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Occupy Wall Street: Is It Really The 99%?
By EconMatters
It looks like the initial public support and sympathy for Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is starting to wear thin. From CNBC:
"Occupy Wall Street may claim small-business owners as members of the 99 percent, but from Oakland, Calif., to New York, many local enterprises are asking the protesters to pack up.
....the problem with the movement is that it is not hurting the big banks, but rather, it is hurting the small-business owners that are fighting to survive in a recession, says small-business owner Carol Bloom Stevens."
About a month ago, we already opined in an article that
"While we do not believe the Occupy Wall Street movement is entirely constructive timing-wise with the already troubled U.S. economy, we do understand the elements behind the initiative."
We have pointed out some of the shady market practice going on on Wall Street. However, part of the reason for our "against-the-herd" view regarding the OWS is the observation of a lack of leadership and clear vision and goal(s) of the entire Occupy movement.
When an organized initiative is unable to articulate realistic goals, and solutions related to its cause, it is nothing more than a disorganized idealistic crowd leading to typically nothing constructive. Or worse yet, if the crowd is big enough as in the case of OWS, "mob mentality" would almost guarantee something destructive would take place.
OWS has now escalated into scary violent outbursts in several metro areas with some protesters reportedly carrying weapons such as AK-47, while others resorting to destroying public and private properties and vandalism. Regardless how frustrated the bankster situation (at least that was the original OWS cause) might be, there's hardly any excuse for that kind of bad behavior that could harm innocent bystanders, while not only disrupting day-to-day lives of business and private citizens, but also bringing about a "riot contagion." For example, if not for the OWS, it is doubtful the Penn State students would have resorted to rioting over a football coach who probably deserved to be fired in the first place based on reported accounts.
Another observation: As part of the 99% "worker bees", it is also very difficult for us to fathom how much free time these protesters seem to have to just camp out for days, weeks or even months without any concern in the world about family, work, and most importantly, the next paycheck. So either these people are
- Part of the 14 million unemployed, whose time probably would have been better utilized going back to school or sprucing up job skill and resume for the next gig, or
- Part of the 1% with riches able to subsidize idealism, or
- The term "Professional Protester" may not be that far off.
Some people equivalized OWS to the Arab Spring. America is far from perfect, but it is not Egypt or Libya where an outdated autocratic leader/government had ruled for decades either. The political and fiscal system in the United States most definitely needs an overhaul, and the entire congress probably needs to be replaced, but that's where voting and election comes in and what a democratic system is all about. Overall, USA is still one of the best countries in the free world despite its many problems. That is, name one country in the world that does not have similar or more serious problems....just take a look at Europe.
While the cause behind OWS resonates with many in the nation, OWS is not the path to a better America either. The longer it spread and goes on in a disruptive manner without a clear and definitive mission, and solution, the more likely other parts of the society will start turning against it. Time to regroup before falling flat on its face once the red carpet gets abruptly pulled out.
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Do Mummy and Pater know that Jasper is...is..."protesting" on the side of those dreadful hoi polloi ? Goodness ! And Pater is Crimson -- Class of '79 !
"carrying weapons such as AK-47"
What a douche.
"Oh no!! Someone without a state sponsored costume possesses a firearm with a name that I find frightening. It's Anarchy!!!"
If it is true, then I would say it's quite the evolution with OWS... interesting.
I guess I could take a jab and say, OF COURSE COMMIES WOULD CARRY THAT PIECE OF SHIT, but I won't... even though I did. Made in the US of .... probably romania... doh.
We would all be safer if more people would open carry firearms. A friend took a job at a convenience store (Called the Stop and Rob by the locals) that was robbed regularly. He took the job on the condition he could open carry a 45 Pistol on his hip. On the second day of his employment he shot and killed a Robber that walked in waving a Pistol and Screaming. He was dead and bleeding on the floor 5 seconds after entering the store having taken a 45 round through his head. All further robbery attempts stopped immediately after that event.
