Occupying Wall Street?

[Deadly_Ripped]

Anyone following the Occupy Wall Street movements in any of the major cities? I'm thinking about attending the one near my city over the next weekend if it's still happening. Looks like a lot of frustrated people gathering to express their sense of individual disenfranchisement that they currently feel.

Edit: I just saw that some random post about the USSR got closed because it's political. It's amazing that there are 2 serious topics that tend to be off-limits in households and elsewhere: religion and politics. Unfortunately, they seem to be the 2 most important topics that have the greatest effect on our overall quality of our lives! Oh well, I hope this topic has a chance to stay open simply for the reason that the movement seems moderately apolitical, or at least that it has many non-political elements to it.

 

[Gaucho]

I think you just identified 'political correctness' at it's very best, ahhhh, I mean worst! Not sure whatever happened to freedom of speech, seems political correctness happened to it!

Also not sure what occupy wall st is, but I think US citizens and citizens of the West in general (which I am part of) need to look at themselves for the greedy pigs that they are, borrowing off other countries to live their grand, excessive lives, and stop blaming it on 'wallstreet' or 'politicians' because they can no longer borrow out their ears to maintain their lifestyle. Basically, this should have been called 'the greedy pig crisis' and people as human beings need to 'man up' and take it on the chin!

 

[Deadly_Ripped]

I agree! Unfortunately, when the hammer drops for irresponsible behavior, it is mostly those on the lower side of the economic spectrum (those who can't purchase influence or power) who are the hardest-hit. It seems that some of this protest is about the unevenness with which the burden is falling upon everyone.

Both sides are to blame, and therefore both sides should pay for it, proportionally.

 

[sstype]

I think you just identified 'political correctness' at it's very best, ahhhh, I mean worst! Not sure whatever happened to freedom of speech, seems political correctness happened to it!

Also not sure what occupy wall st is, but I think US citizens and citizens of the West in general (which I am part of) need to look at themselves for the greedy pigs that they are, borrowing off other countries to live their grand, excessive lives, and stop blaming it on 'wallstreet' or 'politicians' because they can no longer borrow out their ears to maintain their lifestyle. Basically, this should have been called 'the greedy pig crisis' and people as human beings need to 'man up' and take it on the chin!

The masses took their cues from our leadership. Starting with Reagan, we were encouraged to take on debt and overconsume by the financial and political elites. Through corporate owned media, we became bombarded by the lifestyles of the rich and famous....told that we must keep up with the Joneses. Bush told America after 9/11 to spend more.

Our economy of the last 30 years was nothing more than a debt-fueled consumption binge actively encouraged by our government, Wall Street, and the corporate-run media. Blaming average Americans for being greedy is like leaving an open jar of cookies in front of a kid and then getting mad he ate them. Or blaming employees for stealing office supplies when management has been dipping into the company ink to finance their personal expenses.

Yes, our behavior as a collective was irresponsible, but you didn't hear any politician or banker suggest we save money or be more frugal. If anything they deserve the lion share of the blame and it's good that finally the masses (flawed as they may be) are starting to hold them accountable for selling America a bill of goods.

 

[r0cky]

This thread will probably get closed.

Anyways, I've been to the protests in Wall st almost everyday. Luckily I was not there for the Saturday march (Idk why they decided to march on the Brooklyn Bridge rather than to protest in front of Goldman like I suggested).
check out my videos from Friday http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZMUxN7Cf30

 

[Black Dog]

Yeahh dude this is probably getting closed.

But I think it's pretty cool people standing up to Wall Street. It's interesting that no major news sites are reporting it.

But I saw the list of things some protesting are itching for, and it's pretty ridiculous. Like free college education, open borders....etc. lolwut

 

[Gaucho]

The masses took their cues from our leadership. Starting with Reagan, we were encouraged to take on debt and overconsume by the financial and political elites. Through corporate owned media, we became bombarded by the lifestyles of the rich and famous....told that we must keep up with the Joneses. Bush told America after 9/11 to spend more.

Some valid points except the above. If the media tells you to jump off a bridge, do you do it? No. Standard excuse above.

