To understand the root causes of the Occupy Wall Street protests-or why, no matter how much pepper spray or billy clubs you use-the genie may not go quietly back into the bottle.
That’s not to say that the OWS movement does not have its problems-and it seems clear to me now that its time to move to phase two. Pack up the tents and transition to political activism. The point has been made and is out there-people, even those who don’t want to, have started thinking about income inequality.
Even those who have nothing but contempt for the ideas that the protesters espouse.
The critics, the really virulent ones, tend to fall into the easy route of stereotypes, that the OWS folks are nothing but lazy degenerates. Dipshits like Malkin and the especially vile John Hinderaker of Power Line, have beaten this thread again and again.
Still others lament the fact that there are thousands of young people out serving the empire in hell holes like Afghanistan and Iraq-and getting no attention. The point that seems to be lost in the telling-is that many of those serving Soldiers, Airman, Sailors and Marines are equally as much a part of the 99%, they are losing the economic battle. If not right now-potentially down stream when the excitement stops, but the the earning has to continue. For every technical expert-there are also others who are not able to translate their skills into useful civilian careers. And if they stay the course-they become trapped by the decisions they did not make earlier in life-because they enjoyed the service they chose. Those people who lament the lack of coverage of their sacrifices ignore another obvious fact. That for many those sacrifices are not doing anything to benefit the country in the long term. They aren’t even doing that much to benefit the people they are supposed to be helping. Certainly the 1% who are benefiting from their efforts, are not out there on the front lines. There is no money in it. They went to the trading floor instead.
If there actually is anyone out there who believes we should be focused on closing the income gap no matter the cost to growth, I’ve never met them. There are however, plenty of folks who worship at the altar of growth at any cost-no matter how much inequality it generates. People like Paul Ryan, who would rather throw your Grandmother under the bus-than do anything constructive to help them.
This is why I think its decision time for the OWS folks. They need to emulate the tea sniffers to a degree-and make politicians afraid of them. In that regard they are failing to a great degree. They have made the headlines-but they need to impact the political process if their is going to be the type of changes to the laws that underpin the rise of income inequality.
The people who are zeroing in on the idea of the OWS folks as just lazy, filthy deadbeats-who took the wrong major in college, are missing the point. Ultimately, income inequality impacts growth-and so puts the hard work they brag about at risk too. Without a level playing field for the middle class, capitalism, although maybe the best system, won’t survive without actual workers. With all the industry and manufacturing being shipped overseas , for the sake of the bottom line, we don’t stand a chance.
Furthermore-without a fair set of regulations, capitalism it is not by itself a stable system. Capitalism rewards those who are good at making money and punishes those who are not. Left to its own devices, capitalism devolves into a small class of fabulously wealthy people and a much larger class of serfs. In the absence of some countervailing force, feudalism is a stable economic state, but capitalism is not.
When the government serves to counter the natural tendency of capitalism to concentrate wealth, it stabilizes capitalism. Such actions include minimum wage laws, child labor laws, environmental laws, OSHA regulations, allowing unions to form and protecting them, progressive taxation, social security, medicare, medicaid, etc. Too much government intervention is in itself a problem, but we are so far from that, it’s not relevant. Our problem right now is that the lower 99% has so much less money than it used to, it can’t buy the goods and services created by the top 1%.
And that’s a problem even for the snarky set.
Skippy,
I know we do have too much governmental regulation, and some of it needs to be reviewed. Not so much that it is ineffective, but at times we contradict ourselves. We have OSHA laws which if one were to really take a look at them, cover just about every situation that should make work a safe place for the worker. Yet, states like CA have CAL OSHA which puts their own spin on the laws and makes it harder for business to comply and thus they move out and go to someplace else. Same with labor laws. With all of the reasons why it is not a smart idea to conduct sexual harassement in the workplace, or to overwork people over the 40 hour week, why do we need the unions adding additional constraints on businesses.
I think the OWS people have themselves shot themselves in their own foot (or feet I should say) by coming out with their list of demands from their OWS.org. Things like (this is not the total list):
1. Repeal the Taft-Hartley Act. Unionize ALL workers immediately.
2. Raise the minimum wage immediately to $18/hr. Create a maximum wage of $90/hr to eliminate inequality.
3. Open the borders to all immigrants, legal or illegal. Offer immediate, unconditional amnesty, to all undocumented residents of the US.
4. Institute a negative income tax, and tax the very rich at rates up to 90%.
5. Ban the private ownership of land.
6. Make homeschooling illegal. Religious fanatics use it to feed their children propaganda.
7. Lower the retirement age to 55. Increase Social Security benefits.
Even my left leaning SO thinks that #5 is over the top. Let’s look at #2 and #4. If a person is making the max available under their proposal of $90/hr, then for that one hour of work, after taxes they would only be making $9/hr. That amount is half of what they call from in item #2 which is an $18/hr minimum wage.
That is why I think many people are starting to get tired of the OWS crowds. Blocking access to business so that the 99% can’t make it to work or people can’t go buy from them is hurting their cause also. In my opinion, go after the Hedge Fund managers like Soros and the rest of their type, and police themselves so that the bums and the unwashed that are hanging around with them are removed from the scene, and maybe they can get some respect.
I am in favor of #6. Every home schooler I ever met was trouble from the start.
However-the list you cite hardly represents the views of most of the informed group of commenters who have pointed out that that the current trend towards dismantling the social safety net is bad for the country in the long run. Fix healthcare and get businesses to police themselves and it might be better in the long run.
No reasonable person is advocating the things on that list-however the people who are out there are forcing a conversation a lot of people don’t want to have.
Skyppy-san, Here is the cost of regulation, I awarded a contract that is administered by my staff at $3.0 Million and the base awarded a similar contract at a cost of $1.8 Million. In the end, both buildings meet the needs of the customer and were built with worker safety in mind, but mine put 10 more people to work. Dedicated safety officer, dedicated scheduler, dedicated housekeeping staff, project engineer, quality inspector, all at Taft-Hartley wages, not prevailing wages of the local area.
Skippy,
By no means do I think that all is well. Reforms do need to be made, but unlike the Tea Party, the OWS don’t seem to want to work within the system or present their cases in manners which the public can accept. They claim that there needs to be changes to laws and regulations, yet they disobey those very same laws and regulations when it comes to gathering.
Are some of our regulations overbearing, Iwould say yes and I work in a job that has a lot to do with some of them. In many cases, you have conflicts between agencies and other interest groups and states. More needs to be done to get that corrected. I do believe we should have the safety net for social services, but as I have posted before, not all social services or who can get them are equal. I can show you cases in my own family where one person has never worked, and the amount of services she receives for raising 5 kids (health care, food stamps, school tuition, utility payments, etc) would definately provide relief to many middle class families with stagnant wages, and then I can show you another person who was a “worker” and part of the “rich” (those who made $250K as the Dems and Obama claim) who lost his job after years of working his way to that point, and then being told that based on past income, he can’t qualify for eventhe most basic of assistance. So, yes I agree the system is not fair at times, but I thing the OWS are going about it wrong.