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Occupy Wall St – Systemic Change Please
Michael Hudson explains why the OWSers are not making specific, piecemeal-demands. He also discusses a public option in banking as a structural answer to the power of finance. Wild guess - many here may agree with some of Michael's assessments, but take issue with his public option proposal. ~ Ilene
Occupy Wall St. to a Bank in the Public Interest
Courtesy of Michael Hudson
Michael discusses the growing Occupy Wall St movement and the opportunities for banking reform.
Excerpt (paraphrasing Michael slightly):
I think it’s a very strong point that they haven’t made specific demands… Their worry is that if they make specific demands, then the media and other people will make these particular demands the issue. That’s not the issue. The sense is that the financial system is dysfunctional as a system. That means that you can’t make a technocratic demand like “fix this,” or give a consumer protection law, or appoint Elizabeth Warren to the commission.
It’s much bigger than that. There’s an awareness that the whole financial system is dysfunctional… The government is in the hands of the financial lobbyists. That’s why it’s called Occupy Wall Street, because [Wall Street] essentially bought the electoral campaigns and bought the Obama administration. And I can tell you that there was an absolute disgust yesterday and today after Mr. Obama’s attempt to hijack the Occupy Wall Street demonstration by saying “here’s what I’m trying to do to help,” and then he gave a couple of lobbying statements written by his Wall Street financial lobbies…
They’re disgusted with the Obama administration, they’re disgusted with the Bush administration and the republicans, they’re disgusted with politics being for sale to the highest lobbyists. And they’re disgusted with the debt overhead… The system doesn’t work, and they don’t want to reduce this to a set of technocratic little fix its and paste-its.
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You may call them lazy, but "A man has to know his limitations". Some may pretend they are "too good" for such jobs. That avoids facing the reality that not one in a hundred downsized or outsourced "cubical farm workers" has the energy, health and stamina to be an agrcultural farm worker.
I used to hike mountain trails for recreation with a 50-60 pound pack and was in "great" shape. My brother ran a vegtable and flower farm and sometimes i would help out. I could work 8 or 10 hours but could not keep up with him. His normal day was 17 hours, seven days a week from March thru October. The remainder of the year he averaged six day weeks and 14 hour days. People who work that hard expect alot from their hired labor, and few are willing to even try. Of those few who do try it, and do not fall apart physically, most decide they need a life beyond work.
"Is that a hard-right point of view?"
Probably some kid who just spent the last four years getting a degree in a field where there was very little prospect for a career to begin with. Never mind the fact that...that was known beforehand.
But doesn't that degree look swell ;-)
Who's up for some Sunday morning comics?...lol.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/07/opinion/krugman-confronting-the-malefactors.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
I'm guessing your avatar is an actual picture of you. Your statement is like saying that boats stink because some get holes in them.
Our system has been essentially fascistic since 1913, when capturing yield from the bottom became the biggest game in town. Everything that's happened since is the logical extension.
It was the same and in fact worse before the turn of the century, for a variety of other reasons. Capitalism has caused the death and suffering of millions on millions of people. It was the social movements that allowed for any gains in comfort / decency. Child labor is coming back. Long hours is back. No vacation is back. Things will continue to deteriorate until all of the gains are eroded and we are forced to endure conditions worse than the pre-regulated capitalism of the 1800's.
You are assuming that the student loans are not precipitated from the ethers like the rest of the mortgage and banking loans . . . fractional reserve magic.