The major force (as far as I've been told by people protesting in the Chicago area) is against big businesses making specialized shady plans to screw over people and come out on top when everyone below takes the blow. For instance they believe companies shouldn't be "too big to fail" and shouldnt receive gov't bailouts when they make mistakes that could have been avoided with a little common sense-- their butts are covered if they fail, but the people below are unshielded and these mistakes end up damaging everyone. People are now getting arrested just because they want to close their bank accounts and whatnot, so it's getting quite out of hand.
I understand and slightly agree with you when you say they're "blaming the wrong people and not taking responsiblity"-- many people out there are dumb with their $, but big businesses see this as an opportunity and use it to their advantage (giving out houses, cars, student loans, etc. when they know these people can't afford them) However, there are those who are just being blunt and rational in this fiasco-
I agree that companies should be allowed to live and die by their own swords, but it isn't their fault that they got bailed out, it is the governments. While it is their fault they were in the situation to be in such dire shape (something I contend was exaggerated as a company will alter its image if it sees free money on the way), it is also the governments fault for forcing the lending institutions to provide mortgages to people that could not afford them. So basically the government created the environment for the crisis and the government then bailed out those that were foolish enough to not read the writing on the wall (not every institution that received a bail out needed one and not everyone that received one asked for one as some were forced to take the money in order to protect the images of the others).
Now what do we have after the governmental 'rescued' us with the bail outs? We have even larger companies than before that have not altered their style in any way as they know now that if they were "too big to fail" at their earlier smaller sizes then they must be more so at their new and larger sizes. It is natural for some business to fail and that is why we have our bankruptcy laws. These things happen quite often and many that go bankrupt return even stronger and learn from their mistakes. When the government interferes with free market and basically hands out trophies to every team, including the losers, we are left with a corruption of the very capitalism that caused us to be the great nation we were/are.
For these people to waste one moment blaming the banks and companies is foolishness at its best. They should be marching on Washington as that is the source of the problems and that is the only place where a prevention of it occurring again can be accomplished. But this isn't about responsibility and ethics, it is a purposeful movement of class warfare and divisiveness with a combination of short term political pursuits and the long term downfall of America. Note: I am not saying everyone involved is working towards this end because they are not, but many are being duped through emotion to react in the predictable fashion of "mob mentality". This is easy to recognize when you simply realize the source of the conditions for the crime to take place, the perpetrator of the crime (remember, the bailouts were the crime and not that the companies operated poorly), who is being blamed for the crime, and who is doing the blaming from afar.
The companies should have been allowed to fail as that is how capitalism works (it is self correcting)...they were not, though, and that outrages me. It is government that puts us in jeopardy as it has grown far too large and uses every chance to interject fear to control us and there are so darn many foolish people in America today that will readily trade a large portion of their freedom for a measure of safety. Unless this movement changes to "Occupy Washington" it will remain a fools errand comprised of nothing more than lemmings.
Community Forum
Topic: Occupy "Portland" and others (Read 1817 times)
November 04, 2010, 07:41:47 pm
