Thank you Occupy Movement....for the the seismic shift you created, in the way we conduct our society. Future generations are indebted to you. We now live in a much better world. Thank you, again.
A trip down memory lane,,,,,,,,,,,,The Occupy Movement
- Thread starter hamster
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They are still out there...
I think what the real message of the occupy movement was, in a nutshell, that you are never gonna have a healthy middle class when 80% of the country's wealth is owned by only 20% of the population. It's easy to pick out the wing nuts from either side of the argument, but I believe this was basically the idea behind the movement and what motivated the normal, thoughtful people that got involved with it. The simple truth is that if we are ever going to have a healthy middle class again that wealth does have to be redistributed... through hiring new employees, raising the wages of those who do have jobs, and through benefit packages that include pensions and health benefits for folks. Anybody with any sense knows that this is the best way this can be accomplished... not through entitlement programs. I'm sorry to say though, that the people that control this majority of the wealth do not seem interested in doing this anytime soon. In fact they do everything they can to pay employees as little as they can, hire as few as they can, and offer them as little benefits as they can. So in the end, if we want Americans to enjoy a standard of living that is better than anywhere else in the world and really be the best place to live in the world, what other option is there than to redistribute this wealth through taxing the haves and giving it to the have nots. I agree this is terrible way to go about it. When people don't work for what they have, they don't appreciate what they have. Working also gives people a sense of purpose. But in the end people need a place that live and food to eat. They need to see a doctor when they're sick. The middle class needs jobs that pay more than 12 bucks an hour to survive. And that's all that's really out there for them... and even that is hard to find in a lot of places in this country.
Do you know the term "zero sum economics"? It's what you're engaging in and it pre-supposes that there is a finite amount of wealth in an economy and if you have more than someone else you must have taken it from someone else. Just a completely absurd assumption.
Here's an over simplified explanation.
http://political-economy.com/zero-sum-economy/
Here's an over simplified explanation.
http://political-economy.com/zero-sum-economy/
This line of thinking irritates me more than I can adequately explain. The simple and undeniable truth of the matter is that a nation that allows its citizens to improve their lot, and advance, and earn a very good living, and one that rewards hard work and talent rather than political chicanery and gamesmanship, will succeed.
Your point that "x" percent of the people own "y" percent of the wealth fundamentally ignores the crucial fact that of the 400 wealthiest Americans, 273 earned their way onto the list with their own efforts. They did not "inherit" the wealth - they made it.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erincar...e-forbes-400-billionaires-earned-their-money/
Nations which have suffered revolution for economic reasons - France in the 18th century, Russia in the 20th century, China in the 20th century - universally featured societies where the population had its economic future determined at birth. If you were born a Russian peasant farmer, you were never going to be a wealthy businessman.
In the United States, on the other hand, a substantial percentage of millionaires came from nothing, or next to nothing. Amazing how liberal politicians bemoan how unfair our society is, while some of their heroes - Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden - came from nothing to become multi-millionaires.
The median income has fallen under the Great O's policies. His policies failed.
Compare that to the Reagan recovery:
So here is my first proposal ... if you want to improve the status of middle class America, stop pursuing policies that have been PROVEN to fail, and instead follow policies that WORK.
Oh, and as to the demonstrably false claim that Reagan's economic policies "devastated" African-Americans? Nope:
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Something that the Neo-Socialists cant grasp, the more regulated the economy has become the less prosperous we have become as a nation. If you want a middle class you have to have jobs for them. If you want to have jobs for a middle class you have to put policy and tax laws into place that encourage businesses to operate in the country.
Kind of like laws penalizing businesses for having more than 50 employees?
It's not just one law or decision, it's a mindset that Libs have about life in general.....
Bernie spoke at my daughters high school recently. Everyone was eating it up until the goalie on our soccer team asked him how he was going to pay for the free stuff without increasing our national debt. Well taxing the 1% of course. How many times can you answer that before people call bs?