Occupy wall street

Ok I think I get his stance now. If it's relevant, I'm a geography major minoring in environmental studies, so I understand that the media isn't conveying the whole story. But can you expect the public to get riled up about habitat destruction, forest degradation etc. to the point where they're willing to take action to reduce atmospheric CO2 to safe levels? The greenhouse effect is so simple, yet so many people I know still don't understand the concept behind it. I don't see the general public understanding how forest degradation leads to climate change any time soon. So reducing human emissions seems like a good start.

i saw this on the news the lady just kept saying that there voices need to be heard over and over again

Im going to be honest, I'm 18, going to a big 10 school (University of Illinois) , my sister just graduated from here last year. My parents are helping both of us pay for our educations, which is a total of 8 years in a row. I will (try and) do the same with my children. Both my parents are from Poland, they married back in Poland and my dad came to America alone, without a college education (only 2 years of school after "high school") knowing maybe 6 words in English, and $600 in his pocket. He slowly worked his way up to where he is now (A floor manager in a robotics plant, by no means an amazing job). My mom became a banker and now is an accountant with the government (also not that great of a job. I was pretty lucky to get into this school, I really didn't take high school seriously at all. A UofI degree is ranked very highly for getting jobs out of college. Now my major is currently in Agr and Bio Engineering (UofI is the #1 agr-sci school in the nation, and very highly ranked in engineering) I intend on transferring into Finance in Agr-Business. A couple years ago using money that I EARNED from my summer job I invested in stocks. Doing my own research and calculating I have created a pretty damn descent portfolio for a self taught teenager. Recently I had a epiphany, my parents went from nothing to being very comfortably off: we live in a decently sized home, 2 pretty new cars, we go on many vacations (both domestic and international), and I'm sure they are happy with what they made for themselves. Now I have an opportunity to focus on my education (dropped the fraternity I was pledging in order to succeed in school) and really do something with my life. Sure I can take the next 4 years on the back-burner and go out every weekday like I was a couple weeks ago and get slammed on some keystone light and miss my first class every morning. But god damn you better believe me when I say that 18 year old single malt Glenmorangie is gonna taste much better then any $15 case of beer ever could.

So in my humble opinion, fuck the protesters. If youre going to be protesting something, have a cause, have a goal. Im sick of hearing "I'm not a hippy. I'm here because we need to separate Gov and big business" as the dude next to him wants job creation and the lady next to him is posting a tweet on her iPhone4s reading "TAX THE RICH! #OWS". Then there's some old doucher sitting there holding a !Retirement Rights! sign because he didnt invest and save his money properly and now his social security is failing. Dont get me started with the guys holding star wars signs or "eat the rich' shit.

So yea, I might get karma raped but everyone is allowed to have their own opinion and I don't 0/10 someone cause they think differently than me, thats low, this is the internet- grow up.

I probably seem seem overly ambitious and bound to fail to everybody reading this, but no member of the 1% got where they are by being quiet and having low expectations for themselves. And hey as the old saying goes -

"Shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you'll land among the 99%"


-A pissed off college student who wont settle for average.

p.s. I'm sure there are errors in there but I've got more important shit to do then hate on liberals

I would shake your hand if I could.

Fuck the protestors! My parents pay for my school and I have put on the mask of "hard work" my whole life because my great grandfather was an immigrant!!! Ya sure, my neighbors lost their house... but they mustve made a bad decision somewhere... And so what if I don't pay my own education? I have a SUMMER JOB!!! I might be 16 but let me tell you.. I know if I work hard i'll be rich, thats just how these things work. God! these hippie shits need to get a life... seriously! I mean c'mon democratic participation??? Such complainers! As far as I can see the world looks great from my entitled, rich, suburban mansion!

Your post earlier in this thread leads me to believe you are a gentleman and a scholar. I would love to shake your hand.

Also everybody should note the insane amount of pro-OWS political cartoons that come out everyday. Silly fine-arts majors and their joblessness.

1. You don't see how the public can start seeing how forest destruction can lead to climate change? That's a simple issue that could be changed through the education system curriculum rather than through sanctions.

