Occupy Wall Street Protest
- Thread starter carl winslow
- Start date
^^you should say no homo first. immortal techniques a boy
i dont know about redistribution of wealth, but what if everyone who "worked hard" earned a decent reward for their labor? the guy who cleans bathrooms in murdochs offices im sure works hard, but makes about as much money as i did when i was 16 yrs old. is this his punishment for not having went to school or not having skill in a job that requires more "cognitive" skill? maybe, but we cant deny that we value the work he does right? i just ask, cause you said "i work hard for my $$"...but a lot of ppl "work hard" and get almost no money for their work. so what is it really?
they actually have brought a boom of business for the local little pie shops, chinese foods, halal trucks etc. in the financial district. those families are being fed a little better at least
theres always been so much animosity toward ppl who challenge the status quo. what would lil b do?
i dont know about redistribution of wealth, but what if everyone who "worked hard" earned a decent reward for their labor? the guy who cleans bathrooms in murdochs offices im sure works hard, but makes about as much money as i did when i was 16 yrs old. is this his punishment for not having went to school or not having skill in a job that requires more "cognitive" skill? maybe, but we cant deny that we value the work he does right? i just ask, cause you said "i work hard for my $$"...but a lot of ppl "work hard" and get almost no money for their work. so what is it really?
they actually have brought a boom of business for the local little pie shops, chinese foods, halal trucks etc. in the financial district. those families are being fed a little better at least
theres always been so much animosity toward ppl who challenge the status quo. what would lil b do?
If it is about bailouts and all that, the protest should have come when all that went down. Why wait so long? We've KNOWN what these companies did with that money for well over a year. Why not do something about it THEN? Why not march on DC and protest Obama for giving that money to these companies? People told him it was a bad fucking idea but he did it anyway. You stimulate the economy by giving money to consumers, not corporations.
And how can you compare News Corp. to the Mafia and Drug Cartels? One gave a lot of people jobs, and the others killed a lot of people.
And peaceful and nonviolent is good, but it's still disruptive. They are occupying heavy business zones. If you lay down in the street, you're still disrupting commerce by blocking traffic and making it difficult for people to get places.
And how can you compare News Corp. to the Mafia and Drug Cartels? One gave a lot of people jobs, and the others killed a lot of people.
And peaceful and nonviolent is good, but it's still disruptive. They are occupying heavy business zones. If you lay down in the street, you're still disrupting commerce by blocking traffic and making it difficult for people to get places.
Hey, I agree that people should be paid more. I know how fucked up shit is. Fuck, I'm a college graduate making the same amount I made 3 years ago, and less than I made 7 years ago. Then I see an IT director at the company I work for, and he makes 6 figures...but our computer system is always down. On top of that, none of his employees know WHEN the system goes down, and when they find out it takes an entire day to fix it.
I believe the people who RUN the company should make the money. When I say RUN, I mean the admins, the shop workers, assemblers, sales team, etc. etc. 'Cause without them, corporations aren't shit. Target sales floor employees make $8.50/hr. and work part time so the company doesn't have to pay benefits....their "Executive Team Leaders" make 6 figures. And that's just a fancy word for "Store manager".
I just don't think these protestors are organized. Some people want this, others want that, and some are just there to be fuckin' cool. And standing outside is not going to solve anything. The only way to HURT a major corporation is to stop buying their shit.
I believe the people who RUN the company should make the money. When I say RUN, I mean the admins, the shop workers, assemblers, sales team, etc. etc. 'Cause without them, corporations aren't shit. Target sales floor employees make $8.50/hr. and work part time so the company doesn't have to pay benefits....their "Executive Team Leaders" make 6 figures. And that's just a fancy word for "Store manager".
I just don't think these protestors are organized. Some people want this, others want that, and some are just there to be fuckin' cool. And standing outside is not going to solve anything. The only way to HURT a major corporation is to stop buying their shit.
Here's What The Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About...
The "Occupy Wall Street" protests are gaining momentum, having spread from a small park in New York to marches around the city to other cities across the country.
So far, the protests seem fueled by a collective sense that things in our economy are not fair or right. But the protesters have not done a good job of focusing their complaints—and thus have been skewered for not knowing what they stand for or want.
(An early list of "grievances" included some legitimate beefs, but was otherwise just a vague attack on "corporations." Given that these are the same corporations that employ more than 100 million Americans and make the products we all use every day and, this broadside did not resonate with most Americans).
So, what are the protesters so upset about, really?
Do they have legitimate gripes?
To answer the latter question first, yes, they do.
They have very legitimate gripes.
