Occupy Wallstreet.

[R. LeBeaux]

Kevin: well said!

[R. LeBeaux]

Thinking about the things that might lead to the failure of the OWS movement.

[tjamesmoss.author]

As to the protestors not having a specific purpose (you said focus but the purpose or reason behind their gathering is what's important): They all want to be heard.

I said 'focus' because I was referring to the message they send -- is it coherent, clear, actionable? Without this focus, its too easy for leaders and policy makers to turn a blind eye and brush the whole thing off. I agree they all want to be heard but if they want to have any effect they'll have to focus their message or face being brushed off as noisy and confused rabble and then none of them have been 'heard' in any meaningful sense.

It's time to anoint the face of the movement... the man who takes the fall if it falls apart.
I wonder if there are people right there on the ground wrestling with the idea of the responsibility.

[lindad_amato]

Here is the link to an interesting essay on social contracts and economics.

http://rick.bookstaber.com/2011/10/occu ... t-and.html

[realiz]

I disagree! I think it is under the umbrella of the attribution of blame that most serious reforms take place.

Why do you suppose this is? You would think that identifying the problem and coming up with solutions would be the most important. Perhaps, the reason for this need to point fingers is by finding someone to blame society can band together with a common 'enemy' to fight.

[giselle]

It's time to anoint the face of the movement... the man who takes the fall if it falls apart.
I wonder if there are people right there on the ground wrestling with the idea of the responsibility.

Excellent point. It is unlikely the 'movement' will go further or develop any sort of forward progress toward eventual solutions unless individuals are prepared to step up and take responsibility and possibly suffer the consequences if it goes nowhere. Maybe they could find a prominent celebrity ... like maybe Bono ? He does take on causes so he might be interested, and he wears very cool glasses!!

While I think that elements of blame and finding solutions are part of protest movements, I think Occupy Wallstreet is really about power first and money second. The social dynamics of grievance from those who feel powerless against those they perceive to hold power (ie - the wealthy, the politicians, others) can drive protests and lead to all sorts of outcomes, which may have little to do with the original grievance.

John Kenneth Galbraith wrote in Culture of Contentment (1992) that people will protect their interests if they are moderately well off even if it means accepting that some people are enormously wealthy. I suspect that a considerable number of people participating in the Occupy protests fall into this category so I doubt the rich have anything to worry about.

I heard an interesting statistic on CBC the other day. If you earn more than $55,000 per year, you are in the top 1% of income earners on a world wide basis. This means there are an awful lot of Canadians, Americans, Europeans and many others who are in this group. This moderately well off group is huge in terms of voting power, consumer power, tax paying etc. and therefore very powerful overall. And it would be hypocritical for people in this group to complain about the very rich, ie the top 1% income earners in these and other countries, when they themselves are in the top 1% world wide and don't want to give up any of that income or wealth. Its wealth whether its $55,000 or $550,000, its just a matter of degree.

[Kevin]

I heard an interesting statistic on CBC the other day. If you earn more than $55,000 per year, you are in the top 1% of income earners on a world wide basis. This means there are an awful lot of Canadians, Americans, Europeans and many others who are in this group. This moderately well off group is huge in terms of voting power, consumer power, tax paying etc. and therefore very powerful overall. And it would be hypocritical for people in this group to complain about the very rich, ie the top 1% income earners in these and other countries, when they themselves are in the top 1% world wide and don't want to give up any of that income or wealth. Its wealth whether its $55,000 or $550,000, its just a matter of degree.

It's an interesting idea but I think too much is made of hypocrisy. You can't do everything so don't do anything. LOSER! GO OCCUPY A JOB! is the response for someone not in the $55k+ class and HYPOCRITE, I DON'T SEE YOU STARVING UNDER A BRIDGE for the rest. But! for conservatives to be arguing in favor of LIBERAL GUILT makes it all worthwhile to me.

[JohnGNelson]

Comacho posted a graph of the Gini Index (pg.2 if you want to go back and view it.)
It's a great graph about socially-engineered wealth distribution patterns. Note our Gini index score is less than stellar....a national disgrace in fact. We should look at Norway, Denmark and Sweden. They have their society wired much better than ours...we must learn from them!
My disdain with the Tea Party--Social Darwinists has always been that their vision for America is to make us like Mexico (a weak central state, poor social services, a weak tax system and a great divide between the plutocratic elite and the rest)
If you look at the Gini index we are heading to be on par with Mexico on wealth division.
We must change the road we're on! We can look to Scandanavia and others and understand why their societies are more equatable and better them!
We can not do that, I fear, with the two political parties we have. I have de-identified myself a few years ago (no longer am I a Dem or Rep....a staunch independent who seeks out 3rd party candidates).... I want to start hearing how we're going to be a more equitable society economically and how we shall surpass Scandanavia.

John Nelson
Author of Against Nature

[giselle]

It's an interesting idea but I think too much is made of hypocrisy. You can't do everything so don't do anything. LOSER! GO OCCUPY A JOB! is the response for someone not in the $55k+ class and HYPOCRITE, I DON'T SEE YOU STARVING UNDER A BRIDGE for the rest. But! for conservatives to be arguing in favor of LIBERAL GUILT makes it all worthwhile to me.

Excellent point. In this scenario, between the ‘lazy losers’ and the ‘hypocrites’ there is no one left to take action, so nobody does anything and we march on in a perpetual and worsening state of economic disparity. But there are a couple of factual matters to consider. The first is that many working income earners make less than $55K. In Canada average income was $30-$45K for single people and $43K for lone female families, only married couples cleared the $55K mark but only just, at $58-$60K for one earner families. So, a significant portion of the work force earns less than $55K and so are not among the 'unemployed' or among the over $55K 'hypocrites'. Of course, this does not stop the rhetoric about ‘get a job’ that is aimed at lower income earners but it is factual.

And I agree that we can make way too much of the hypocrite thing. I don’t think it matters whether you live in a mansion or under a bridge, if you want to get involved and make a difference you should go for it. Complacency, contentment, entitlement, indifference ... these are the things that make positive change difficult, hypocrisy is way down the list and is not an excuse for inaction. I don’t think the level of worldwide income disparity we have is sustainable so I think change will come one way or another. In the long run, I think it’s in the interests of the relatively well-to-do to deal with income disparity issues in a managed, controlled and fair way because otherwise change may come in a form that they don’t like.

[R. LeBeaux]

For all you folks involved in the OWS movement, here’s an idea that might just help out with recruiting and raising money. This is an old street marketing ploy, but I thought it would be perfect for the protestors to use. What I did was create a standard-sized US paper bill (modeled on the $100 bill), altered to be a promotion for OWS. These could be printed on any decent ink-jet color printer, however, getting the front/back register just right might be a bit of a problem. It’s not absolutely necessary, but if possible they should be printed on a rag-content paper so they have the feel of the real thing. The best thing would be if there are any professional printers out there who are involved in the movement and who would be willing to print them in large quantities to be distributed throughout the country to all the protesters.

The advantage of this over standard fliers, is that it looks enough like a real bill at first glance that folks are much more likely to accept it. Plus, it is a unique item, so will likely be saved and shown to others. The design is considerably different than the real thing, so there won’t be any problems with the law or the government, and if they were printed in large enough quantities, they would be really cheap to produce.

Anyway, I posted hi-res versions of the front and back designs on a Web page, and anyone who wants can download them for free, to print themselves or suggest to others in the movement (hover over each one, right click and “save as”). The page is at:

http://www.cutethenovel.com/ows-bill.html

And here are low-res versions to give you an idea of what they look like: