Wall Street takeover/protest

[WakeandBake]

These people are an embarrassment to all 20-something young professionals who work to achieve their goals rather than demand a fair share from people who've earned something.

are you serious with this drivel?

 

[HuskyDeac]

Can they call themselves the 98% so I don't get grouped with them? There's gotta be at least 1% of the non top 1% that still want to work hard and earn what we want.

If you're not in the top 1% of earners, you're in the 99%. Whether you want to be or not.

Kind of silly name to call themselves. What if people in the 1% march with them? Are they allowed to say we are the 99%?

 

[wake20]

I'm not for one second saying there aren't some messed up corporate policies that screw Americans. I'm pissed at these dropouts looking for a reason to protest and demanding basic living necessities while writing twitter posts from their macbooks and iPhones. Have you seen some of their "demands?" Complete debt forgiveness, free college education, minimum wage of $20, etc? Stop demanding shit because you don't want to work for anything.

 

[PhDeac]

I'm not for one second saying there aren't some messed up corporate policies that screw Americans. I'm pissed at these dropouts looking for a reason to protest and demanding basic living necessities while writing twitter posts from their macbooks and iPhones. Have you seen some of their "demands?" Complete debt forgiveness, free college education, minimum wage of $20, etc? Stop demanding shit because you don't want to work for anything.

I think what you're saying is that you'd like them to get off your lawn.

 

[WakeandBake]

I'm not for one second saying there aren't some messed up corporate policies that screw Americans. I'm pissed at these dropouts looking for a reason to protest and demanding basic living necessities while writing twitter posts from their macbooks and iPhones. Have you seen some of their "demands?" Complete debt forgiveness, free college education, minimum wage of $20, etc? Stop demanding shit because you don't want to work for anything.

I took those demands as purposeful overstatements intended to make a point about Wall Street getting bailouts and freebies from taxpayers.

 

[HuskyDeac]

Those demands were one guy on a forum. You could make some pretty absurd generalizations about Wake Forest by just taking the views of one person on these boards.

 

[wake20]

I think what you're saying is that you'd like them to get off your lawn.

If I had a lawn. :thumbsup:

I have student debt, older roommates who share my last name, and no prospect of making six figures any time soon. I guess the one aspect that really bothers me is the fact that some people spend $50k/year to go to grad school to get some worthless Master's degree and complain about not seeing the end of the tunnel. They demand accountability, but don't want to look in the mirror and think hmm maybe taking out a six figure loan to go to school and live in NYC in a terrible job market wasn't the best idea. I'm probably a little overly aggressive in making generalizations and attacking those who are fighting for a cause, but watching interviews with the ignorant who can't explain what they want, why they're protesting, or how their philosophical and political ideology don't even make sense is getting at me. Rant over. Back to work.

 

[wfudkn]

From their list of greviences: "They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right."

I heard this kid on NPR last night bitching about how he's racked up $200K in loans going to Depaul and because he can't pay it back the government needs to step in with "reforms and programs" to help pay it off. It really irritates me when people who choose to take out loans to go to an expensive private school like this kid bitch about not being able to pay back the loans. The loans are there to help people go to the schools they want to go to, but no one forced you to go to an expensive private school so don't expect someone else to pay it back for you.

 

[CarlSpackler88]

You're an idiot. Way to make a mountain out of a mole hill. Out of one side of your mouth - you are saying they really don't have any demands and out of the other, they want a new Venezuela. Which is it, idiot man? Because they can't be both.

You are right though in stating that they are just a bunch of kids who have no message. This is true and the sole take away. Welcome to new media. The simple problem is that there aren't many jobs for new non-elite college graduates and they have plenty of time to slum it on the street and get pissy about Wall Street failures.

What's wrong with letting them go topless down on Wall Street for a month. Who cares? It'll be cold in a few nights and they'll disappear back home for Thanksgiving and that will be that.

Rubber bullets? Such a bigass idiot toad you are. I'll tell you what, I'll meet you in New York City, you bring a gun with two rubber bullets. And I'll let you shoot me first if I can shoot you. I just think I am so much less of a pussy than you are that it will be fun to make you whimper and piss yourself. It would be worth the short bruise/injury for such a lifelong memory.

Let's do this!

 

[TownieDeac]

Jeff Mangum played there yesterday!!!

 

[RJKarl]

Herman Cain says the protests have been orchestrated by the left to take people's minds off of Obama.

He also said,"If you don't have a job, don't blame Wall Street, blame yoruself."

 

[DirkTheDeac]

I hear they may make their own sleeping bags. It's this kind of initiative that gives me hope for the younger generation.