Warren Buffett still lives in his same house as far as I am aware? The average person wanted more than they could afford, they got a little helping hand and now use that as their excuse. Pretty standard loser mentality. Take it on the chin and move forward, nobody forced debt upon you, you were simply greedy and wanted more than you could afford. The fact everyone else was doing it, made it 'right'? I call BS, all my friends around me bought houses, plasma TVs, all the best and latest and now they are all poor. I lived a very rationed life beneath them and invested into my future through hard work and taking chances in life that I could afford. That is the choice they made, nobody put a gun to their head and they need to live with it! When the property market was booming and everyone had equity in their houses and went and bought more investment properties, they were an investment guru, now they are getting what was always coming to them. What goes up, must come down, nobody complained with their lavish lifestyle and investment know-how, now all of a sudden, none of it was their fault. What a joke.

If my company fails, I will take full blame, I won't blame the Government. The basic point is people need to take responsibility for their own actions and stop blaming others. It takes two to tango and they need to realise their own faults to develop in this life.

But do agree with Deadly, when the hammer drops, it is generally on the poor and hence I agree with Obama and the Democrat desire to tax the rich to stimulate growth through distribution of wealth. Capitalism is one hugely flawed system.

 

[sstype]

If my company fails, I will take full blame, I won't blame the Government. The basic point is people need to take responsibility for their own actions and stop blaming others. It takes two to tango and they need to realise their own faults to develop in this life.

You just proved my point. If there's one group of people who refused to take responsibility for their actions and instead shifted blame outside of themselves....it was Wall St. and Congress. I think the middle and working class are learning their lesson with the mass of foreclosures and high unemployment. However, we haven't seen any accountability at the top.

I don't disagree with the fact that everyone, rich, poor, and middle class needs to be held accountable for their choices in life, but why are we so afraid to point the fingers at those who were steering this ship and who seemingly got away scot-free with almost sinking it?

 

[Bible_Belt]

History has proven that when the gap between the rich and the poor becomes large enough, eventually there will be revolution. Right now in the US, we have the largest rich-to-poor gap since the late 1920's. Something has to give.

A friend of mine is on a certain medication that costs $90 a month, after insurance ($400/mo without insurance.) That buys a tiny bottle of 30 pills. I looked up the active ingredient, and I can order a 50-gallon drum of it from China for less than what he pays for that tiny bottle. There's probably about ten cents worth of it in that $400 bottle, which is how pharmaceutical companies make their billions of dollars. Of course, if I did this, they'd put me in jail, thanks to the patent laws that were lobbied for by the drug industry. This is just one tiny example of the many ways that giant companies rape poor people, all to make rich people richer.

If we nationalized the pharmaceutical, insurance, and healthcare companies, the stock market would go to nearly zero overnight, but at the same time we'd all suddenly have an affordable cost of living. What we have now is a system in which all of us are slaves to the billionaires of the world. And of course the best slave is the one who doesn't know he's a slave; this keeps him toiling away diligently. Our system might not change within any of our lifetimes, but it is still all going down the toilet someday.

 

[theunflushables]

Like others said, I'm sure this thread will be closed down soon. Just wanted to share my experience with this.

I went to Occupy Chicago today, it was much smaller than Wall St. There were probably around 100 to 200 people there. Judging from the reactions we got from people driving by though, I think this movement is going to be picking up a lot of steam. My favorite reactions came from the city sanitation crew who drove by on a garbage truck. They were honking, cheering, and the guy on the back of the truck was dancing along with the drumming. Also got a lot of support from bus and cab drivers.

I also did some research into the movement and its popping up everywhere, not just major cities. If you're interested in joining, look around, there just might be on organized in your area. If not, start one up.

 

[ArcBound]

The masses took their cues from our leadership. Starting with Reagan, we were encouraged to take on debt and overconsume by the financial and political elites. Through corporate owned media, we became bombarded by the lifestyles of the rich and famous....told that we must keep up with the Joneses. Bush told America after 9/11 to spend more.

