10-16-2011, 04:03 AM
(10-16-2011, 01:13 AM)kandrathe Wrote: I don't think it really matters what happens outside the US. This movement is primarily organized around US tax policy, and the alleged inequity of "1%" of US citizens who control a large percentage of the wealth.
I don't think this is related to the chaffing that has been going on elsewhere due to austerity. If anything, the people in the US have been coddled by their government with tax cuts, supposed health care reform, unprecedented extensions to unemployment benefits, and multi-year bailout of broken state budgets which allow the states to continue on as usual without cutting benefits.
I'm with Treesh here. Does it surprise you, if these things have nothing to do with each other, that they are all operating under the same brand (Occupy Wherever), complaining about the same things (bailouts for the rich, cutbacks for the poor) and are happening at the same time? Or that the original call to protest was from Adbusters, which is Canadian?
I'm having trouble seeing how persistent 9% unemployment counts as "coddled," unless watching your jobs evaporate, your one key asset devalued, and your debts spiral out of control constitutes some kind of pampered existence. We could play the "It could be worse" game, but I think it's pretty clear the economy sucks, people are suffering, and they're sick of seeing the "rescue" being something reserved for AIG and Goldman Sachs. Tax policy is some piece of this, but mostly, it's about the response to the crisis: Save the rich, let the poor go hang.
-Jester