2. Reducing human emissions is always a good thing. It needs to be done through incentives and decisions of individuals to make the change. Technology is already here for a 100% sustainable city grid. It's just too expensive to do for a country 54,000,000,000,000 dollars in debt because of the banking system that got us here in the first place.

3. Creating a law is much easier to do than repeal it or change it. If we realize down the road that these taxes need to be changed, then the process of going thorough the legislative process is extremely time consuming and a waste of money and resources. Carbon taxes won't work because of cap and trade. Why stop polluting when it's cheaper for you to just buy the credits from somebody who emits less? The intention of it is there, but it ultimately doesn't solve anything.

4. "Unregulated capitalism and the current banking system" is directly related to the issues I'm talking about. Sustainability is a crucial thing for all societies on the planet if we want to support the growing human population. It will never happen until we get a reign on these corporate loopholes and restructure the banking system.


I fail to see how that idea is misdirected as that is what I want to see come out of the "goal-less" protest.

now now, you dont actually think that we have a 54trillion dollar debt solely because of the banks do you?

now now, you should take a chill pill on the overgeneralization.

Yup Im one year out of high school. Made the decision not to go and waste money that I dont have on a $100,000 bachelors degree in "English lit" or "Film". The sorry fuckers sitting around protesting did, now they get the banks sniffin up their anus trying to get money out of them for the rest of there lives. HAHA. I'll take my $550 check home after a week at Conley Construction Incorporated and live debt free until I figure out what the best move is once this economy crawls itself out of the shitter.

1. Yeah I'm pretty pessimistic regarding social change benefitting the environment, at least in the short term future. If it gets into the education system and is presented in a serious manner that would be great, but the time to introduce that, and for those being educated to end up in a position to make change will take a while. I think things should be done in the meantime before meaningful change occurs.

If this compliancy that was prior to OWS continues, were not going to get out of the economic slump, it will only get worse...And good luck trying to live on 550 a week, when it comes to bills, food, family...anything-550 isnt gona get you anywhere. once youre over 18/19

I was gunna say, 550 dollars a week hardly makes rent.

lol good shit

If you work hard in this fucking country you will get where you want to go. Your not going to work your ass off all night and end up sweeping floors.

*completely misses the point*

*very well thought out and educated response to someones post*

Dude if you're not in here to continue a decently mature and serious debate then leave because no one wants to hear it.

I know highschoolers who have a better understanding/grasp of politics and the economy then most of the adults and college aged kids I know. Stop acting like someones knowledge must be limited by their age.

Well I wish you luck in your studies bud you sound like a good kid. You also make a great point, and my parents lives sound exactly like yours, my dad came from the yugo when he was young, somehow not knowing English at all in highschool made it into a ceramic engineering program (one of 2 in the country) and opened his own business twice.

Classic generalization. It is a shame that there are a ton of hippies that don't work hard in that crowd. But the people who started this fight are doing it for the right cause. The people who know what they are talking about make a far better argument than you, and those people are the ones who hold phd's in economics or political science and have worked as hard or harder in their fields than you ever will. Those people are paying in taxes, more than most wall street bankers and executives are. They aren't arguing something ridiculous, like they should be paid to watch tv and not work hard. Its more of a greed thing, redistribution of wealth, fairer taxes, regulation on financial markets, fewer loopholes so the rich can get richer, and many other things that got us into this recession. Right now corporate companies have pull on the government, when history shows that when we were most stable the government was doing the regulation.

KEY POINT EVERYONE IS MISSING:

well said man

this^

LOL! please, learn how an economy works and get back to us. thanks.

Ok I will agree with you that there are many well educated people there who do know what they want. However, this population is so diluted by people who dont know what they want they are basically obsolete.

As for your your claim that -

"Those people are paying in taxes, more than most wall street bankers and executives are."

Please make sure you do research when it comes to data-

Attack on supposed knowledge with no supporting argument and complete dismissal of his statement with no valid counterargument. Good work douche bag. Even if he is wrong, explain why he is wrong.

How does taking someone else's money and giving it to a third party make that first person's standard of living go up? Doesn't it stay the same at best or go down?

