Occupy Wall Street

So, while the world keeps moving along these people are hanging out in a park. Great.

 

FTR, Pan, I miss the original Tea Party, the one headed by Ron Paul and full of honest optimists who were just fighting for what they believed in. I disagreed with them fundamentally on almost every opinion they had, but I would have rather had that group show up on the news and fill local public parks than the shity Fox News bastardization that the Tea Party turned into after it was hijacked.

 

A movement has to grow up sometime. You can't just hang out in a park with a cardboard sign forever. The Tea Party just growed up, that's all.

 

They just grew up on the wrong side of the tracks.

The side where most Americans dont want to live -- where income inequality continues to grow and the working poor and middle class struggle while the rich get richer and complain about being over-taxed, where there is no balance between spending cuts and revenue (tax) increases (on the wealthiest), and where Wall Street and the banks are left to self-regulation.

 

Tea Party wants to bring the jobs back to the U.S. from overseas. You can't do that by having the highest corporate tax rate in the world. How many millions of jobs have we sent overseas because the libs want to stick it to the rich man? It's funny that the lefties are shouting for more taxes for the rich as though that's somehow going to make everything better. That logic is so piss poor is makes me laugh.

 

Its not just the lefties shouting for more taxes on the rich. It is the an overwhelming majority of Americans. It is not just the lefties who want a more balanced approach to debt reduction or regulations on Wall Street and banking. It is an overwhelming majority of Americans.

Evidently, there is a blind spot on the wrong side the tracks.

 

No, the overwhelming majority of Americans do not want more taxes on the rich. The overwhelming majority of Americans want less corruption on Wall St and in the federal government. Do you see the difference?

 

CNN poll
"Increasing the taxes paid by people who make more than 250 thousand dollars a year"
63% support, 37% oppose

AP poll
"In order to pay for government efforts to promote job creation, would you favor, oppose or neither favor nor oppose a 5.6% tax surcharge on income over $1 million?
62% support, 26% oppose

Bloomberg News poll
"Raising taxes on households with incomes of 250 thousand dollars per year and higher"
68% support, 28% oppose

ABC News poll
Do you support or oppose raising taxes on Americans with incomes over one million dollars a year?"
75% support, 25% oppose

http://pollingreport.com/budget.htm

Not an overwhelming majority of Americans? You will find similar results in nearly every poll.

I agree with you on wanting less corruption on Wall Street, but most Americans want tough government regulations, not a free market where Wall Street policies itself.

 

Eddie, and I mean this seriously, you sound like you would not be happy until the police marched in and started shooting. You probably think kids at Kent State deserved to die and that the Hippie Movement required force like that. Cause I guarantee if Bloomberg did as you act like you want, cops moving in in force, beating them down to prove a point, some trigger happy cop would think he heard a shot and innocent people on both sides would get killed. It's not a threat it is a fact, anytime government intervenes against a demonstration violence ensues moreso from the police and the government's side than that of the demonstrators. Just look at the recent past in the Middle East or for that matter go back to Tienanmen Square.

BTW Eddie do you think Bloomberg is weak because he is willing to try to negotiate with the protesters?

But what about every other city that has occupiers? You think Winter will defeat those in the South in Phoenix, in LA, in San Diego, Florida and so on? If you do I know there are a few online shrink sites that may help you with your hatred and anger. You talk like OWS is a solitary movement exclusive to NYC and Wall Street.... in actuality, there are movements in every major city in the US, how do you propose to end them all Eddie? Send cops in and make arrests? The arrests aren't working in Cleveland, Columbus, Philadelphia, Phoenix, et al. So when arrests don't work Eddie and it is not a solitary event, what do you do Eddie? Call out the national guard, fire on the people peacefully protesting? What cities are finding out is it costs more to arrest these peaceful protesters and draws more negative attention to City Hall than to just let them go. All they do is book them and release them which costs these cities more in taxpayer money and real crime goes up because your already bare thin police forces are having to watch the protesters (unnecessarily) than deal with real crime.

