A prevailing criticism of the Occupy Wall Street movement has been that the campaigners lack focus and haven’t articulated any clear demands due to the complexity of Wall Street finance. In part, it is the very labyrinthine complexity of a system cloaked in elitist mystique that is driving the protests. The 99% may not understand how the system works but they do understand it isn’t working for them Nevertheless, through their process of general assembly a recently released declaration eloquently identifying what they feel is wrong. Even locally, Coos County may not fully understand how a resource rich region watch its unemployment rate rise by 5 points in eight years but it does realize that taxpayer funded economic development isn’t working.
David Cay Johnston, author of Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and StickYou with the Bill)
In a television interview Warren Buffett sided with them. While many of the demonstrators seemed ill-informed, he said, the “feeling is real and there is enough basis in that feeling that we want to get rid of that basis,” which he described as unfair taxes and lack of jobs.
Listen to the people packing Zuccotti Park, a privately owned urban space just off Wall Street, and you will hear common themes from libertarians and liberals, truck drivers and college professors, atheists and believers.
Some are articulate, others inchoate. But there is absolute agreement that the super rich, especially the financiers, are sophisticated thieves who steal not with guns, but something called derivatives.
Dan Halloran, a New York City councilman from Queens with an affinity for libertarians like Republican U.S. Congressman Ron Paul, waded into the crowd and kept people interested in his views on the economy’s failings and the need for markets.
At a local level complicated economic development projects proposed by the Port of Coos Bay and SCDC are often over simplified in an effort to sell them to the public which adds to the frustration of those citizens trying to understand and contribute to the process. The Port, unfortunately, compounds this by selectively feeding the public information while throwing up roadblocks that include lying about confidentiality agreements and claiming attorney client privilege to what should be public information or asking the Sierra Club to pay $10,000 for 1,500 pages of coal export material.
Agreed, Gene, the country is rightly suspicious of both sides of the aisle and any bill requiring taxpayer dollars that has the word “jobs” in it.
Reading a story on the Solyndra loan scandal, back door deals between government and insiders, sure seems like this problem Coos County is having with back-door deals is endemic all over, no matter which party is in, so is the fix.
People all over the country are no longer able to look the other way while a few corrupt individuals are able to influence local tax funds for projects that only benefit the few.