Do you mean socialism? because thats what it seems like youre trying to say. Redistribution of wealth will never work. If I know you and I will both make around $800 a week at different jobs, what gives me incentive to go to school for 10+ years and become a surgeon? Why would anyone want to do calculations via engineering problems all day when I could just be a bag boy at jewl with no post highschool education? The only people who gain from this kind of system are the politicians. They decided how much money they get, and trust me it would be more then our $800 a week. We already have 1000s of people marching the streets bitching about politicians greed and fundraising.

Jesus fucking christ are you 10?

Socialism is massive tax pay funded bail outs, a military industrial complex that sucks more money from tax payers like a vacuum. No one has ever advocated that everyone should make the same pay, just that the system isn't rigged in favor of the rich, that politicians answer to the population majority and not the financial majority. But seriously you should have figured this shit out for yourself in middle school.

I don't know why I even bother any more. Please just stop, leave me with a shred of faith in the youth of this country. And this kid isn't even the most brain dead of you in this thread, that is a scary statement. We are fucked.

Why should the wall street banker get money taken away from him? He worked hard to get to where he is, and the guy who didn't work to secure his future shouldn't get free money. Obviousely some people lose their jobs and its beyond their control, but tough luck thats life. Thats what welfare is for.

Because they ran the country into the ground and received billions of tax-payer bailouts and THEN gave it's top-level employees massive bonuses in the 2008 holiday season (the public's money). Which isn't even the point of these protests it's mostly banking influence in politics.

and your for welfare as a result of failure making that point.....facepalm

Socialism- A political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole

The guy is talking about redistribution of wealth, essentially "bailouts" for the poor. Meaning those that make a lot of money are required to "distribute" that. I know its not socialism, and I didnt mean to come off like that, but what he said was definitely far from capitalism.

But you are okay with middle-class Americans bailing out failed banks? Did you not see what I posted above? How can you possibly argue and be taking seriously?

^taken

As the guy below you stated, I dont think you understand socialism, neither do I entirely, but you definitely don't. No one is saying that everyone should be paid the same no matter when you do. But listen to your own argument. Think about what a wall street banker makes compared to sayyy, your average ER physician. Millions vs. $250,000 dollards a year. How the fuck does that create incentive to be a doctor? When you can go work your way up on wallstreet and make millions. They aren't arguing that if you work hard you shouldn't make money to compensate for it, they are saying get rid of the greed, tax investment made money, etc. Those of you that think OWS is all about people who don't work that want money for it need to grow up. Thats not the argument. So I will advertise yet again. You sir should watch this: http://documentarystorm.com/inside-job/

Dude ive seen the movie twice in my life already and love it. It is also a pushing factor in my dream to work in the finance sector. And if you actually read what i replied to the other guy who called me out about the socialism thing, you would see that i misspoke. You will never get rid of greed, humans thrive on possession and importance. Were not the smurfs, never will a world superpower be fair for everyone, you dont become #1 without leaving people behind. Its unfortunate but true.

Humans thrive on possession and importance. More more more we always want it yes, but THAT is why they need to cut the loop holes and regulate the financial markets more heavily so at least the greed isn't SUPER excessive. There will always be greed, but if government can limit certain areas of it then fuck yes I support that. And sure we are the worlds military super power but we are no longer THE worlds super power. The reason why we got into this mess is partially because of that greed, so you shouldn't say we wouldn't be a super power without greed, because the greed is a major contributor to our deficit, which is making us less of a superpower.

LOL, you kidding me?

Have you even read my other posts in this thread?

So are you going to tell me S = I is a valid theory?

People are protesting the unethical decisions that many bankers made for large private gains at a public loss.

Unethical and ILLEGAL decisions that are going unpunished. Just because you worked hard and made a bunch of money does not give you the right to do illegal things without repercussions. Especially when it involves huge sums of money general public's well being.

I understand that there are some people that are just being angry about the fact that they are unemployed and SOME cases may be a result of apathy or laziness. These people are giving the movement a bad name and if you have an issue with the occupation movement then address a stronger view than that. I think everyone would agree that the kinds of lazy people that are being used as examples shouldn't get a bunch of free shit, but these people are not the majority.