Our economy of the last 30 years was nothing more than a debt-fueled consumption binge actively encouraged by our government, Wall Street, and the corporate-run media. Blaming average Americans for being greedy is like leaving an open jar of cookies in front of a kid and then getting mad he ate them. Or blaming employees for stealing office supplies when management has been dipping into the company ink to finance their personal expenses.

Yes, our behavior as a collective was irresponsible, but you didn't hear any politician or banker suggest we save money or be more frugal. If anything they deserve the lion share of the blame and it's good that finally the masses (flawed as they may be) are starting to hold them accountable for selling America a bill of goods.

We are in the age of obsoletion. You have a shirt? It's out of fashion, buy this new one or you suck. Ipod mini? Nah we have the new ipod nano generation 5 with video camera throw your ipod mini out. Your cell phone doesn't have 4G and a dual core processor? Here's your chance to buy a new one for $400 with a 2 year contract and a $30 data plan per month. 720p TV? nope 1080p TV. Oh wait 3D-1080p is the new thing.

And even though adults SHOULD be able to not fall into this trap...you have to realize the kids have been advertised to with this sh!t all their lives, even before I was born...What you get is a nation of adults shopping like kids, FFS just change the outer layer of a product a little bit, add some new gimmicky feature most people don't care about, jack up the price all the way up to several hundred dollars despite selling similar technology without this feature for much less, and people will line up in droves voluntarily throwing their money at you.

http://www.google.com/search?q=ipho...m=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1029&bih=944

 

[Deep Dish]

It's interesting that no major news sites are reporting it.

The New York Times has been providing coverage (front page news at this moment with a video 'Advice for the Wall Street Protesters' and 'City Room: Covering the Wall St. March'), along with the Associated Press, showing up on The Washington Post (front page news at this moment), MSNBC, and ABC News (front page news at this moment). I always find it interesting when I hear this claim when it turns out to be factually false. It may not be the magnitude of attention as you want, but you cannot claim there is no reporting.

 

[Ninja Dude]

Fück Wall street. Occupy the Fed! People in Boston and Texas are already doing it, and Ron Paul cosigns: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka1ym7S3F3w

If you really want to do something effective, go to the wall street protests and get people talking about the Fed. Load a few videos to your mobile device and share information. Watch that sh-t go viral

 

[evansblue]

Capitalism isn't the problem, corporatism is. In the 1930s you had CEOs making 15x more than the employees. Now it's 450x more. The cost of living kept getting higher and higher, and the wage of the average worker was not adjusted properly to compensate for inflation.

These bigwig shareholders are in bed with the government, and that's why they all turned a blind eye to AIG and Goldman Sachs. The SEC is completely corrupt, filled with hedge fund managers who are supposed to be regulating the industry. They maximized their return in the short run and demanded a bailout, which they got. Along with $14 million dollars in bonuses, stock options and higher salaries.

Reduce government, cut defense spending, and let the free market control interest rates, not the Fed.

 

[BigJimbo]

Corporate culture in American is the same as Socialism. The military and corporate America are one in the same. Republicans and Democrats are one in the same!

But hey, most American boys are too horny to care. The p--- don't smell in America. No matter how fat, old, or trampy it is. So go out and get married to a tramp. Have some kids and become a slave to the system. One day she will divorce you and you will go into deep depression as you jerk off to college football.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl2JQfxnnHU
This video is way too simple. However, it plays well to young boys. America is the least free county I have ever been to. And yes, I am from America! I am talking about personal freedom. You have little personal freedom in America. Go to Russia or Lebanon. You will have A LOT of personal freedom. Just don't f--- with political b.s in those countries. In America you have no personal freedom. Most of you can't even buy booze legally in America! You can't gamble legally in America. I could go on and on. You could do all those things in places like Russia and Lebanon! Makes you think.

See, I don't give a s--- about political b.s. I just want to live my life! Some drink, some flashing lights, some pretty girls, etc. Let me be that creepy old dude in the club who has the girl who looks like his daughter. That is all I want. In America you really can't get that unless you are a box office superstar. The numbers are against you. The culture is against you. In the above countries I can achieve that life. That is freedom to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hxTK1Hy8B8
Yep, American tax payer dollars go to blowing up this place because they don't agree with Israel .

