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NationofChange / Op-Ed
Published: Wednesday 19 October 2011
“Astonishingly, some Wall Streeters continue to be clueless about what the Occupy Wall Street movement is protesting.”
Wall Street Is Dazed and Confused
Astonishingly, some Wall Streeters continue to be clueless about what the Occupy Wall Street movement is protesting. Yoo-hoo, Streeters: Note that the movement's name has the term "Wall Street" in it.
While there is a plethora of particular issues being raised by the protesters — from the corrupting power of corporate money in our elections to the demise of middle-class wages — the unifying theme is that each one adds to the rising tide of economic inequality that's enriching the most privileged few by knocking down America's workaday majority. And, Mr. and Ms. Streeter, guess who is the most powerful perpetrators of this greed-fueled disparity: Yes, you.
Perhaps an example would help you grasp the obvious. Even as the protest was spreading in mid-October to hundreds of cities, tone-deaf executives at Bank of America announced three moves:
One, to goose up their own extravagant pay, they're socking financially stressed debit-card users with a new $5 a month fee.
Second, they're dumping 30,000 of the bank's worker bees onto America's already swollen unemployment rolls. Goodbye, and good luck finding another job.
Third, two top executives who are departing the bank are being handed golden parachutes totaling $11 million.
In the midst of this, Steve Bartlett opened his mouth. A former Congress-critter who was promoted to be Wall Street's top Washington lobbyist, he is a perfect symbol of the infuriating corrupt coziness between financial elites and lawmakers. Yet Bartlett blithely says, "We (don't) see ourselves as the target (of the protests)."
After all, he explains, Wall Street "has to be well capitalized and well financed for the economy to recover."
Golly, Steve, I think we capitalized you extremely well. What part of the public's multitrillion-dollar bailout of the Street's elite did you not see? We the People see every glaring dime of it. And we also see that rather than helping our economy recover, you're now lobbying Congress to kill Wall Street reforms so banksters can grab even more at our expense.
Yet the most befuddled Wall Streeter of all is — big surprise — the richest guy.
In assessing the spreading public protest against the rampaging greed of today's corporate and financial elite, John Paulson turns out to be as confused as a goat on Astroturf. Oh, he gets it that the people's anger is directed at hedge fund profiteers like him, but he claims that riff-raff like us are simply confused on the virtue of accumulated wealth.
While it's true that he raked in nearly $5 billion in personal pay last year (the largest single haul in Wall Street history), and while it's true that his riches flow not from advances to benefit humanity, but from rigged Wall Street casino games, he asserts that it's the amassing of wealth itself that serves the public good.
It's unfair, Paulson scolds, that protesters demonstrated in front of his 28,000-square-foot, $15 million mansion on New York's Upper East Side, targeting him as an exemplar of plutocratic excess. Don't they know that billionaires like him pay taxes, "providing huge benefits to everyone in our city?" Besides, he points out that he's not merely a billionaire, but one of those "job creators," as Republican leaders prefer to call corporate chieftains these days.
Paulson brags that his hedge fund "has created over 100 high-paying jobs in New York City since its formation." Wow — 100 jobs in a city of over 8 million people. Thanks, John, our economy wouldn't be the same without you!
When it comes down to it, all that the Paulson-clique really wants is a little love — a small show of gratitude for all that the richest 1 percent is doing for us 99 percent of Americans by making themselves ever-richer.
"Instead of vilifying our most successful businesses," he wrote recently in a plaintive press release, "we should be supporting them and encouraging them."
See, protesters, you're gonna make John cry. You should be ashamed — except that he does have $15 billion in net worth to dry those tears.
Copyright Creators.com
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ABOUT Jim Hightower
National radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of the book, Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow, Jim Hightower has spent three decades battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be - consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks.
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By Tara Culp- Ressler
20 comments on "Wall Street Is Dazed and Confused"
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Thanks for your thoughts. It's hleepd me a lot.
October 20, 2011 3:51pm
Don't worry,soon the GOVERMENT will provide you with the leader YOU so desperately need.
October 20, 2011 1:55am
I think that you were off to a good start on a song. You are right, regulations are a very important part of the changes needed.
October 19, 2011 3:31pm
WE NEED A LEADER
October 19, 2011 3:31pm
WE NEED A LEADER
October 19, 2011 6:23pm
We do, but he is neither the King nor the Emporer! It's the ridiculous Congress that us holding us back with their petty arguments (racism among them but making sure their mics are off this time)
This is all just so disgusting and am glad to see the younger generation rising up. Sure, they might be unemployed, but whose fault is that? They have degrees, yet they have no jobs and debilitating college debts - unheard of elsewhere in the world.