And if America cannot figure out a way to address these gripes, the country will likely become increasingly "de-stabilized," as sociologists might say. And in that scenario, the current protests will likely be only the beginning.
The problem in a nutshell is this: Inequality in this country has hit a level that has been seen only once in the nation's history—at the end of the 1920s. Unemployment has also reached a level that has been seen only once since the Great Depression.
In other words, in the never-ending tug-of-war between "labor" and "capital," there has rarely—if ever—been a time when "capital" was so clearly winning.
Let's start with the obvious one: Unemployment. Three years after the financial crisis, the unemployment rate is still at the highest level since the Great Depression (except for a brief blip in the early 1980s)
Jobs are scarce, so many adults have given up looking for them. Thus, a sharp decline in the "participation ratio."
And it's not like unemployment is some quick, painful jolt: A record percentage of unemployed people have been unemployed for longer than 6 months.
And it's not just construction workers. The average duration of all unemployment is also near an all-time high.
That 9% rate, by the way, equates to 14 million Americans—people who want to work but can't find a job.
And that's just people who meet the strict criteria for "unemployed." Include people working part-time who want to work full-time, plus some people who haven't looked for a job in a while, and unemployment's at 17%
Put differently, this is the lowest percentage of Americans with jobs since the early 1980s (And the boom prior to that, by the way, was from women entering the workforce).
So that's the jobs picture. Not pretty.
And now we turn to the other side of this issue... the Americans for whom life has never been better. The OWNERS.
Corporate profits just hit another all-time high.
Corporate profits as a percent of the economy are near a record all-time high. With the exception of a brief happy period in 2007 (just before the crash), profits are higher than they've been since the 1950s. And they are VASTLY higher than they've been for most of the intervening half-century.
CEO pay is now 350X the average worker's, up from 50X from 1960-1985.
CEO pay has skyrocketed 300% since 1990. Corporate profits have doubled. Average "production worker" pay has increased 4%. The minimum wage has dropped. (All numbers adjusted for inflation).
After adjusting for inflation, average hourly earnings haven't increased in 50 years.
In short... while CEOs and shareholders have been cashing in, wages as a percent of the economy have dropped to an all-time low.
In other words, in the struggle between "labor" and "capital," capital has basically won. (This man lives in a tent city in Lakewood, New Jersey, about a hundred miles from Wall Street. He would presumably be "labor," except that he lost his job and can't find another one.)
Of course, life is great if you're in the top 1% of American wage earners. You're hauling in a bigger percentage of the country's total pre-tax income than you have at any time since the late 1920s. Your share of the national income, in fact, is almost 2X the long-term average!
And the top 0.1% in America are doing way better than the top 0.1% in other first-world countries.
In fact, income inequality has gotten so extreme here that the US now ranks 93rd in the world in "income equality." China's ahead of us. So is India. So is Iran.
And, by the way, few people would have a problem with inequality if the American Dream were still fully intact—if it were easy to work your way into that top 1%. But, unfortunately, social mobility in this country is also near an all-time low.
So what does all this mean in terms of net worth? Well, for starters, it means that the top 1% of Americans own 42% of the financial wealth in this country. The top 5%, meanwhile, own nearly 70%.
That's about 60% of the net worth of the country held by the top 5% (left chart).
And remember that huge debt problem we have—with hundreds of millions of Americans indebted up to their eyeballs? Well, the top 1% doesn't have that problem. They only own 5% of the country's debt.
And then there are taxes... It's a great time to make a boatload of money in America, because taxes on the nation's highest-earners are close to the lowest they've ever been.
The aggregate tax rate for the top 1% is lower than for the next 9%—and not much higher than it is for pretty much everyone else.
As the nation's richest people often point out, they do pay the lion's share of taxes in the country: The richest 20% pay 64% of the total taxes. (Lower bar). Of course, that's because they also make most of the money. (Top bar).
And now we come to the type of American corporation that gets—and deserves—a big share of the blame: The banks. Willie Sutton once explained that the reason he robbed banks was because "that's where the money is." The man knew what he was talking about.
Remember back in the financial crisis, when we bailed out the banks? Yes, and remember the REASON we bailed out the banks? The REASON we had to bail out the banks was so that they could keep lending to American businesses. Without that lending, we were told, society would collapse. So, did the banks keep lending?
Um, no. Bank lending dropped sharply, and it has yet to recover.
So, what have banks been doing since 2007 if not lending money to American companies? Lending money to America's government! By buying risk-free Treasury bonds and other government-guaranteed securities.
