Occupy Wall Street

Interesting, Cyn. I am coming to admire the New Yorkers for the way they are handling this (protesters and locals).

 

Just a wee bit of food for thought. Liberals are always talking about the royal "we" as in all humans..."we are the world" kind of stuff. So where is their perspective?

 

99% of the world's population is starving and living in huts?

[citation needed]

 

Americans are the 1%, globally speaking.

 

Right, because the EU is not the biggest economy on this planet.

 

Huh? What does that have to do with the American population being in the top 1% as opposed to the rest of the world's population being in the 99%?

 

Because you're not the top 1%? If anything, you're simply part of the top 1% next to the many wealthy Europeans, Australians, Chinese, Russians, Indians, Japanese and Arabs.

 

And it's a lot more than 1%.

There is a disparity and inequality between the first world and the third world. No question.

That isn't an argument for increased inequality anywhere, though.

 

Nope.

From a recent Washington Post article:

"Branko Milanovic, lead economist for the World Bank research group, sent me this comparative analysis based on household income or consumption surveys worldwide, adjusted for purchasing power differences. Those at the 34th percentile of income in the United States are at the 90th percentile globally, and those at the 50th percentile in the United States are at the 93rd percentile globally. Even the very poorest Americans — those at the 2nd percentile of income in the United States — are at the 62nd percentile globally."

 

That quote tells you nothing about how the EU ranks next to the US. Australian households spend a lot on average as well. And don't forget the Russian oligarchs.

 

That quote tells you where the majority of Americans rank in world economic status. We're at the tippy top.

 

Another successful distraction...

Look! Eddie is pretending to care about the plight of poor nonwhites!

Clearly OWS is wrong for protesting against excessive corporate influence on United States political processes. You know how I know they're wrong? Because of global poverty. Logic. In your face.

I wonder how the average OWS protestor feels about the kind of unchecked capitalism that at best is indifferent to global poverty, and at worst actively contributes to and exploits global poverty?

 

Kind of does make you think twice about the OWS mantra of "we are the 99%" though, doesn't it?

 

Frankly, no.

 

Nope. Because I understand what it means.

 

hmpf, well....

 

If you're a poor starving American (but other people in the world are starving a little bit more) then you have NO RIGHT TO COMPLAIN

 

Recognizing that there are people in the world who face daily deprivations far worse than the 99% of Americans, it is not the OWS movement that is opposed to spending 1% of the budget on foreign economic (non military) and humanitarian aid. That would be the Ron Paul crowd and the Tea Party.