Forum Post: Hi hello salivate on these questions
Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 1, 2011, 5:29 p.m. EST by Salivateonthis
(4)
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I've been reading and researching on this movement, and I think I've come to understand OWS deep-seated grievances...
That the 1%, super-rich, (it is actually more like 25%, but I understand why 1% is more catchy), holds more money than the the majority, which are the middle and lower classes...
That banks and corporations use their influence to try and direct to governing of the nation...
These are valid points, but are also partly the basis of any capitalist economy. And though OWS has become news worthy in the past couple of months, it seems fractured and inconsistent nation-wide. Little or no census seems to have been taken on the final destination OWS would like arrive.
So I ask OWS members this:
What are the goals of OWS?
Do you plan on pushing the shut down of these Fortune 500 companies and banks to protect civil liberties of those that never climbed the social ladder? Or to have government regulate the influence they have on politics, eliminating free enterprise? Or adopting a system of income equality where the possibility of betterment of one's life becomes but a mere dream?
It is not the protesters who are pushing a radical agenda. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gini_Coefficient_World_CIA_Report_2009-1.png . The U.S. has broken away from the developed world and is taking on a level of inequality between rich and poor typical of the Third World. But for the Republicans this isn't enough - they need more tax cuts for the rich, on capital gains, on corporations, on inheritance, and more tax increases for the middle class, on FICA, on employee health care premiums, on mortgage interest. They want to eliminate any vestige of the 1940s-1970s era dream of free education, making it available only to the wealthy, and likewise gleefully accept the end of the tradition of free health care at public hospitals or by charitable forgiveness of medical debts for those who can't pay. They are pressing a radical, untested agenda that is fundamentally at odds with the better traditions of a country founded on the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
There may be a few very vocal communists among the protesters who truly believe in a Gini coefficient of 0.00, but there are a lot more Americans who recognize that we should not cross 0.50, and that we'd be a lot happier if our tax and spending policy pushed things back closer to 0.4. Reaching something under 0.30 (like Germany, Europe's "economic powerhouse") is so far from we are now that it seems more like a dream than a plan, but if we somehow got there, it would not be terrible.
So this idea is suggesting the eventual transfer of wealth from the upper class to the lower class?
I believe that's what ending the Bush tax cuts implies, and I don't think many OWS supporters favor keeping them permanently.
The betterment of one's life through more income is not my definition of fulfilled. I would be fulfilled when I see a stable economy that doesn't cause social problems everywhere it goes wrong, you know, when people can plan their futures well and have stable, happy families, provided they work hard. That's all I hope from the movement.
But that is vague and leaves room for interpretation. To achieve the lifestyle you just described, feasible goals must be placed to strive for in hopes to one day achieve them. OWS can hold its banner high and walk a noble path, but nobody gets what they want by wishful thinking and peace circles.