Nice one.
"I never did mind the little things." -- Nikita
Exactly!
Gotta go with Slewie on this. We don't need no stinking leaders. But a "con" wouldn't understand democracy. punks.
That is the first thing I thought. No need to add on to your comments. Pretty much echoes my thoughts.
D.C. like the idea of stealing from future generations and get their share via the debt slavery system.
Wall St. too like the idea and get their share as well.
99% like it just as much and actually vote for it and then realize they are fooled by the first two and have got the short end of the stick, so they now get mad for not receiving a fair share of that theft.
At the end of the day we've got two shrewd a$$holes plus one dumb a$$hole (but a$$hole nonetheless). Hard to have much sympathy for any one the three, ain't it?
yeah,
until we repudiate the debt as odious
we are a third-world nation, after all
xoxoxo om
In 2008, when the US National Intelligence Council issued its latest report meant for the administration of newly elected President Barack Obama, it predicted that the planet's "sole superpower" would suffer a modest decline and a soft landing fifteen years hence. In his new book The United States of Fear, Tom Engelhardt makes clear that Americans should don their crash helmets and buckle their seat belts, because the United States is on the path to a major decline at a startling speed. Engelhardt offers a savage anatomy of how successive administrations in Washington took the "Soviet path"—pouring American treasure into the military, war, and national security—and so helped drive their country off the nearest cliff.
This is the startling tale of how fear was profitably shot into the national bloodstream, how the country—gripped by terror fantasies—was locked down, and how a brain-dead Washington elite fiddled (and profited) while America quietly burned.
Think of it as the story of how the Cold War really ended, with the triumphalist "sole superpower" of 1991 heading slowly for the same exit through which the Soviet Union left the stage twenty years earlier. Review of "The United States of Fear."
The neocon wet dream of a benign 'American Empire' presiding over the world - with 'shining examples of democracy' like Iraq (bwahaaaaaaaa) exemplifying the ideals they held true (like minimal government regulation, free enterprise unfettered minimal taxes). Of course this was really just apretext for grabbing byforce the natural resources we could no longer afford to pay for with a currency declining in value unbacked by any productive capacity. The US has been living on credit for decades - threatening the world with mutual assured destruction of the world's fiunanciual system if everyone else did not support the $US. Well... we blew up the world's economy anyway... there's no incentive for the rest of the world to voluntarily play along with the US anymore - we're now the schoolyard bully depending on our military fo force compliance with our will. But even that threat is growing thin.
Meanwhile China has sat back and converted its $US hildings int otngible assets - mining companies, farmlad, oill contracts and gold. All they have to do is wait as the US implodes. Bush's misadventures in the Middle East and failure to oversee Wall Stret and US Banks hastened the US collapse and China's ascendency by 50 years.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175463/tomgram%3A_frances_fox_piven%2C_t...
Yep, it is a great plan: Building shit you blow up, a sustaianable market economy does not make.
135,000 "new" contractors and companies building defense and protection of the homeland, tax free, at a markup to the taxpayer.
Fucking beautiful, building guns and body armor for the defense of the country against itself, while rolling up gun laws so any nut can grab a few.
This ain't going to end well.
I have to agree with the article here. OWS is still leaderless and aimless after 3 months. Of course it is going to devolve. Of course people are going to grow tired of it. How long do you think general population will sympathize with OWS sitting around banging drums, doing drugs, and smashing windows. If OWS doesn't either go all in on violent revolution or come up with some sort=of "victory" against the 1% (like preventing BAC from getting another bailout of 50 billion by transferring their gambling losses onto the backs of taxpayers) then why would most people support or care about OWS? Really? I am just stating the obvious here. Otherwise, good luck protesting.....something....whatever.
" For example, if not for the OWS, it is doubtful the Penn State students would have resorted to rioting over a football coach who probably deserved to be fired in the first place based on reported accounts."
LOL. You are a moron.
The only problem with OWS is that they haven't yet Occupied the White House.
