Occupy Movement Explained
 

I know understand what the occupy movement is all about....this woman is so articulate in explaining it all. I will be able to sleep better tonight now that I understand!!!...Admin please delete if this is considered inappropriate!
-Fred
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW56Z...yer_detailpage

I can't believe it.......I'm at a total loss, don't know what to say!


However I guess the video says it all!!

Thats it...
I'm going to join this worth while cause..:eek::rolleyes:
Throw caution to the wind, give up my worldy possesions
and FIGHT this corporate greed!! :mad:

Lets go take a stand and march...
We shall overcome!!

Ugh, Oh no, I'am the corporate greed...
I have had it wrong all these years!

OK, guys and girls who's with me?


Nah, I don't think soooooo!!:D
What a moron.......

No surprise this country is going down the tubes!:(

Now if you want to see something that makes sense, look at this clip...Keep in mind that it took place 30 years ago.

Click here: A 31 year old video clip ABSOLUTELY worth your time - dauckster's posterous

Hey Ken remember......those just like her go to the polls at a 85% rate, driven for free or not and vote at a 95% block for the same candidate.

Thats it...
I'm going to join this worth while cause..
Throw caution to the wind, give up my worldy possesions
and FIGHT this corporate greed!!

I'll go with you for beer, however I will not give up my SeaCraft!!!!!!!!!!

There wouldn't be room for greed in a true free market. Government has no business trying to run corporations with tax payer interests. Corporations have no right to buy politicians. "Corporations have the rights of individuals" Way to go Supreme Court.

It will come to an end soon.

Terry,
That's an excellent find!

What many in the younger generation, particularly those active in the "occupy" movement don't realize is that our standard of living hasn't deteriorated because of capitalism. It's deteriorated because the government has taken an ever increasing slice of the economic pie, and has taken an ever increasing role in determining which industries do well and which industries are pummeled with regulation.

We haven't had anything approaching free market capitalism in this country for at least 30 years. We done cooked the goose that laid the golden egg, and ain't smart enough to figure out why the gold has quit coming in.

I hate to say it, but the problem with America is Americans.

Dave

P.S. Phill Donohue was clueless from the get go.

The lesson of the pencil - Milton Friedman
 

I sent this to about 20 of my friends. Over half of them commented that they had NEVER had it made so clear, even though they knew what he was speaking about. Many had their children watch it if they were of an age to do so.

Now it is yours to share. Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ERbC7JyCfU

There’s morons everywhere aren’t there

Honestly . . . I fully support these protests. It's about time people get pissed off about offshoring of jobs, Fed bailing out private companies/banks/gov, and high unemployment/ record number of foreclosures as a direct result of bad economic policy and poor regulation. That video is one person and not representative of the everyone protesting. A lot of these people have lost jobs, homes, families, etc from the economic climate . . . and for others to mock them is just really distasteful. We are all in this together.

wake up!!!!

socialism is upon us!!!!!!

Hey Ken be careful!! OR the fourth branch of government....lawyers....will show up at your door in Area 442.

I'm wondering....I hear 16% of the working force are government employees and suppose both them and their spouses vote in a block together, that's 32%. What happens when that block of voters gets to 50%?

If what you are saying is true (and it is true) I think this protest should be going on not on Wall Street, but at the White House and Capital.

Remember we only do what the Government allows us to do...we only have bail outs because the government allowed bail outs. We have the mortgage crisis because the government thought everyone should have a home.

Just my two cents.

I don't know a lot about these protests, but the one in Boston is outside the Federal Reserve Building here . . . I don't think that is a coincidence.

In the 1970's when people were protesting the war/draft . . . protests happened at Kent State, Berkeley, etc. I don't think the location is that important, but you can see (as shown in the video clip) which people different media outlets are choosing to represent this movement.

ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Noun 1. corporatism - control of a state or organization by large interest groups; "individualism is in danger of being swamped by a kind of corporatism"
control - power to direct or determine; "under control"

Tim,
You make a good point. The location isn't as important as the message. The anti-war message was pretty unambiguous. Unfortunately, "Fix the economy now, dammit" means a lot of different things to different people.

