Thoughts: Occupy Wall Street
I recently had to write a short paper concerning the Occupy Wall Street movement. After sifting through article after article and commentator after commentator, I began to form my own opinions on the matter:
DISCLAIMER: 1) For clarification purposes, I would like to say that I am of the lower middle class and 2) Because the protesters are very loose-knit, some of the attacks I make are purely on sub-groups that I have read about, so before you get butthurt, do realize that I'm aiming my qualms at those particular groups and NOT all of the protesters. Onto to the rant!:
-Although I agree that the income distribution in America is ridiculously uneven, I don't think taxing the hell out of the rich and big corporations is the answer. In fact, I hate that proposal. Capitalism in the US has always accepted the "Protestant Work Ethic" (nutshell: hard work=big reward). And I am a fan of the historically held capitalist position of the U.S. being a place where anyone-ANYONE-can get rich. I love it. And I'm not saying wealthy people or big suits all "earn" their money--I'm just saying that somewhere along the line SOMEONE earned it and these people have found a way to benefit. Some of them were born into it. Some of them went to school and worked hard for their business degree or law degree or doctorate or whathaveyou and they put that education to work and it benefited them. Some of them worked their way up to the fucking top from the bottom and now they benefit. Much to the chagrin of others, these people are now making big money and living comfy lives and they must now share their wealth with those who haven't worked near as hard. NO. Fuck you. Stop being lazy and get a job and fucking WORK. I know...it's a hard road. I'm currently at the bottom of that hard road, professionally. But I will work and I plan to work to make my life a better life. And when I do, I don't want to share it with some hipster who's been living off unemployment checks in his mom's basement.So what should they do? I, personally, think the goverment should tax everything. Everything. If the government would tax everything (i.e. all consumer goods..possibly services) a LITTLE bit, it would do wonders for the economy. The tax would be minuscule obviously, but hugely beneficial as a way for the government to raise a lot of revenue, tax evenly, and not steep different groups of the U.S. populace in insurmountable debt based on status, class, or some other superficiality. It would also be largely in line with our "consumer society".
-A basic fundamental truth about U.S. capitalism is the idea of limited government. If you would have asked me 5 years ago, I would have said big government is the way to be, baby! But I've since grown up. Do I support government regulation? Yes, of course. Economic regulation is a must when speaking about bank regulation (more transparency, kthx). I also think the government should allocate, redistribute, and stabilize our money and regulate price (to a degree). So, what I'm getting at here is that, yes, I do support the protests against the unreleased audits of the Fed. The Fed should be audited and the public has a right to see these audits, not just the government.
-I realize America's income distribution is significantly more uneven than the income distribution in most other countries. I get it. But I think that has more to do with an uneven infrastructure. We need to pump more money into the American (public) education system. We need to highlight the importance of not only math and science, but reading and writing as well. We need to encourage innovation, problem solving, and logical thinking into our teaching methods. This probably sounds a idealistic and very romantic, but I'm quite serious. The education system needs to be reformed so, in the long-run, the quality of life for the American people can rise and, thus, the income distribution gap becomes smaller as a new, well-educated workforce is at our disposal.
Those points covered most of my major gripes/concerns over the whole thing. There were other, but I'm done raging. Have a good weekend everyone!