And, remarkably, they've also been collecting interest on money they are NOT lending—the "excess reserves" they have at the Fed. Back in the financial crisis, the Fed decided to help bail out the banks by paying them interest on this money that they're not lending. And they're happily still collecting it. (It's AWESOME to be a bank.)
Meanwhile, of course, the banks are able to borrow money FOR FREE. Because the Fed has slashed rates to basically zero. And the banks have slashed the rates they pay on deposits to basically zero. So they can have all the money they want—for nearly free!
When you can borrow money for nothing, and lend it back to the government risk-free for a few percentage points, you can COIN MONEY. And the banks are doing that. According to IRA, the "net interest margin" made by US banks in the first six months of this year is $211 Billion. Nice!
And that has helped produce $58 billion of profit in the first six months of the year.
And it has helped generate near-record financial sector profits—while the rest of the country struggles with its 9% unemployment rate.
And these profits are getting back toward a record as a percentage of all corporate profits.
And those profits, of course, are AFTER the banks have paid their bankers. And it's still great to be a banker. The average banker in New York City made $361,330 in 2010. Not bad!
This average Wall Street salary was 6X the average private-sector salary (which, in turn, is actually lower than the average government salary, but that's a different issue).
So it REALLY doesn't suck to be a banker.
And so, in conclusion, we'll end with another look at the "money shot"—the one overarching reason the Wall Street protesters are so upset: Wages as a percent of the economy. Again, it's basically the lowest it has ever been.
So now you know!
http://www.businessinsider.com/what-wall-street-protesters-are-so-angry-about-2011-10?op=1
The "Occupy Wall Street" protests are gaining momentum, having spread from a small park in New York to marches around the city to other cities across the country.
So far, the protests seem fueled by a collective sense that things in our economy are not fair or right. But the protesters have not done a good job of focusing their complaints—and thus have been skewered for not knowing what they stand for or want.
(An early list of "grievances" included some legitimate beefs, but was otherwise just a vague attack on "corporations." Given that these are the same corporations that employ more than 100 million Americans and make the products we all use every day and, this broadside did not resonate with most Americans).
So, what are the protesters so upset about, really?
Do they have legitimate gripes?
To answer the latter question first, yes, they do.
They have very legitimate gripes.
And if America cannot figure out a way to address these gripes, the country will likely become increasingly "de-stabilized," as sociologists might say. And in that scenario, the current protests will likely be only the beginning.
The problem in a nutshell is this: Inequality in this country has hit a level that has been seen only once in the nation's history—at the end of the 1920s. Unemployment has also reached a level that has been seen only once since the Great Depression.
In other words, in the never-ending tug-of-war between "labor" and "capital," there has rarely—if ever—been a time when "capital" was so clearly winning.
Let's start with the obvious one: Unemployment. Three years after the financial crisis, the unemployment rate is still at the highest level since the Great Depression (except for a brief blip in the early 1980s)
Jobs are scarce, so many adults have given up looking for them. Thus, a sharp decline in the "participation ratio."
And it's not like unemployment is some quick, painful jolt: A record percentage of unemployed people have been unemployed for longer than 6 months.
And it's not just construction workers. The average duration of all unemployment is also near an all-time high.
That 9% rate, by the way, equates to 14 million Americans—people who want to work but can't find a job.
And that's just people who meet the strict criteria for "unemployed." Include people working part-time who want to work full-time, plus some people who haven't looked for a job in a while, and unemployment's at 17%
Put differently, this is the lowest percentage of Americans with jobs since the early 1980s (And the boom prior to that, by the way, was from women entering the workforce).
So that's the jobs picture. Not pretty.
And now we turn to the other side of this issue... the Americans for whom life has never been better. The OWNERS.
Corporate profits just hit another all-time high.
Corporate profits as a percent of the economy are near a record all-time high. With the exception of a brief happy period in 2007 (just before the crash), profits are higher than they've been since the 1950s. And they are VASTLY higher than they've been for most of the intervening half-century.
CEO pay is now 350X the average worker's, up from 50X from 1960-1985.
CEO pay has skyrocketed 300% since 1990. Corporate profits have doubled. Average "production worker" pay has increased 4%. The minimum wage has dropped. (All numbers adjusted for inflation).
After adjusting for inflation, average hourly earnings haven't increased in 50 years.
In short... while CEOs and shareholders have been cashing in, wages as a percent of the economy have dropped to an all-time low.
In other words, in the struggle between "labor" and "capital," capital has basically won. (This man lives in a tent city in Lakewood, New Jersey, about a hundred miles from Wall Street. He would presumably be "labor," except that he lost his job and can't find another one.)
