Occupy Wall Street

You're a multibillionaire that makes that much money every year constantly?

 

They had one of these in the centre of Glasgow for a while...till a woman got raped in her tent and there was a public outcry about it.

To be honest I thought they were a nuisance. It's a major tourist area (Especially since they filmed WWZ there lol) and there's a lot of small businesses in that area that benefit from that. I have nothing against the protesters but they picked a horrible location that damaged smaller local companies rather than the fat cats.

 

Well, part of it is raising public awareness, but doing it in a manner that's disruptive is just going to leave a bad taste in people's mouths, haha. I think they have a good cause but it's not perfectly organized... but that's not really the point. They're trying to just do something, which is more than most of us can say.

 

Ah, I didn't notice that it was a link.

However, as I said, some of them react badly. I'm not saying that no one are brutal. I agree that this is brutal, and it angers me because it is a clear abuse of authority. However, as this guy at MSNBC and I said, not all of them are being violent. Actually, most of them are not acting violently. If the majority of the policemen acted violently, I do believe the protesters would indeed react the same way, and justifiably so.

Though as it is now, I don't like it when they say that the Police are hurting the people. Yes, some officers do, but it is the minority.

No, I have money enough to support myself. I am currently going through college, I work to earn money (not at this moment, because it's a limit to what I can do here in the US)

This is what it seems like they are protesting against. I know it's not what they are all protesting against, but I'm damn sure several of them are protesting due to jealousy, which is why I like this:

"When I was the 99% I decided to work every day so I would become the 1% instead of camping in a park and yelling like a moron. Radical huh?"

 

Ignoring the problem. A lot of things happened in the protests, but the police are the ones who have a license to it. If you would recall the footage of the police meeting where they all laughed at the woman that they shot with rubber bullets, you might understand where I am coming from. Not everyone there did violent things, but none of them stopped it or criticized laughing at it, and none of them will.

That is the problem we are facing.

 

Are the Whiteshirts not Superiors? If so, would it not be viewed as insubordination? (I'm actually not sure, which is why I'm asking)
I'm not questioning your idea, I agree that it's not good no one reacts to it, however, there may be severe consequences for them.
They should definitely react, but I think this is a typical example of someone wishing not to go against their own group.

 

I found this really offensive. Wow. I found this about as dreadful as someone saying "Poor people are poor because they're lazy". I just.... This is so incorrect. These people work hard and it didn't get them anywhere, because that's how screwed up our society is. They're trying to change that.

 

Exactly. In which case you have a street gang mentality... With licenses to violence.

 

I can't say I'm an expert on the Occupy movement, but I know this much: you are still in the 99%. Having a job does not put you in the 1%. The people who make up the 1% are the 'fat cats' so to speak. Until you can say that you have an abundance of employees working under you and you pull in a very fat pay cheque, you will still be in the 99%.

 

This.

Many of the people in the Occupy Wall Street movement are successful and well-off, financially. But there is a large number of people in the country who aren't, and the odds are just stacked against them. And as well-off as you may be, it can't be even close to what the CEOs of corporations are experiencing right now. They have exploding salaries while their workers gain pretty much nothing (and often lose their jobs), tax cuts in favor of "trickle down economics," etc. Part of the Occupy movement is wanting them to pay their fair share.

 

Well, I know that I'm not the 1%, but the way Occupy seem to act, makes it seem like I am, that's what I'm getting at.
It's odd though, if there wasn't a recession right now (which happens on a regular basis), there would be no movement.

 

Well, a significant chunk of the movement is against centralized leadership, so they do tend to be disorganized.

 

This does not follow, at least not as I use centralization. Networks beat hierarchies and chains cannot be broken if you do not need them, but they do not have any kind of networking here. They are not trying to be any kind of structured. Too many groups for that. Though, if you have to associate one of them, we can safely say that decentralization neither caused reasons for nor inspired such occupations.

 

I actually think it's the 0.1% that's probably making even more. Not just the 1%.

 

You could keep going smaller until you got to the richest, but one percent covers a lot more of the problem than just one person. It works because it covers a certain class, not just for money, but for being part of a certain group.

 

This statement is fundamentally flawed. Yes, it addressed the issue, but only on the level of an individual. Following that advice will raise up an individual, but it will not support a country. You see, the divide between the classes is still there. A single person can move from class to class, but by definition, the 1% is only 1% of the population. Even if everyone spends their waking life in labour, only 1% of them will get to be part of that 1%. That is the flaw of the current system, and what the Occupy movement is attempting to tear down.

 

I see that the current system is flawed. However, what the Occupy movement wishes to achieve is, even though it's admirable, its unachievable. If the 1% gets "torn down," in a set amount of time, there will be another 1-5% being the leaders, controlling everything.

Class is present in every nation, if you look for it. There will always be class differences, and once again; what the Occupy movement wants to achieve is admirable, but it's unachievable. It sucks, but its the truth. You can be as idealistic as you wish, but realistically it will never happen, like world peace.

 

Agorism solves many problems. This is one of them.

 

Do you believe something like Agorism would work though? As much as I like the idea of a free market, I don't think it would work, because someone will always find a way to monopolize and manipulate.
Edit:
Basically, because of human nature and how we interact, the market won't work without any regulation.