Exactly, and I doubt they ever will.
That's the big problem with OWS, it's all now driven by Obama's cozy groups and this is his re-election campaign. Obama bundler, Jon Corzine, and MF Global gets a total pass from OWS when it was served up on a hot platter for them while OWS was encamped! Not a peep. And no a peep on the FED. OWS is protecting the status quo and is becoming part of the problem.
Agree with you, gwar5. The ones junking you will never see this but they are supporting protesters that are nothing more than 'useful idiots' to the statists running the OWS. Wish they would wake up.
To first fix a problem, you first have to believe that their is a problem. The biggest success of the OWS movement so far, is that people are now starting to awaken to concept that their is something wrong.
Of course the majority don't understand what is causing the problems but at least more people are awakening to a realization that their is a problem and its not all the government's fault.
I have been participating in this movement since the second week and would like to know who is running OWS?
Econ, you fucktard, are a french poodle puppy fucker.
Kiss my ass.
Come walk a few miles in my wore the fuck out boots, then join me in the only goddman thing I have left, for cup of shitty coffee: The living room of my F-250, whereas I'll fill you in on why the Reagan Revolution began this ass-reaming in 19goddamn80.
We had a better fucking America until a few of these fucktards decided we didn't need no stinking rules. Funny, we need them for every goddamn thing else we do, but not the fucking FREE GODDAMN MARKETS!
You think I'm pissed off now, wait till you stick a microphone in my face and I stick it right up your ass.
Not the path??? What fucking options do we have left? We vote for a guy that should get a chance to change this shit and then the fucktards find a way around that. Can't even run a good democratic republic without a few right hand bizzilionaires buying the whole goddamn thing and sticking it up our ass.
Fuck you econ, and the nice path to opening peoples eyes to the fact that we're really, really, really fucking tired of this shit.
Did I mention we're really tired of being nice?
I'm grabbing a pint too. Goddamn I'm tired of this shit.
Fuckem, fuckem all.
El Yunque
Yours is the best post I hve ever read on ZH.
You called it brother------THANK YOU!!!!!!! om
I was wondering if your rant is 100% correct, or only 99% correct. If it is 99% correct, where is the 1% error?
Someone slammed me down, there it is.
I guess I didn't use enough "fucks" to punctuate just how fucking angry I am.
Grow up.
There isn't one iota of truth in your post. Caricatures are you.
There are real problems in the world. We don't need a whiner who wants to jump to the front of the bus and be treated special.
Ed, are you special? Special Ed...
His statement "Goddamn I'm tired of this shit" is one iota of truth.
Head, let's start with the truth, what the hell do you think it is?
Read, look, -dipshit.
Not special at all, another loser like you. Bring it asshole.
So lots of people like you clogging the streets and screaming is supposed to fix the economic crisis?
Too funny.
You won't find me standing in the street.
My job is taking your tax dollars and turning them into sewage treatment plants, water treatment plants, pipe lines, -general infrastructure type shit that obviously no one fucking needs, as there don't appear to be many goddamn lobbyists buying John B in the House for the little bit of libtard asspounding, as some dipshit up the thread called it, for some recovery dollars that actually get funneled off to American business, so that when you push that little shiny handle down in the head, the shit goes somewhere else. I guess people like the thought of shitting in a hole in the floor.
I also wander around and do things like plugging old gas, oil, and water wells, so a few fucktards around the country have clean water to drink instead drilling mud and fracking fluid.
It's my father's business and he's been doing it since the late sixties - he's never employed an accountant or a lawyer, is seventy-one and still drives his own shovel. He doesn't have health insurance, votes for Republicans religiously and hates taxes, the fed, and OWS as well.
It was all working pretty well right up until 2008, when the dog got fisted here; even after we really fucked ourselves in 2000.
I just started screaming because I'm tired of the fucking lies, nothing else seems to be getting through, as you've noticed.
