In response to the small but important group of concerned Americans who have recently commented “you don’t get it” referring to what OWS is about. I get exactly what I see, hear and read. There are lots of people who seem to be not getting it.
Maybe people would understand that OWS is protesting corruption and fraud and not Wall Street itself or a capitalistic system IF it didn’t actually say “We don’t need Wall Street” right on the OWS website. THE OWS WEBSITE READS: “We don’t need Wall Street or politicians to build a better society” http://occupywallst.org/
It doesn’t read we don’t need corrupt or fraudulent individuals on Wall Street or in politics. IT SAYS: “WE DON’T NEED WALL STREET.” I disagree with the “we don’t need Wall Street” part. And, if in fact you really feel we don’t need Wall Street to build a better society, then I see certain about of hypocrisy taking place.
Certainly, I don’t condone corruption and fraud. But, the “we don’t need Wall Street” language says something much different. It says we don’t need the very principle that made this country great in the first place.
Corruption takes place everywhere and that’s the enemy, not capitalism which makes everyone’s life better and encourages innovation, creativity and progress. That’s MY message. State YOUR message clearly and the message will be interpreted the way you intend.
Mark Minervini
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Very well said, probably due to lack of leadership and RIGHT agenda, a wrong message is being passed along.... :(
ReplyDeleteIts a bit complicated. I've been lucky to live a life with feet in both the no shoes, no home free-living hippy days and then later, after much pulling of bootstraps make it to doctor, investor, trader, "normal guy" life. I remain friends with everyone along the way. Much of the OWS rhetoric is not well thought out. There are catch phrases, easily bagged snippets of ideology, shared "stuff". Much like we had in the sixties. That said, there's much numb-nut thinking by so-called "normals" who inhabit those upper 1% echelons. Work, make money, buy more stuff, better schools, etc. I oversimplify for the sake of a post response. My point? Most folks haven't really fully thought things out. On any side. Doesn't make them evil, but we miss dialogue, compassion and understanding and teaching moments based on shared mutual respect. Teach the OWS friends you have about what you do. Listen if you have some OWS friends without jobs, homes, options, and see what you can come up with.
ReplyDeleteWhat the OWS web site says is "We want to see a general assembly in every backyard, on every street corner because we don't need Wall Street and we don't need politicians to build a better society." This means Wall Street and politicians as currently existing, intertwined, with current or former Goldman people high up in almost every western government for example.
ReplyDeleteThat, "capitalism...makes everyone’s life better and encourages innovation, creativity and progress." was known to Karl Marx, an advanced thinker for his times, as most of the Communist Manifesto is about that very subject. Trading in slaves and other goods including government bonds does not encourage innovation etc. yet this is the sort of thing that Wall Street was about until well into the 19th century. The ability to invent and create does not necessarily need trading markets, Ford was privately held until 1956 for example.
What made this country great was the leaving of much of feudalism in Europe, the creation of one country out of 13 colonies, the purchase of the land that doubled the size of the country in 1803, a territory with the best weather and most fertile land on Earth for the growing of wheat, corn and other grains plus the giving of this land to settlers to farm it. Then the beginning of industry in order to fight the South in The Civil War. It is only then that the principle you claim "made this country great in the first place" even begins to come into play.
Btw, I commented in your previous post without my comment appearing.
On behalf of Jim Hess . . .
ReplyDeleteYou are exactly right, Mark. Not only are the OWS crowd hypocrites but they are also ignorant, ungrateful ones. Without an intermediary to efficiently allocate capital, our country, nor the world would have ever seen the tremendous advances in standards of living over the past 250 years. The majority of the OWS crowd, as I have witnessed, want the benefits of Western Civilization and free markets while doing nothing to contribute to it's progress. Who will pay for the "right" to guaranteed health care, housing, food and education that the OWS socialists want? Certainly not a bunch of winey protestors who are ignorant of what Wall Street actually does and how wealth is really created in an industrial economy. Russia, China, India and Brazil have made their decision, and it is not what the ignorant OWS crowd wants. Having Obama play you like a fiddle with his class warfare rhetoric is hardly a badge of honor. Jim Hess
Hey Bob is this how capital gets allocated efficiently?
ReplyDeleteAccording to the report, Paulson did not break any laws by disclosing the insider information. And there is no evidence those in attendance at the meeting traded off the information. But nobody seems to be denying that the meeting took place.
Your first reaction is probably one of disgust and outrage. It’s one of the reasons these Occupy Wall Street protests are taking place. A high level government official with access to very important information (and who has the ability to follow through) shares it with a couple of his buddies. The reason you go to Harvard or the University of Chicago isn’t to get a great education (you can get the same education at any of the top 25 MBA schools), it’s to network. It’s to initiate the process of becoming a member of an elite group that has access to things and people very few others do.
Not only did Paulson share this information with a select group of people, he did it at the same time he was sending positive signals (Fannie nearly doubled in four days). It’s one thing to share insider info with your buddies. It’s another to be publically saying the opposite thereby helping your buddies get in at better prices.
This news is not something that should outrage the 99%. It should outrage the 99.99%.
http://leavittbrothers.com/blog/?p=5093