RoknrolZombie's "Stuff" Blog

By James Rudometkin

I have been following the news on Occupy Wall Street for the last six weeks.  Well, the last four weeks, as the first two weeks didn’t get much press.  With OWS gaining steam, media outlets have been (grudgingly) trying to report on what the protesters want.  During that time I have watched the rich claim that the protesters are lazy, the politicians claim that they are stupid, and the media claim that they’re just like the Tea Party (only, of course, lazy and stupid).  Often clouded in vague subtext, the implication is that the protesters are confused, disorganized, and sometimes incompetent.  This article will hopefully dispel some of these myths and clarify what the folks who are able to participate in OWS are after, at least, from my perspective.

The simple fact is that the protesters are fed up Americans who have largely been kept in the dark about the varying back-room deals that take place in Congress and Wall Street.  For decades we have been duped into believing that our elected officials have had our best interests in mind.  Oh, sure, we could see that most of our politicians were liars and cheats and we’ve all read the articles about the comparisons between our CEOs and sociopaths but we stayed positive and tried to trust that what they were doing was – ultimately – in our best interests.  Plenty of things have come up in recent years to enlighten us, though, not the least of which was the housing bubble (burst), Warren Buffet’s comments regarding how little he (and fellow billionaires) pay in taxes, and politicians brazenly treating us like we’re idiots.  We may not be educated in politics.  We may not be educated in how financial institutions are run.  Hell, we may not even be that bright (after all, most of us did go to public schools in the United States), but we aren’t completely stupid, we aren’t blind, and we are sick to death of being taken advantage of by our “keepers”.

This is what must stop.  And I hope to bring an end to (at least some of) the confusion – please read on.

For all of the media groups out there that desire a simple list of demands, I will explain (using small words, if necessary) why that will not happen and why it wouldn’t work if we gave it.  The problems that need to be resolved are complicated problems with no simple solution.  A “list of demands” would give politicians talking points and an opportunity to avoid solving the problems under the auspices of curing the symptoms.  How do we know that it will happen that way?  Because we watch it happen monthly.  A simple list will give bankers an opportunity to (yet again) take advantage of our trust while continuing to screw us out of every penny that we earned.  If politicians need to write an 800 page bill to take away our rights to privacy, why should our solution to giving the country back to Americans be able to be dumbed down into a few simple talking points?

I can – quite literally – go on for hours about the problems in recent years.  The housing bubble is just one small piece – we have credit card companies that spent a couple of years changing due-dates on payments just to collect an extra couple of dollars when people were (obviously) “late” on their payments.  We have watched politicians bicker with each other like children (also here, here, and here).  We have watched CEO’s throw temper tantrums because they couldn’t afford this years newest best yacht.  We have watched millionaires complain about how little money they actually make.  And we have woken up.  In a nation that is purported to be a land of the free where majority rules, we have become a land of the meek where the minority rules.  I won’t go on for hours though – anyone paying attention already knows this stuff.

First things first:  Any politician stating that we’re the “best” at anything other than screwing over our neighbors is a liar and we, the 99% are not fooled.  We could be the best again – but right now?  Take a look around.  We’re at the bottom of the heap in virtually every category that matters.  That’s only the best at sucking.  Historically the United States has been able to outperform other nations in innovation (our scientists are inventing overseas now, partially due to patent laws), intelligence (the dismal state of our Public School system is ensuring that we are ignorant of even how much we’re ignorant of), manufacturing (lower priced employees overseas and tax breaks for companies that outsource has killed this), heath care (currently ranked 37th worldwide), and Freedom (do I really need to address the Patriot Act?  TSA?).

Second, in order to call someone a “job creator” they should be creating jobs for Americans.  We have watched our respective cost of living go up while our pay increases dwindle.  We have watched our jobs get passed to untrained foreign employees so that our “job creators” can keep their wallets fat and their employees benefits packages small.  These same people that claim they can’t feed their families on less than $200,000 a year are paying their employees a pittance.  We have been coping with it for decades, enough is enough.

Third, and quite possibly more importantly, just because someone is unemployed does not mean that they are lazy or stupid.  While I will grant that some of the protesters at OWS are your standard run-of-the-mill bums, considering our current unemployment rate I’d be willing to bet that this group of protesters has a lot more professionals and college graduates than most.  This claim by the media (and some politicians) really burns me up because if I hadn’t been lucky enough to find a job in the last two months I’d be right there with OWS, bitching.  Instead, because I do have a job to go to, I’m more or less stuck with watching in silence as pundits and media whores feign ignorance of the facts.  For a group of people that are supposed to have their fingers on the pulse of the nation they seem to be extremely ignorant of how real life works for most of the population.

Lastly: OWS is not a “Tea Party” movement for the liberals.  For those of you with extremely short memories, the Tea Party movement was a push to battle our President when the GOP wasn’t cutting the mustard.  Really, most of what they purport to be their ideals were stolen from Ron Paul and rebranded (while Dr. Paul is almost completely excluded from media coverage, no less) by individuals that we know do not have our best interests in mind.  The Tea Party is a semi-organized movement with political ties that has the financial backing to be heard.  OWS is a much larger group of individuals with no leader and no financial backing who have finally realised that no matter who we vote for, we’re going to get screwed in the long run.

President Barack Obama
I’ve been seeing a lot in the news about how Obama supports OWS and how we are obviously liberals who are in love with our President.  This phenomena doesn’t really surprise me – these are more of the same childish accusations and assumptions specifically designed to avoid the actual point.

When I get a new job, I inherit (along with a desk and hopefully a computer) all of the problems that the person I replaced left for me.  While I cannot confirm whether or not President Obama has our best interests in mind (as politicians go, he’d be the first), I get the distinct impression that when he took office he saw the state of our Nation and knew beyond that shadow of a doubt that he had inherited a lot of problems.  He set to work attempting to fix a good majority of the problems that have been fought (and lost) in the past.  The media has – unaccountably – been able to locate reasons why Mr. Obama would pursue these ideas and are claiming that his attempts have been in order to spite Republicans.  Let that sink in for a bit.  When George W Bush (and HW Bush) started wars in the middle east it was loudly proclaimed far and wide that they both had interests in those areas that would be harmed unless we went to war.  Does anyone remember Cheney and Halliburton?  Yet nobody can find any personal motives for Barack Obama’s actions beyond “class warfare”?  So while some of the protesters on Wall Street may in fact support President Obama because they are “Democrats”, I personally support Obama because he seems to be at least trying to do the job that we hired him to do which is far better than the record most of our representatives have.  Until we have a reason to believe otherwise, we have at least one (possibly two, if you count Rep. Ron Paul (Fox doesn’t)) government official in “our” court.

Banks and Credit Card Companies
While it should go without saying, the feigned ignorance from the media and our politicians is astounding.  The banks are still recording profits while people are still unemployed and the housing market is still garbage.  Credit card companies aren’t any better, requiring larger and larger fees to use the cards.

Has it occurred to anyone at all that we have to pay money to use our own money?  Oh, we understand that while our money is in the bank the bank gets to collect interest that we never see.  We also know that credit card companies work under many of the same principles but in reverse – we’re essentially taking out a loan with an expected amount of interest accruing while we have a balance.  Over the last few years I’ve watched my own credit card companies tack on fees, add “benefits packages” that I didn’t ask for (oh, but they’ll still charge me for them!), and change my due date so that I’m late with next months payment.  But remember, Bank of America still needs to find a way to turn a profit – apparently stealing from the public, lying to investors, cheating the government, and accepting bailouts doesn’t generate quite enough cash flow for their seven figure salaries.  Boo freaking hoo.

Of course, in a capitalist society the logical conclusion to draw is, “So don’t use banks.”  Have you tried to work for a living and not use a bank in the last 15 years?  I have.  First, you’ll need to convince your company to issue you a paper check, which isn’t as easy as it should be.  After all, without Direct Deposit it’s more work for them.  Then once you’ve gotten your paper check you have to find someone that will cash it.  Good luck if you make a reasonable wage and get paid biweekly (or bimonthly) – many non-banks simply can’t/won’t cash a check in excess of a thousand dollars, and banks will usually charge you fees to cash your check.

But now that you have your cash, you have to find somewhere to spend it.  Most utility companies that I’ve delt with in recent years won’t accept United States Legal Tender anymore – if it’s not a credit card and it’s not a check, you can’t pay your bill with it.  Rental companies are oftentimes under the same restrictions and you don’t want to get me started on auto dealerships.  Have you tried to pay cash for an iPhone or iPad?  If not, don’t bother – many of the Apple Stores don’t take cash.

So the banks and credit card companies have us over a barrel, offering us a “service” that they charge outrageously for and that they know we can’t survive without.  And they get to charge us whatever they want.  They get to take our homes and our cars and gripe while you pay them 19% interest (if you’re lucky).

Privacy and Freedom
I almost finished this article without addressing these issues (and I’m certain I would have regretted it).  The last decade has been witness to more travesties of Freedom than I care to enumerate.  Of course, I mentioned the Patriot Act above (among others), but honestly I think Richard Jackson (often misquoted as Ben Franklin) said it best: “Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” Our generally undereducated and misinformed public may or may not support some of the loss of our rights but we’ll never know.  For those that vote, we rarely get the opportunity to make real decisions about how we live, instead having to put our faith in our representatives (who always do what the majority wants them to do, of course – as well as here, here, here, and here).

Conclusion
How do we fix these problems?  That’s an extremely tough nut to crack.  Changing the financial system would largely require different politicians.  Of course, if being a political figure didn’t cost a fortune it may be easier to get some reasonable and rational people running for office, but until that time comes we have the same non-options that we’ve had for decades (if not centuries).  The best we can do is hope that our future politicians don’t lie to us too much (too late) or at least accomplish one decent thing in the shitstorm of indecency that seems to plague public office.  Of course, that’s still one step forward and three steps back, but maybe – just maybe – Occupy Wall Street can effect some change worth fighting for.

Watch this space – I’m planning on doing shorter articles on our Presidential Hopefuls for 2012, as well as solving more of the world’s problems