I don't see it as a crisis anymore, it's fucking insanity: when politicians get together and wring their hands over a fifteen trillion dollar debt ceiling, while BAC moves between 50 and 90 trillion in unregulated derivatives into the sunlight and it doesn't make a sound, it's fucking bad, really fucking bad. All some of us wanted in 1999 was to leave Glass Steagall the fuck alone and keep banks out of the wealth generation business, because everytime we turn them loose with a pile of wealth, they just set the shit on fire and pretend the ash is gold. OWS ain't asking for much here.
And I see more than a few here screaming to end the fed, go back to a gold standard, and basically do exactly what these assholes at the top want, like that shit is going to fix something.
So, yea, I'll eventually be screaming, but right now I'm working my ass off trying to get my father retired and let him kick in his retirement plan: 200 acres of junk (semi, semi-precious metals - iron and steel) and hope to fuck we can get it sold before the republican party finds a way to fuck him out of that.
You really sound like a momma's boy.
What's really your problem? Can it be fixed? Do you think typing into the ether using an alias will solve your problems? Good luck with that.
You aren't showing much maturity. If things are bad, go to North Dakota. If you want to stay near family and friends, suck it up, grow up, and figure out a way to succeed.
Your comment is duly noted and ignored.
Your tone is certainly different that your first post. You now sound like a wannabe.
Americans really have no idea what's coming ... this article proves it.
DEATH, DISEASE PLAGUE 'OCCUPY' PROTESTS...
Dead man in Salt Lake City...
Tuberculosis in Atlanta...
'Zuccotti Lung' on Wall Street...
Suicide in Vermont...
Murder in Oakland...
This is the Drudge section on OWS today. The TB link is really good. Apparently two people who have resided at a homeless shelter in Atlanta over the past three months are known to have TB. Oh really? What a surprise. And yet the headline is "TB breaks out at Occupy Atlanta" Yessir it's a raging epidemic. OWS is turning into a mayhem of drugs, sex, disease and filth folks. It's downright scary. Congratulations to Econ Matters for jumping on the media bandwagon to discredit this movement, following the script like any good mockingbird. What steaming horseshit. I agree with the posters above, the lack of an identifiable core leadership makes OWS extremely hard to target (so look for opinion pieces like this one and scary headlines to intensify in quantity and depth of agitation). Also, anyone who can't find a way to turn a profit from providing these people the things, and the services, that they need isn't really much of an entrepreneur are they... (I bet plenty of small business people who are on the ball and have open minds are turning a tidy cash profit in these locations). The person who wrote this piece is a complete drooling tool.
The problem with the Flea Baggers is the people.
"... if not for the OWS, it is doubtful the Penn State students would have resorted to rioting over a football coach" What dthe f*&^ one has to do with the other? I can, for example, say that because OWS the riots @penn were SAMLLER than they would have been otherwise. Why? Becasue most of the "professional protesters" and "professional rioters" are busy with OWS, and were unable to riot @Penn 3 hours after coach was fired. At least i gave a plausible hypothesis. And you didn't. You just say some crap that comes to your brain without any evidense - it's worse than Siri!
Here's my second point: so there are a few dozen small business in the 300 ft radius of OWS camps that may be affected. Perhaps a few hundred businesses nationwide, out of millions of small businesses that will crash and burn unless a) soemhting is not done to reverse the growth of the income gap between 1% (especially 0.01%) and the rest, b) somehting is not done to stop the *real* inflation that hits hard bottom 90%, c) remove corporate money from politics so that mega-corporations and smnall businessses play by the same rules
But OWS is not going to fix any problems so why should Mom and Pop behappy that protestors are blocking customer access to their shops?
Are you willing to invite the protestors to occupy your place of business and forgo any paychecks for the duration of the economic crisis? If not, why not?
If the Mom and Pop is being driven out of business by corporate chains, as has happened with so many independent bookstores, then it seems it might be in their best interests to embrace OWS. It might even help their business. Your hypothetical seems extreme as few businesses are seeing much impact and it strikes me as somewhat hysterical. Can you provide even a single example of a quantifiable business loss due specifically to the OWS protests?