The OWS movement and it's offshoots around the country and around the world haven't done a very good job of articulating their message. And as you rightly point out, our modern advocacy media do us a disservice when they mine the mob for an idiot to prove whatever point they're trying to make.

Until a clear message comes out of the protests, it's hard to agree or disagree with the protestors. And the longer it goes on without a clear message, the more it looks like a freak show.

Maybe the best message we can take from it is that it's time to send some folks to Washington who are capable of having a grown-up conversation about taxation, spending, regulation, monetary policy, and the moral implications of saddling our children and grandchildren with a mountain of debt so we can all have more than our slice of the pie.

Dave

"Maybe the best message we can take from it is that it's time to send some folks to Washington who are capable of having a grown-up conversation about taxation, spending, regulation, monetary policy, and the moral implications of saddling our children and grandchildren with a mountain of debt so we can all have more than our slice of the pie."


Well said!!! I'm ticked because I only have one vote.

They are trying to shut down the protests here in Ft. Myers due to the lack of a general liability insurance policy needed for a permit to assemble.

Nothing wrong with making money but to much corruption and greed has come into play.
Government and wallstreet are both to blame at this point. They can now act as one entity.

I suspect that is the main message of the occupy movement . . . People are pissed b/c they've lost their homes, jobs, etc. Average salaries (for 99%) have not increased over last 10 years http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/20...o-income-gain/, but cost of goods, education, health insurance, housing, child care, and fuel have skyrocketed. Some global corporations with US HQ's decide to keep profits oveseas to avoid being taxed . . . which dumps additional burden/costs of maintaining government on the average citizen.

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/17/134619...anies-billions
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/bu...pagewanted=all
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/...20046867.shtml
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/bu...pagewanted=all

The Government Accountability Office reported in 2008 that of the largest 100 U.S. companies, 86 had subsidiaries abroad, and 83 of these had subsidiaries in tax havens. Bank of America had 115 subsidiaries in tax havens, including 59 in the Cayman Islands. Citigroup had 427 tax haven subsidiaries, including 91 in Luxembourg and 90 in the Cayman Islands. Goldman Sachs only had 29, 15 in the Cayman Islands.

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09157.pdf

You can go back and forth on what ever turns your crank...Just to give the other side of the story, that tells you anotherreason why we are over seas.

This is lifted from a WSJ article the other day.

Steve Jobs told Obama that apple employs 700,000 factory workers in China because it can't find 30,000 engineers in the U.S. that it needs on site at its plants. " If you could educate these engineers, we could move more manufacturing jobs here". Jobs was mystified by a policy that instead educates foreigner engineers at top US schools and then sends them home immediately after graduation.

For me the case is clear, too much government is not a good thing.

Terry, that's an excellent point from Mr Jobs, but I really doubt those engineers in China are the ones developing the i operating systems. I guess most of that is done in Cupertino. And those engineers and factory workers get paid a fraction of what US engineers or even those in Cupertino earn. And if Apple was paying those Chinese factory workers $8.75 /hr, I'm fairly sure that Apple would not be sitting on the billions in cash it holds. It would be going into the US economy and growing exponentially in other ways that benefit more than just the 1 percent at Apple

Big, good stuff. I think I'll pull all of my assets from B of A and put it in a local credit union. Too bad they hold some of my loans...

Dave, great point. One fool presented on camera is neither the the basis nor the voice for a "revolution." And indeed, the message of Occupy Wall Street is poorly presented. Their website has no mission statement that I could extrapolate, and appears little more than a schedule to incite protest.

By the way, I'm one of the 99%...what ever that means...
I bought a house in SD in '04 am $100K upside down and can't modify my loan because I pay my bills on time and I do because am not willing to break the contract on which I signed or initialed 57 pages. I can't refinance my loan because I can't show 20% equity, even though I actually put 20% down.