Some of this is the fault of their status conscious parents insisting that their children go to the "best" and most expensive schools. Did they ever look into the Scholars Programs at their state schools? Blame all around, but mostly on the top guy!
October 19, 2011 3:23pm
The “Occupy” Movement needs a Protest Song
The "Occupy Wall Street" movement needs a world wide protest song. It's name should reflect at least one important goal of the protestors. A title could be "It's Time for Regulation". "We're gonna heal our nation - it's time - oh yes it's time - time for regulation! - I'm no song writer as you can see, but a protest theme is important and music makes a powerful ally in delivering a constant and repetitive message.There must be someone who can produce the goods and keep public awareness alive with a great protest song?
http://www.tellingthoughts.com
October 19, 2011 2:17pm
I read stuff like the sewage that gushes from the mouths of sociopaths like John Paulson and I think about a news interviewer who asked a Wall Street occupier what he wanted. It took less than a second for me to answer that for myself.
I pictured Wall Street executives flung from the top of Trump Tower with their golden parachutes. I envisioned CEOs who shipped American jobs out of the country dragged screaming from their beds to their new careers as prostitutes in Bangladesh. I could almost smell the rotting corpses of everyone in Washington who had offered a bribe to a politician and every member of Congress who took one. Best of all, I saw banksters, armed with nothing other than the same fountain pens they used to foreclose on American homeowners, stripped naked and pitched headlong into the Roman Coliseum to face the rage of those whose homes they stole. Really, given what's happening, is that so much to ask?
October 19, 2011 1:58pm
Exactly. When you have enough to live on, you want more. When you have more, you want the most. The wealthy in this country and around the world cannot get enough capital and money. It's like an addictive drug and they will stop at nothing to get more and rape the middle and lower classes over and over again.
October 19, 2011 1:55pm
Exactly. When you have enough to live on, you want more. When you have more, you want the most. The wealthy in this country and around the world cannot get enough capital and money. It's like an addictive drug and they will stop at nothing to get more and rape the middle and lower classes over and over again.
October 19, 2011 2:51pm
We have an amendment mandating the separation of church and state. For the ultra wealthy, greed is a religion. It's time for a new amendment...
October 19, 2011 1:17pm
It is time for people to take the power by speaking out. I personally have been at Freedom Plaza with the October 2011 Movement most of the time since it began on October 16. More, many many more, millions more need to be on the streets in some movement to stop the domination of the American people by the wealthy elite using corporations and the Congress to accomplish it.
Friends, relatives and acquaintances who have spoken with me on my visits home from DC frequently ask me why October 2011 does not seek to influence the 2012 election by finding a candidate who will support our positions. They are shocked and highly critical when I tell them that the movement (whether we are talking about October 2011, Occupy Wall Street, Occupy DC, SOUL or any of the other movements that have taken it to the streets) is not about candidates. but rather about ideas.
Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, the Berrigans, and Daniel Ellsberg did not support candidates. They developed ideas that grew out of obviously unjust practices, developed large followings who supported those ideas then they confronted the establishment with demands for change. This is what needs to happen in America NOW!
Who can legitimately argue with the following:
-Protect the rights of workers including collective bargaining, create jobs and raise wages;
-Tax the rich and corporations;
-End the wars, bring the troops home, cut military spending;
-Protect the social safety net, strengthen Social Security, Medicaid, and improved Medicare for all;
-End corporate welfare for oil companies and other big businesses;
-Transition to a clean energy economy, reverse environmental degradation;
-Get money out of politics; and
-Stop foreclosures?
We need the support of everyone. We need contributions and mostly we need feet in the street.
October 19, 2011 12:52pm
Let’s wake up America!
The 1% of Piratical Capitalists are strangling the other 99% of Americans and the rest of the world to death!
I’m sick and tired of the Democrats, the Republicans, the tea party, and the news media!
I’m sick and tired of listening to incessant political nonsense while we the people, are losing everything!
Are we supposed to remain passive while we lose our jobs, our homes, our families, our health, our savings, our future, and our lives!? Are we…really!?!?! Do you people out there want to let this happen!?