The occupation movement clearly lacks leadership and a well-defined message but there are some very reasonable claims being made (along with some very unreasonable ones). It is frustrating for me that the worst examples of the people involved with the protests are getting the most attention from the opposing side, it is a ridiculous generalization and misrepresenting the message.

To put it into context of what it sounds like to me when someone says - "look at the stupid unemployed hipster that doesn't even know what he is protesting demanding government benefits. All the protesters are just lazy pieces of shit that don't work hard, if you work hard you will be fine". Its like me saying "look at Paris Hilton she didn't do any hard work and is really rich, rich people don't have to do hard work to get rich, they can't justify keeping their money if they didn't do anything to earn it."

Doing this kind of thing just pisses people off and prevents a rational conversation, but I guess if you want to have a rational conversation, you should get off NSG.

Unethical and ILLEGAL decisions that are going unpunished. Just because you worked hard and made a bunch of money does not give you the right to do illegal things without repercussions. Especially when it involves huge sums of money general public's well being.

I understand that there are some people that are just being angry about the fact that they are unemployed and SOME cases may be a result of apathy or laziness. These people are giving the movement a bad name and if you have an issue with the occupation movement then address a stronger view than that. I think everyone would agree that the kinds of lazy people that are being used as examples shouldn't get a bunch of free shit, but these people are not the majority.

The occupation movement clearly lacks leadership and a well-defined message but there are some very reasonable claims being made (along with some very unreasonable ones). It is frustrating for me that the worst examples of the people involved with the protests are getting the most attention from the opposing side, it is a ridiculous generalization and misrepresenting the message.

To put it into context of what it sounds like to me when someone says - "look at the stupid unemployed hipster that doesn't even know what he is protesting demanding government benefits. All the protesters are just lazy pieces of shit that don't work hard, if you work hard you will be fine". Its like me saying "look at Paris Hilton she didn't do any hard work and is really rich, rich people don't have to do hard work to get rich, they can't justify keeping their money if they didn't do anything to earn it."

Doing this kind of thing just pisses people off and prevents a rational conversation, but I guess if you want to have a rational conversation, you should get off NSG.

I am enjoying the redistribution of wealth that the local homeless population is placing on many of the protestors. I find it ironic.

We should whore out all of America's pornstars to China's richest men. The US government will be the pimp. A year of this and BAM no more debt

I’m not going to pull out fancy economic theory to explain this, I don’t have to. My logic doesn’t come from complicated models it comes from common sense and experience. Problem #1) when you redistribute wealth where is that money coming from? Any time you take someone’s wealth away from them - that is theft. I didn’t agree with the bailouts and I don’t agree with wealth redistribution. Problem #2) it sends people the wrong message when they are getting something for nothing. Give a man a fish he eats for a day; teach a man to fish he never goes hungry again. See what I’m saying? People will take advantage of something they receive for free. Problem #3) Redistribution of wealth always takes resources away from productive measures that help grow an economy and puts them into unproductive measures that mostly hinder economic growth. Economic growth is what truly raises the standard of living for everyone. That’s why the average poor person today is still doing better (longer life, more education, etc.) than the average wealthy person from 100 years ago. You can thank economic growth for that. Wealth redistribution hinders economic progress for marginal benefits.

I just spelled it out for you “fucktown”, please take a gander above. It’s written in common sense type language, probably still, above your intelligence level.

bp posted 5 billion in profits last quarter, money made at the expense of the world. no one thinks gas should be cheaper? no one thinks they should pay taxes? its not like i can start up an oil company tomorrow.

yer bank charges ya 20 bucks if u accidently over draft your account even if the money is in your other account.

chase is about to charge people 120 dollars a year hold their money.

banks have little to no money on hand. i one time went to the bank for 20,000 and i had to go to 5 different banks before i was able to get it.

half of you morons in this thread sound like fox news. well change the channel cuz family guys sucks now. better yet turn off the fuckin tv

It's hard for me to take seriously the opinions on this matter of people who use this forum when 3 threads down, it's "post your latest purchase".