Monday, October 10, 2011

April Fools In October

*Warning: Personal Opinion Upcoming*

The first time I saw televised images of "Occupied Wall Street", I was convinced that the South Park (Trey Parker 'n Matt Stone) duo had gone ahead and done a follow up to Team America: World Police.

The sound bytes from the news report sounded just like quotes from some of the Hollyweird marrionettes in the aforementioned movie ("Evil corporations are so...so...corporationy"). When one protester was asked why he was mad at corporations, his brilliant, MENSAesque response was "because they have all the money and won't give me any!"

Whether you view his opinion as a legitimate beef, or dependency/entitlement mentality run amok, well...wherever you fall on the spectrum, there are more than a few folks in today's society that agree with those protesting on Wall Street and in other locations around the country, including in Denver.

I won't argue that there are some things amiss in today's society. Our constitutional representative republic isn't perfect. No system is or ever can be, so long as Man has individuality, independence of spirit, and runs the gamut from allowing those traits to grow like flowers, to trying to control every last thought, word and action.

But I wouldn't trade our form of governance, with all its faults, for any other I'm aware of on this planet. Certainly not one that tries to beat, intimidate, or make illegal, individuality and independence of spirit ... like forms of socialism, communism and theocracy do. And I certainly wouldn't trade it for what some among these "Occupiers" are demanding.

Just so's you know: I am not rich. Never even been close. Never made more than a middle 5 figure income at any given time, and not making that much at present. Certainly not $20 an hour. But I can pay my bills as long as I keep them in check....(some pun kinda intended). And I don't own or run an "evil" corporation. I do work for a corporation...whether it's evil or not, I guess would depend on if you agree with the protesters about corporations in general, or at least try to sort them in some subjective way.

On a website supporting the Occupy Wall Street protests, a "Proposed List of Demands" is published from one of the protesters. The site itself cautions that this list "is not an official list of demands".

Which is good, because if it were....only the lamestream media and those affected by long term exposure to dumbed down education, would think to take demands like these seriously.

Among the things at least one Occupy Wall Street protester demands "right now":

- a minimum wage of $20 an hour
- a single payer health care system which outlaws all private insurance companies
- a guaranteed living wage, even for the unemployed
- free college education
- completely open borders and no citizenship requirements
- an end to the fossil fuel economy
- 1 trillion dollars -- "right now" -- spent on infrastructure
- 1 trillion dollars -- "right now" -- spent on ecology, to include removal of dams and
nuke power plants
- no restrictions on unionizing employers
- forgiveness of all debt -- "right now" -- regardless of from whenst it is owed.

Now, for those who have come to believe in "entitlements" and have grown dependent upon government assistance, I'm sure a lot of these things sound just peachy. Funnier still...while the website folks at Occupy Wall Street are quick to deny that these are an official "list of demands", there's no doubt that there are plenty of folks therein who agree in part -- possibly in large part -- with these demands, which is why they got a page of their own on the Occupy Wall Street webpage.

How these things will be paid for and sustained, as demanded, isn't laid out by the submitter of the demands. Perhaps he thinks that the president can simply "take it from his stash". But more likely, the protester -- and others like him -- believe that "evil corporations" have all this money that's really ours, and they need to just "give it to us" to make things fair and equitable for all of society.

I seemed to have missed that part when I took economics some years ago. Musta not been paying attention when those things were being taught. Or maybe I was just spared exposure to a Marxist-oriented professor during my college days.

For those of you who've read much of this blog, you know I'm not very supportive of progressive tomfoolery, as so much of this choreographed, paid-for-by-unions-and-others "flash mob" nonsense, truly is. I don't buy into the 'class warfare' that our president is actively, shamelessly advocating. I know better than to think that soaking the rich of more and more taxes will alleviate all of society's ills; such a marxian dream will only lead to more economic downturn and misery, not less.

If the Left could attain what they claim they want, the rich elites therein will be perfectly content to tell the rest of us how to live, think, and depend upon them. A good number of the Left's "foot soldiers" -- on silly display in the news media -- would find that, in the words of a song by The Who -- "they just been fooled again". Lenin referred to them as "useful idiots".

And that's what Occupy Wall Street, and all of its offshoots, are.

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2 Comments:

Blogger Sandee said...

I agree with you on this. Obummer need to shut the heck up too. He's stirring the pot like nobodies business. He's done nothing but put us deeper and deeper into the hole. Exactly what he wants as long as he can blame someone else.

Have a terrific day. :)

10 October, 2011 12:56  
Blogger Serena said...

Well, those "demands" are just unrealistic, any way you look at them. Definitely sounds like "entitlement" run amok. Here's the thing with that proposed minimum wage -- you jack it up to $20 an hour, then the price of bread will go up to $8 a loaf. And so on and so on.

10 October, 2011 17:23  

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