Are we just supposed to lie down and die?! Sure, the elite rich would love that wouldn’t they? If we’re dead, then we can’t cause any trouble. If we’re dead, then we can’t come after them!
We’ve been blind and passive way too long. We keep dancing around the real solution here while the rich pay off our politicians and the courts to stay free and so they can repeatedly rape us!
No-way, it’s time we put a stop to this! They need a lesson here. Unfortunately, the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Russian Revolution were necessary because the royals and elite rich just never did get it. They didn’t care that millions of people were being hurt or dying because of them.
We have that same exact international situation right here…right now. We’re not dead yet, and there are millions and millions of us around the world. And that, is POWER!
People, we are in the midst of a Global Revolution! It’s happening now and it’s time we pulled these arrogant royals off of their thrones. Yes people, it’s time it got ugly.
This is why.
THE NEW AMERICAN PIRATES, ARE KILLING AMERICANS.
This is not about glamorized or fictional piracy. This is, “real piracy.”
Hundreds of our wealthiest leaders and most powerful corporations know that in the next few years, they will be able to siphon, skim, and steal, so much “NEW CASH,” that they and their progeny will be ultra-rich for generations to come.
Welcome to the modern “Piratical Capitalism” movement. And, welcome to WAR!
No, this is not funny, or fiction, or a conspiracy, it is just simple greed and simple theft.
The new pirates of America have launched an all-out siege on us…the 99%, in order to capture, amass, and hold many trillions of dollars for themselves.
All of the recent political power grabs and nonsensical debating is purely a slight-of-hand deflection. President Obama, Democrats, Republicans, the International Press, and even the Tea Party, are watching the tiny pea in the shell game…while the rich and powerful “Piratical Right” is stealing America right out from under us.
Consider that their combined total plunder from corporate flipping, downsizing, offshore labor, speculation, price fixing of oil and energy plus, corruption in defense, health care, banking, student loans, foreclosures, etc., etc., is a trillion dollar treasure for these pirates.
Go ahead, put your own calculator to it.
Are they smarter than we are? Yes, and they are laughing at us. I, we, you, and all of us, have not been able see the big picture of what is happening to our own country and to our own people. The rape and theft of America, has been cleverly packaged, promoted, and sold under the guise of “cost-cutting,” “deregulation,” and “free enterprise.”
The “Piratical Right” is directly responsible for millions of people dying, getting sick, losing their jobs and homes, losing their ability to fight, their spirit, and even losing their will to live. The sick smell of this carnage now permeates the air across America.
To us, this is all unimaginable, because we look for some sense or the morality of things. These modern-day American pirates however, have no moral compass. They are devoid of any conscience, humanity or soul, and are feeding on the flesh of the American people.
Don’t look to the President, the Senate, Congress, the press, or any political party to help. Sadly, they just don’t see it, don’t care, or are part of it. “We the people” are on our own. Start asking questions. Demand answers. If we don’t fight back America…who will!?
History has taught us how to stop piracy!
October 20, 2011 2:25am
All important changes have been made by hitting the streets: abolition of slavery;woman's right to vote; desegregation;the right to organize (unions); the end of poll taxes+++ All were done by the people getting out on the streets. This isn't a political movement as repulicans vs democrates or libertarians, it is about real changes in the structure of our government. Reregulation; tariffs; progressive taxation; corporate charters and regulations and ending subsidies; decreased lobbyists in our halls of government; we want our voices heard and government to work on our behalf not a corporatocracy.
October 20, 2011 2:10am
Great post, and the one before. We just have to educate the individuals that do not use the net for information and rely only on the MSM. There are still those who are caught up in the divide and conquer strategy that redirects their attention from the fact that they are the ones being co-opted from a good, equitable future.
October 19, 2011 11:59am
There are only two ways to change society. One involves ballots and the other bullets. Unless we are going to go the second route, which would just piss everyone off , we need to use the power we have right now to take over the Democratic party. The Tea Party already has taken over the Republicans, and the other parties don't have enough power themselves to be worth taking over. The Democrats are already leaning our direction. If we don't use that opportunity, we are just a bunch of people sitting in the park.
October 19, 2011 1:23pm
Dianne,
I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment of your post. I am sure that the Democratic Party would like nothing better than to have the activists join us. I hope it ain't gonna happen.
Your picture looks as if you have participated in some demonstrations somewhere. That is good. Keep it up! What is needed now though is for us to avoid at all costs getting coopted by either party or any intrenched politicians. See my comment below.