 

[DeacMan]

Here's what I don't get.

We're all "mad" at the banks for making "bad" loans. But lots of people took out those "bad" loans. Who is to blame.

We are all pissed we had to bail out the banks. But we've made over 10 billion USD on TARP as taxpayors. We have not made back the money we lent to automakers, at least not yet.

We are all pissed the banks are in such shitty shape. And we want to punish the banks. But it was the collapse of a bank that led to the financial meltdown.

So, we need the banks to avoid another meltdown. We've made money off the banks from our bailout of the same. But we want to punish the banks because we're pissed at them. And all of this stems from the fact (which is beyond indisputable) that the entire world (people, companies and governments) over levered themselves.

Now what I do get is the populist outrage at the banks paying huge bonuses when they are so struggling. That I get.

But the rest of this stuff seems to fold over on itself. Isn't what people really want is to have debts restructured so we can dig our way out of the proverbial holes we've dug in a more orderly fashion?

 

[RJKarl]

Here's what I don't get.

We're all "mad" at the banks for making "bad" loans. But lots of people took out those "bad" loans. Who is to blame.


It's the banks' jobs not to make the bad loans.

We are all pissed we had to bail out the banks. But we've made over 10 billion USD on TARP as taxpayors. We have not made back the money we lent to automakers, at least not yet.

We have made a significant portion of the money back from the automakers. Plus we saved more money in benefits not paid to the people who would have lost their GM jobs than we have not recovered.
....
We are all pissed the banks are in such shitty shape. And we want to punish the banks. But it was the collapse of a bank that led to the financial meltdown.

Then let them be run by new people and make regulations that make what they did illegal and impossible to do.

So, we need the banks to avoid another meltdown. We've made money off the banks from our bailout of the same. But we want to punish the banks because we're pissed at them. And all of this stems from the fact (which is beyond indisputable) that the entire world (people, companies and governments) over levered themselves.

Now what I do get is the populist outrage at the banks paying huge bonuses when they are so struggling. That I get.

But the rest of this stuff seems to fold over on itself. Isn't what people really want is to have debts restructured so we can dig our way out of the proverbial holes we've dug in a more orderly fashion?

.....

 

[pourdeac]

And all of this stems from the fact (which is beyond indisputable) that the entire world (people, companies and governments) over levered themselves.

Now what I do get is the populist outrage at the banks paying huge bonuses when they are so struggling. That I get.

But the rest of this stuff seems to fold over on itself. Isn't what people really want is to have debts restructured so we can dig our way out of the proverbial holes we've dug in a more orderly fashion?

Yea, it's a bit absurd. Everyone had a dream of never ending wealth and now want to blame others when the check came.

I'm not sure how Alec Baldwin can be slamming Wall Street though...what's in your wallet!

 

[WFFaithful]

Here's what I don't get.

We're all "mad" at the banks for making "bad" loans. But lots of people took out those "bad" loans. Who is to blame.

We are all pissed we had to bail out the banks. But we've made over 10 billion USD on TARP as taxpayors. We have not made back the money we lent to automakers, at least not yet.

We are all pissed the banks are in such shitty shape. And we want to punish the banks. But it was the collapse of a bank that led to the financial meltdown.

So, we need the banks to avoid another meltdown. We've made money off the banks from our bailout of the same. But we want to punish the banks because we're pissed at them. And all of this stems from the fact (which is beyond indisputable) that the entire world (people, companies and governments) over levered themselves.

Now what I do get is the populist outrage at the banks paying huge bonuses when they are so struggling. That I get.

But the rest of this stuff seems to fold over on itself. Isn't what people really want is to have debts restructured so we can dig our way out of the proverbial holes we've dug in a more orderly fashion?

a collapse of a bank led to the meltdown?

 

[DirkTheDeac]

Yea, it's a bit absurd. Everyone had a dream of never ending wealth and now want to blame others when the check came.

I'm not sure how Alec Baldwin can be slamming Wall Street though...what's in your wallet!

Sort of like the protesters asking for donations and time from lawyers, doctors, etc. Whatever. Winter is coming.

 

[truifh0]

Sort of like the protesters asking for donations and time from lawyers, doctors, etc. Whatever. Winter is coming.

Great point. I love how they are protesting capitolism (their spelling) but yet they are asking for donations and free services from the people they are protesting against. Hopefully they can get enough sleeping bags donated so they don't have to knit them.

 

[Go]

The list of demands had a bunch of us cracking up tonight.

 

[HuskyDeac]

For those that didn't read the link, this is what the groups have come up with together as their list of grievances.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press. They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad. They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.