Regarding Ft Myers blocking these protests, the right to peaceful assembly is covered in the 1st amendment of the Bill of Rights, so why the hell a local government thinks it has the right to stop a peaceful protest on public property in the name of liability insurance or any thing else beyond the scope of my comprehension. If the cops or zealots don't beat anyone up it shouldn't be a problem.

On the other hand people should have a grip on their gripe.
Just to lighten up the mood here's a viddy that hits home while being funny. And remember gang, this is comedy not an economic-political disertation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRmZ9zH-mYM

Same Story from Business Insider, Notice that the reason given here for the 700000 jobs being in China is not the shortage of engineers as WSJ states but the ease of operating in China, Which to me means cheap labor to build plants and manufacture. Although they do say that if we could train more engineers some jobs could return here. Also interesting to me are his recommendations for our education system.

Not trying to split hairs but just wanted to point out differances.




Jobs said the Obama administration was not business-friendly and said it was impossible to build a factory in the United States due to regulations and unnecessary costs. Apple had 700,000 factory workers employed in China, where it was much easier to build and run a factory, Jobs said. He said Obama was "headed for a one-term presidency" if the administration didn't improve.
Jobs also said the American education system was "hopelessly antiquated" and crippled by teachers' unions. Apple's factories, for example, needed 30,000 skilled engineers — something the U.S. education system was not producing. He suggested the President completely overhaul the system and proposed an 11-month school year with days that lasted until 6 p.m.
"You can't find that many in America to hire," he said. "If you could educate these engineers, we could move more manufacturing plants here."

Business spin translation . . . thanks for educating our chinese engineers on americas dime . . . Until there is legislation or tariffs preventing us from doing so we will keep opening factories in china. We can do it for far less money overseas.

80 BILLION in cash and no debt . . . wanna bet they can't find 30,000 hardware and software engineers in the USA? Steal them from Intel, EMC, etc. It about cost and it just cost less overseas . . . plain and simple.

That's just China.....India is following right on their rear end for American educated citizens! Having fun yet?

I've worked at a research university (5 years) and MIT startup E Ink (4 years) and now a research institution. Ex-wife was material science engineer (phd) There is a ton of research that gets mined and piped right over to china out of universities. I've seen first hand . . . it's an HUGE issue at my current place of employment (requiring oversight from DSS and FBI). Regarding india . . . I had the pleasure of training my indian replacements from cognizant for 2 months (before our group was laid off) at John Hancock (Manulife Financial) after spending 18 months cleaning up their software packaging process. Cognizant employed my exact process using indian software packagers. Let me tell you . . . This issue gets me PO'd.

That's good! Maybe Felonious Monk should run for Congress. I think he's got as good a grip on the situation as Milton Friedman did. Thanks for lightening the mood.

Dave

I'm sure most of you have seen this, however some may have not. The interesting thing is we are $15,000,000,000,000 in the hole. WAY above my head!

http://www.slideshare.net/Ficoba/whats-a-trillion

So let's continue to pay off those debts by allowing corporations to offshore jobs? and use tax havens in the cayman islands to avoid paying taxes? cut education and research funding? Maybe the plan is just to print money and devalue currency until china stops pegging their currency to the dollar? or until dollar is worthless? I think there is some strategy here that we all don't grasp.

Yeah the strategy is to vote for someone that will...

GIVE US HOPE AND CHANGE

Island - it's not a simple vote republican or democrat issue. Any tax changes would have to be passed by congress and we've seen how well they work together ;) for the people of this country.

Let's see what super important things they did yesterday . . .

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_1...e-trust-motto/

Too true, unfortunately. Our two entrenched political parties have been taken over by the extreme left and right. There's almost nobody left to represent a centrist viewpoint, and there's an ever decreasing chance of the two parties reaching consensus on the critical issues. I'm not optimistic that the next election will change anything regardless of the outcome.

Dave

Great thread fellow members. My question to those that are rightfully PO'ed and support the notion of change.............

WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO CHANGE THINGS EVEN AT THE SMALLEST LEVEL?????

