benefits those in need. Infrastructure, schools, roads, etc. Someone living on $20,000 a year would benefit mightily from these improvements. Policies benefitting monied elites to line their own pockets with more wealth, versus policies benefitting society at large? I prefer the latter.
The crappy thing about all this is that you guys are much more eloquent in stating what the problems are than the actual protesters themselves. I still maintain that most have no idea what they're actually protesting and are just there to make the scene.
700 (well over a thousand now) people violating the law and getting arrested is not 'ok'. If you are going to behave like this then you better be protesting some violation to your rights not b****ing because you took out a loan you can't pay back or because you think companies should pay you more. This is simply childish and an embarrassment for the country.
The funny thing is that when they were talking about the bailout of the banks, Jon Stewert made the most sense out of anyone when he said Paraphrasing here: "Why not give the bailout money to the people that own the houses, on the condition that they have to use it to pay down their note with the bank, that way the bank gets the cash infusion it needs, and the people get to keep their house" Man, talk about genius.....bailout the public.....the banks would not have to foreclose on the houses because they would get the money, and their cash reserves would be bolstered, allowing them more freedom to lend..... Just made so much sense. DD
Well, in their defense, sitting behind a computer and being all eloquent and stuff doesn't tend to get you much attention.