Wall Street Protests

[piercehawkeye45]

Originally Posted by classicman

How would that help? Whats the point?

Unless I'm wrong, he is trying to make the point that financial companies and banks play an important role in our economy and affect everyone. Although, by making a hyperbole, he is trying to cut any conversation about reform, which is what the OWSers are going after (besides a few individuals but you cannot generalize with that).

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by classicman

How would that help? Whats the point?

"Going Galt", from Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Where the rich people run away and form their own society to teach the poor people a lesson.

[SamIam]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

I have a better plan....

All corps should lay off all their workers for one month without pay and shut their doors and see if they are worthy of any part of this process. If they are so evil they should just shut their doors and shut off the lights.

Enough with the references to Ayn Rand's hyperbole. I think American tax payers should have shut off the lights at AIG, Bank of AMERICA, etc., etc., etc., etc. long ago. You wanna know who John Galt is? I'll tell you. He is a businessman whose soul is filled with greed and believes that neither ordinary human morality or basic business ethics apply to him. He was given a golden parachute by his board of directors for running his enterprise into such terrible debt, that only the government he pretends to despise had the resources to save his sorry ass. He is every CEO who helped manifest the banking and financial institution crises. And he has yet to take responsibility for his actions. Not a one of these corporate felons modeled after Rand's favorite criminal have yet to go to trial.

Without the worker/tax payer bailouts, most of your favorite corrupt institutions would be here no longer. Again and again, I have brought up this point, and again and again you refuse to discuss it.

Its as if I were to set up Robin Hood as the be all and end all of wise economic policy. The character of John Galt is attractive to 17 yrar olds who know nothing of economics and business and to adults who wish to live in the Land of Oz. (and I don't mean Australia)

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by SamIam

Enough with the references to Ayn Rand's hyperbole. I think American tax payers should have shut off the lights at AIG, Bank of AMERICA, etc., etc., etc., etc. long ago.

Agreed.

You wanna know who John Galt is? I'll tell you. He is a businessman whose soul is filled with greed and believes that neither ordinary human morality or basic business ethics apply to him. He was given a golden parachute by his board of directors for running his enterprise into such terrible debt, that only the government he pretends to despise had the resources to save his sorry ass. He is every CEO who helped manifest the banking and financial institution crises. And he has yet to take responsibility for his actions. Not a one of these corporate felons modeled after Rand's favorite criminal have yet to go to trial.

Bullfuckingshit.. he is the engine that drives the economy and without you would be destitute. And when "he" quits, you are more fucked than you think you are....

Without the worker/tax payer bailouts, most of your favorite corrupt institutions would be here no longer.

And without the engine of those willing to sacrifice and put up the capitol there would be no jobs, so you fail again....

Its as if I were to set up Robin Hood as the be all and end all of wise economic policy. The character of John Galt is attractive to 17 yrar olds who know nothing of economics and business and to adults who wish to live in the Land of Oz. (and I don't mean Australia)

Cool... How did that work out for you bleeding hearts in the last election?

[SamIam]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Bullfuckingshit.. he [John Galt] is the engine that drives the economy and without you would be destitute. And when "he" quits, you are more fucked than you think you are....

If his company is one out of the 7 or 8 which paid no taxes last year; if his company is one of the ones that held out it hand for bail-out and other funds from the government; it his company is one of the ones that outsourced its jobs overseas - in other words the typical American company, we're all better off without him.

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

And without the engine of those willing to sacrifice and put up the capitol there would be no jobs, so you fail again....

I have no problem with individuals or investors' legitimately raising capitol. That means no government handouts and no sweet deals with banks which then cause the bank to collapse.

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Cool... How did that work out for you bleeding hearts in the last election?

I was not aware that Mr. Hood ran in the last election. Besides, I was using him as an example of going to far to the left which doesn't work either.

[classicman]

Merc, that guy lives on the street adn is in no way what OWS is about.
He says "google me the lotion man on youtube."
I suggest you take him up on it.

[TheMercenary]

You know what is really funny? These fools protesting are all upset about corps while the NBA is on strike over a 3% difference in profit sharing that involve billions of dollars. Yet no one is all over sports teams. No one is marching on the fool idiots of Hollywood. Yet they point the barrel of their weapon at the very machine that keeps the economy humming along and if it stopped, they would all starve and most likely be killed as a source of food. They don't have a plan or a clue....

[BigV]

At Occupy Seattle, local police are citing drivers who honk their horns in support of the demonstrators.

From the local news:

Starting at 11 p.m. Friday, police started pulling over and ticketing drivers who honked as they drove past protesters.

When the first car - a taxicab - was pulled over, the protesters followed and shouted at police who then formed a blockade around the driver's cab.

The cab driver was then given a $144 ticket - and protesters ended up handing him money afterwards to help pay for his fine.

"I'm really sorry this happened to you tonight, man," one protester said to the cab driver.

There are numerous copies of the news video.

[TheMercenary]

Awe hell, maybe they should just shoot at them...

Than you would be completely happy....

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Economic illiterates, is the impression I get. Who can't understand well enough to even want to get better.

I can imagine the cops going, "I think I liked it better when they were all 'Fuck tha Police' instead of the "

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[DanaC]

Well fucking said Sam.

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

"Going Galt", from Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Where the rich people run away and form their own society to teach the poor people a lesson.

That wouldn't work out well for rich people. Who would make the products or provide the services for them to sell? Who would make the products or provide the services they need to use? Who would buy the products or service they have for sale?

[classicman]

He may be the engine, but that engine won't run without fuel either. We are mutually linked. There cannot be one without the other in a functional situation. Currently this engine is burning WAY TOO MUCH fuel.

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by classicman

He may be the engine, but that engine won't run without fuel either. We are mutually linked. There cannot be one without the other in a functional situation. Currently this engine is burning WAY TOO MUCH fuel.

Beautifully put, Classic.

[ZenGum]

To take that analogy, there are leaks in the fuel line, and a lot of the fuel isn't even getting inside the engine.

Quite a lot of business - even financial business - is of net benefit to society at large. Only a tiny number of the people protesting here want to shut it all down.

A significant portion of business, especially international finance, is not of net benefit to society as a whole, but rather imposes a cost on society, in order to enrich the few involved in the deal. This is the bad sort of capitalism. These are the leaks. This is what people want stopped.

I doubt anyone thinks that distinguishing the two will be easy, or that setting rules that allow the first and limit the latter will be easy, but that is no excuse to not make a start. Instead, what we see is these parasitic wealthy effectively buying control of government and skewing things even more in their own favour.