Of course, life is great if you're in the top 1% of American wage earners. You're hauling in a bigger percentage of the country's total pre-tax income than you have at any time since the late 1920s. Your share of the national income, in fact, is almost 2X the long-term average!
And the top 0.1% in America are doing way better than the top 0.1% in other first-world countries.
In fact, income inequality has gotten so extreme here that the US now ranks 93rd in the world in "income equality." China's ahead of us. So is India. So is Iran.
And, by the way, few people would have a problem with inequality if the American Dream were still fully intact—if it were easy to work your way into that top 1%. But, unfortunately, social mobility in this country is also near an all-time low.
So what does all this mean in terms of net worth? Well, for starters, it means that the top 1% of Americans own 42% of the financial wealth in this country. The top 5%, meanwhile, own nearly 70%.
That's about 60% of the net worth of the country held by the top 5% (left chart).
And remember that huge debt problem we have—with hundreds of millions of Americans indebted up to their eyeballs? Well, the top 1% doesn't have that problem. They only own 5% of the country's debt.
And then there are taxes... It's a great time to make a boatload of money in America, because taxes on the nation's highest-earners are close to the lowest they've ever been.
The aggregate tax rate for the top 1% is lower than for the next 9%—and not much higher than it is for pretty much everyone else.
As the nation's richest people often point out, they do pay the lion's share of taxes in the country: The richest 20% pay 64% of the total taxes. (Lower bar). Of course, that's because they also make most of the money. (Top bar).
And now we come to the type of American corporation that gets—and deserves—a big share of the blame: The banks. Willie Sutton once explained that the reason he robbed banks was because "that's where the money is." The man knew what he was talking about.
Remember back in the financial crisis, when we bailed out the banks? Yes, and remember the REASON we bailed out the banks? The REASON we had to bail out the banks was so that they could keep lending to American businesses. Without that lending, we were told, society would collapse. So, did the banks keep lending?
Um, no. Bank lending dropped sharply, and it has yet to recover.
So, what have banks been doing since 2007 if not lending money to American companies? Lending money to America's government! By buying risk-free Treasury bonds and other government-guaranteed securities.
And, remarkably, they've also been collecting interest on money they are NOT lending—the "excess reserves" they have at the Fed. Back in the financial crisis, the Fed decided to help bail out the banks by paying them interest on this money that they're not lending. And they're happily still collecting it. (It's AWESOME to be a bank.)
Meanwhile, of course, the banks are able to borrow money FOR FREE. Because the Fed has slashed rates to basically zero. And the banks have slashed the rates they pay on deposits to basically zero. So they can have all the money they want—for nearly free!
When you can borrow money for nothing, and lend it back to the government risk-free for a few percentage points, you can COIN MONEY. And the banks are doing that. According to IRA, the "net interest margin" made by US banks in the first six months of this year is $211 Billion. Nice!
And that has helped produce $58 billion of profit in the first six months of the year.
And it has helped generate near-record financial sector profits—while the rest of the country struggles with its 9% unemployment rate.
And these profits are getting back toward a record as a percentage of all corporate profits.
And those profits, of course, are AFTER the banks have paid their bankers. And it's still great to be a banker. The average banker in New York City made $361,330 in 2010. Not bad!
This average Wall Street salary was 6X the average private-sector salary (which, in turn, is actually lower than the average government salary, but that's a different issue).
So it REALLY doesn't suck to be a banker.
And so, in conclusion, we'll end with another look at the "money shot"—the one overarching reason the Wall Street protesters are so upset: Wages as a percent of the economy. Again, it's basically the lowest it has ever been.
So now you know!
http://www.businessinsider.com/what-wall-street-protesters-are-so-angry-about-2011-10?op=1
there was a movement from a few years back that was chanting change too. The Tea Party. but all these ignorant lefty gimmee gimmee kids (and "adults") decided to label them all racists. yet the "racist" Tea Party was trying to get all these white incumbents out of office and put a new "party" in.
how does that help the nation? if they are so bent on changing this country and occupying every metro area, why were/are they quick to down talk the Tea Party? its al just "look at me" and "gimmee gimmee" mentality. fuck'em. if they was really about changing the country, they woulda been rockin with them conservatives instead of shitting on them.
Tea Party got that label because every time somebody speaks out against the fucked off government NOW, they only do so because the president is black. I'm not saying this is true, but this is how they see it. It's so much easier to play the race card than it is to accept the fact that the president (who happens to be black), fucking sucks at his job.