 

[logic1]

You can't gamble legally in America. I could go on and on. You could do all those things in places like Russia and Lebanon! Makes you think.

Jimbob, To set the record straight Russia outlawed gambling nationwide in 2009.

 

[Bible_Belt]

http://www.marke****ch.com/story/a-new-lost-decade-is-leading-to-revolution-2011-10-04

(I guess market watch .com does have the word 't_w_a_t" in it. Yay for censorship.)

The people have lost faith in voting. Not just lost faith in the markets and economy. The public no longer has faith in democracy. They know voting is irrelevant, nothing ever changes. They now know their world is being manipulated by a powerful cabal of wealthy special interests, corporate bosses, bankers, lobbyists and self-serving politicians.

Voters know they’re being played for suckers. The game is rigged. And they’ve also figured out that change will come only after a revolution, one they’re triggering.

 

[Bible_Belt]

I agree that revolution is not a magic answer. Prior to Castro, Cuba had a similar gap between the rich and the poor. Castro promised to end inequality with his revolution, and he succeeded. Now everyone is equally poor.

 

[Deadly_Ripped]

Cuba is poor because of the US trade embargo with it. We have the embargo because Castro never turned over power to his people through democratic elections as he originally promised to do. He loved his power and couldn't let it go once he got it.

Elites have exerted disproportionate influence over out lawmakers this country for a hundred years. Whether morally good or bad, I don't believe that anyone here would disagree about the correctness of that one statement. While I can't speak for the whole group (there are MANY, MANY reasons why individuals attend), I have been watching closely and feel comfortable saying the following about the movement:

These people are frustrated that MONEY TALKS and INDIVIDUALS WALK. Politicians have 2 constituencies: corporate interests (=executive interests) and working/poor class interests. The group with the most money gets the most attention, but that doesn't mean that the populist needs of the government are being served; often it means the opposite.

People just want to see their politicians fight for their best collective interest over the interests of a small few who already have it better than those whose welfare they ignore.

 

[backbreaker]

this forum for the decade i have been here has always been off limits tot talk about politics or religion. to be honest i agree, there are too many places (and to be frank, better informed places on the internet) to discuss the matter.

you get 10 posts a day, i would not waste my post debating this with people here, you can find better outlets for that.

someone will then say "what's the big ****ing deal"


the "big ****ing deal" is not the politics per say, is that you don't want the rest of your posts to be tainted by your political views and better yet, you don't want to think any less of someone, in a regular thread, because of something you read in a political / religious thread. that's the big deal

you liek bible belt, think he's a great poster, what if you read a thread where he supports neoconservative principles and you are a hard core liberal, well now every time you read bible belts threads, you are going to remember that thread he had about neoconservative views and while once you might agree with him, now you might not side with him or in some cases, you might heckle him for no other reasons than his political beliefs. What if you found out ESPI was a huge Regan fan and you despise Regan. What if you found out that squirrels was an atheist and you are a devout christian?

These are all just examples, do not take anything i just said seriously.

i've seen it happen all too many times.

there is a woman on a horse racing pedigree forum i visit, love her posts, she knows her ****, she is very informative, we have alot in common as far as what we think horse racing should be and what's wrong with the sport..

then i made the mistake of going into the political sub forum. After reading what i think are pretty warped views, now i can't take her seriously. i just can't. And it's my fault for going there and reading what i read, i stay away for a reason. Now I think the woman is a nutcase. I know a guy who has been around horses his entire life and is a wealth of information, basically get ran off a forum because he made it known one day that he doesn't care for Muslims in the least bit, within 2 weeks he was getting heckled to the point he just stopped coming around and when he did he couldn't say anything without people bringing up what he said or starting crap. There is a place for that and it's not here.


There is a reason you don't know my political affiliation, my religious affiliation (though if you have been around long enough you should) or my view points. I don't come here to be seen or to be heard in that nature. I want to be seen and heard in this forum on my knowledge on how to make women's panties wet.

That's why you take the stuff to a dedicated political forum, so that you can be and should be defined by your political viewpoints and affiliations.