Ever since the media began with sound bites and anything else to sell their garbage there has been the world of "SPIN". Your "word" and a hand shake need to come back into style. Raising my kids right ranks right up there with my best contribution to society.........

As the saying goes with what you surround yourself with..........GARBAGE IN GARBAGE OUT!

If anyone is motivated to "give back" to society, A great way to start would be to DONATE your SeaCraft to me and I will contact the proper individuals to help you with the process..........

Danny....you a tricky rascal!!! I will donate my SeaCraft gas bills to you instead!! :)

Seeya

Don-I would gladly arrange to cover gas for you if you sign a small commitment letter to my donation fund. It will be painless... :)

I didn't know you were a proctologist?? Painless??, they all say that!! :)

Yep we can go round and round. The point I was trying to make is it also takes a leader...Mr. Hope and Change gave a lot of people the idea he could make a difference. He had the mandate, and after 2 years Hope and Change is now the same as every other politician just worried about his job and not the country.

Another good example 2 days ago Freddie and Fannie, (who supports them?) gave themselves a big bonus. Even Harry Reid was for a loss of words, if you didn't see that you should.

It starts from the top down in any organization. If the top has a good Pres. the rest follows through.

Look at any University system, business, or sports team.

It all starts at the top.

That's my story and I'm stickin to it.:D

I hear you . . . Our leaders leave a lot to be desired. It's a total disgrace on both sides. When the speaker of the house Boehner throw tempers tantrums like a 5 year old brat . . . who can we look up too? When the president appoints Jeffrey Immelt as President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board (Former GE CEO who paid $0 federal taxes in 2010 and recently offshored GE's entire x-ray division to china) . . . You know you are getting screwed when you vote for either party! It's divide and conquer politics . . . we're so busy fighting each other on stupid issues like who had sex with someone, or abortion, or "in god we trust motto", that we are not solving any real problems or paying attention. Until we do . . . Corporations will rule this country and continue get away with murder . . . we are the ones that will suffer!

Who/where is the top? That's a great question.

Heading for deep water now but I really don't believe the Executive Branch leadership is the problem right now (although B is very guilty of cronyism). Keep in mind there are 3 separate branches of government and some very polarizing figures (most of which are on Capitol Hill).

The president has morphed perhaps more than he should have in many cases to try keep a hurting nation moving forward when the world is at an economic standstill. The Judiciary has been mostly unheard because B hasn't tried to slip anything by, and the Legislature can't resolve an argument for them to consider.

I think leadership at the Legislative Branch has been the problem since before Clinton was run from office, but that period really polarized the legislative parties. Lack of co-operation between the legislators and their incessant respective pimping to corporate players that affect their constituencies has been the root of this economic dark age. I think the Nanci Pelosis and her republican mirror images need to get the hell out of the way, and that this legislative mass of egomaniacs elected by the people for the people need get their collective feces together to find common ground for the people. A good start would be to address single issues rather than bundling ridiculous fecal matter into unrelated bills for their cronies. Works for the Judiciary...

These folks are elected to do whats best for the most people - not always easy I know, but hell, couldn't they at least make an effort to consider the people that actually make the nation. e pluribus unum - remember? This is only my opinion, but a single corporation's political want should never trump the vote of a million American taxpaxers, and yet it happens every day:confused:

I see democracy as a fair way to do the best for the majority. The agreement is to agree to disagree. If I win the debate we do do it my way. You don't have to like it but you go along with it rather than sabotaging the process. When you win the debate the roles are reversed.
It's a good step toward the unattainable "Utopia."

But if one man's avarice and greed for more than he needs, or his disdain for another man's point of view force that other man to feel compelled or desperate enough steal or kill to get a bag of beans or a bottle of beer, then the principal itself is lost.

In that case only Sir Thomas More (on paper) and Todd Rundgren (on vinyl) will have Utopia. Well, and those who ride on a vdh, of course:cool:

Can We Still Be Friends?

http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/20/us/cal...ray/index.html

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/11...ugher-response