But keep your fight alive. Let hate tear you to shreds inside... been there done that. Go to bed believing that everyone else in the world is wrong and that sooner or later you'll be proven right. There's a song out there for you and about you (based on the persona you have shown in this thread) called Angry Young Man by Billy Joel.... maybe you should give it a listen. Just a thought.

 

I consider "overwhelming majority" to be 80% or more. And you left out the Fox news poll and at least half of the country watches Fox exclusively.
--- merged: Oct 24, 2011 4:25 AM ---

Not at all, I hate cops even more than I dislike liberals. So I would be rooting for the libs in that fight.

 

I think and I have stated before that going after people who make 1-5 million is foolish. That is high middle class. It sounds like a lot when you don't have it, but when you have kids college and retirement funds to save for 1-5 mill just isn't that much. To me this isn't to be about punishing the rich (I do agree anyone over 5-10 mill a year should pay their dues and not have the shelters and deductions they get allowed), it should be about restoring the regulatory boards that Reagan - Obama have allowed to dissolve into nothingness and those that do still exist exist in name only because they have no power to enforce anything. I don't think 1 bank should be able to own 2 competing corporations and have a representative sitting on both companies board. That'd be like Ford having been the biggest shareholder of GM. As long as one makes a profit, what's it to Ford? They made money. It takes away competitive spirit and the desire to put out the best product and have workers working for you. If you are a bank and you have both shares of Sony and Toshiba, would it not be more profitable to get rid of one of those company's employees and just have Toshiba put Sony's name on products?

 

The last Fox News poll I saw showed 60-70% wanting the Bush tax cuts on the top bracket to expire and the 2000 rates restored. I do recall that Fox didnt report on the results question in their own poll.

 

Most conservatives are vehemently against penalizing people simply because they are more productive.

 

Pan...income of $1-5 million is high middle class? It represents less than 5% of the all taxpayers and their effective tax rate is in the low 20% range.

 

Correction to my previous estimate of 5% of taxpayers making over $1 million. That applies to the entire top bracket. Those with income over $1 million is a bit lower:

The point could be made that because the number is so low, restoring their tax rate to the 2000 level wont result in significant revenue increase to help with the debt.

But the issue is fairness and shared sacrifice and not just cutting spending on programs this disproportionately impact the working poor and middle class.

And there is also no evidence that it would impact their investments or spending patterns. Trickle down economics has never worked.

 

More financially productive for sure, if not in other areas as well.

 

Again why are you so certain they are just liberals? When pol after poll shows they are supported by people from every political and social spectrum? There's Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist people there, there are people of every economic class represented, there are people of every ethnicity, sex orientation and race there and there are even (gasp) people of every political philosophy out there. It's not just a bunch of far leftists out trying to stir up a class warfare.

Have you been to any of the movements? Have you taken the time to talk to any of them? Or do you just rely on "Faux" News who claims to have a viewership of "half the country, exclusively", I seriously doubt that. I doubt Faux News even gets 25% viewership with just maybe 10% truly buying into their BS slanted "news". If 50% of this country truly has as it's sole news source Faux News and believes everything it says or O'Reilly or Hannity or so on believes, then we are all in trouble. Hell, last time I watched Faux News it was a joke, Coulter was on O'Reilly and he had to keep correcting her because half the shit she was saying were outright proven lies. When they came back O'Reilly was there alone and apologizing for her. Yeah, Faux News is a great place for a laugh. And no, I do not watch Maher, the Daily show or much national news at all. I watch local news and maybe, maybe 1-2 times a week ABC News. I read 3 daily newspapers (USA TODAY, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Columbus Dispatch) and all 3 major mags (Time, Newsweek and US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT), not to mention internet news engines such as Yahoo. I try broaden my views and try to stay well informed. Occasionally, if I am in the car I'll listen to Beck ramble, Limbaugh treat everyone as inferior and Hannity (who isn't that divisive, at least he allows both sides air time, granted he doesn't do it fairly but he gets credit for trying.).