I only had to Occupy the Google for thirty seconds to find this:
The Occupy Wall Street demonstration, entering its seventh week, has proven to be a nuisance for local business owners as well as area residents. But for the merchants, the problem isn’t the drumming.
Several neighborhood storeowners within a 10-block radius of the Zuccotti Park encampment are complaining that O.W.S. is hurting business. Many of them allege that profits are declining due to patrons’ avoidance of the Financial District.
Angelo Tzortzatos, owner of Panini and Co. Breads, said O.W.S. is discouraging clientele from crossing Church Street to get to the store, which is perched on the corner of Cedar Street and Trinity Place.
Tzortzatos stopped letting the O.W.S. protesters use his bathrooms after one or more of them destroyed two bathroom sinks during the second week of the demonstration.
As a result, the restrooms were out of order for a full week.
“They dropped the sinks on the floor, and they broke them in half,” said Tzortzatos. “We spent $3,000 to fix them — they broke the pipe work, also.”
The sink disaster wasn’t the only O.W.S.-related incident that, according to Tzortzatos, has led to a 30 percent decline in revenues. The protesters constantly urinate in the café’s entrance area, said the owner.
“[In] the morning when the employees come to work, I catch them sleeping right outside,” said Tzortzatos. “I tell them to go away, because we’re not able to go in and unlock the doors to get into the restaurant.”
John Costalas, owner and operator of Essex World Café on Liberty Street, is facing the same dilemma. “They’re driving us crazy here,” he said. “Who gives them the right to urinate in our door and use the toilet of an establishment to wash themselves? This is a disaster for our neighborhood.”
“I’m one of the 99 percent — I’m against the bankers,” Costalas continued. “But I’m not doing it like they’re doing it.”
http://www.downtownexpress.com/?p=4190
Of course anyone who would complain about property destruction is merely being hysterical in your opinion. People need to just let OWS crap all over them and suck it up, right?
Bub, you're arguing with a liberal... she knows what's right for you and that's all there is to it. STFU and eat your peas.
No, actually I am not a liberal. I don't know what is best for you, or anyone else, but then again, neither do you.
I'm a radical.
http://www.mediaite.com/online/did-occupy-wall-street-cause-21-layoffs-a...
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/11/07/socal-street-cart-vendors-hurt...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/12/MNBG1LTRMH.DTL
You lost all credibility when you stuck the quote from CNBC in here, nobody on this site will give those fucks with their slimey sales pitches, big boobs and stupid English accents any time of day at all!
+1 !!! Eireann go Brach - but please do edit to CNBS :) Cheers!!
So, econ matters, I would post this question: If not us, who? and If not now, when?
Instead of being grateful someone has the balls to put their bodies in discomfort and harms way to try and change the status quo, it is easy to just write about what is wrong with the movement, isnt it.
And to wait for what?? Til the system and the world is so fucked up that nothing can make it better? Good one, bud.
there should only be protests in a certain area.. some where un-seen..
protests with only approved language...
protests only at aooroved times..
yep, that will help stop the robbery of "We the People"!
The protestors should stand between you and your rice bowl. Then we'd see if you'd sing a different tune.
You forgot that the protestors have to post a $1M "bond" prior to protesting.....
...the problem with the movement is that it is not hurting the big banks, but rather, it is hurting the small-business owners that are fighting to survive in a recession, says small-business owner Carol Bloom Stevens."
While Carol is correct to a degree, small businesses do get total fucked over by banking/WS.
But then say how small businesses are getting hurt, how?
Bad loans? Bankers.
High taxes? Government.
High Health Care cost? Government/Bankers
These things keep small business from hiring and the bankers are in control of the lobbyists that drive legislation that only helps the GE’s/Exxon’s/BP’s, oh I feel sick again I’d better sit down.
Buy local and support local businesses. Local farmer’s markets.