Occupy.... the Simthsonian?

This is one reason for the movement.

From "The Reformed Broker" blog.

Reformed Broker said: You want to know why everyone in this country hates you and wants you dead, you big stupid berkeleying bank? Here's why, pay attention: (Reuters) – Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) will pay $11 million to ousted executives Joe Price and Sallie Krawcheck, a large payout at a time when banks face protests over pay but smaller than the eight-figure packages some executives received before the financial crisis. Krawcheck -- a former Citigroup Inc (C.N) executive who came to Bank of America in 2009 and was one of the top-ranking women on Wall Street -- will receive a one-time payment of $5.15 million, according to separation agreements filed by the bank on Friday. Price, a Bank of America veteran, gets $4.15 million. Each will also receive $850,000 over a one-year period. Price was head of consumer banking and Krawcheck led wealth and investment operations.

And he goes on to say:

Reformed Broker said: You look completely ridiculous with news like this at a time when thousands of people are massing in every major city in the country to make the case that you don't deserve to exist. At a time when you're being investigated for employing robo-signers just to maintain a certain level of foreclosures processed per month. At a time when you're laying off rank-and-file employees not by the hundreds, not by the thousands - but in the tens of thousands. At a time when retired seniors, desperately seeking income, have been pushed into annuities, life settlements, commodities and junk bonds because of the zero percent interest rate policy that was meant to nurse you and your balance sheet back to health - and this is what you do with the money? With OUR money?

Take a look around. Things are tough. The only people getting any substantive help from anyone are the banks and corporations. More than "smelly kids" are mad. Is the Tea party a bunch of smelly kids? They're saying the same things, just offering a different solution.

Where was all your anger when the Tea party was doing the exact same thing?

This movement isn't perfect. It's a month old today. Given time this will swell, it will affect politics. No need to fear change. I know fear is a cornerstone of Republican/conservative dogma but it's ok. Just relax, take your geritol/stool softner, and you'll be fine.

Jesus berkeleying christ. Are there any moderates left in the US? I hate people.

Another reason why Occupy is happening:

Recession Officially Over, U.S. Incomes Kept Falling

This is an interesting article about how corps/banks are making money hand over fist and yet....incomes keep falling for Americans. In fact, income is currently falling faster now, supposedly post recession, than during the agreed upon recession period.

How much of a drop?

From the article listed said: The full 9.8 percent drop in income from the start of the recession to this June — the most recent month in the study — appears to be the largest in several decades, according to other Census Bureau data. Gordon W. Green Jr., who wrote the report with John F. Coder, called the decline “a significant reduction in the American standard of living.”

Yeah. 10%. When was the last time you received a 10% raise? But we have collectively taken this hit as Americans.

This downturn is affecting various groups differently. Some numbers from the article.

From the article listed said: For example, income, after adjustment for inflation, declined fairly substantially for households headed by people under age 62, but it rose 4.7 percent for those headed by people 65 to 74, many of whom are not in the labor force. The change was negligible for those 62 to 64. The type of employment also made a difference. Real median annual income declined to a similar degree for households headed by private-sector wage workers (4.3 percent) and government-sector workers (3.9 percent), but fell much more for the self-employed (12.3 percent). Family households generally had larger declines in real income than other households. Men living alone showed a bigger decline than women living alone. Education levels were also a factor. Median annual income declined most for households headed by someone with an associate’s degree, dropping 14 percent, to $53,195, in the four-year period that ended in June 2011, the report said. For households headed by people who had not completed high school, median income declined by 7.9 percent, to $25,157. For those with a bachelor’s degree or more, income declined by 6.8 percent, to $82,846.

The youngest of our country will feel this for years if not decades. If we want a strong country in 10, 20, 30 years we need to act now. Personally, I think education is a start. But hey, if your panties are too tight to let yourself think about helping some young kids get a good start, I hope you're not around to see our place in world standing in the coming decades.

I'll just leave this here:

Conservative journalist says he infiltrated, escalated D.C. museum protest

I heard yesterday that the drones have a virus in their software. I wonder how that got there.

The display for the drones isn't too difficult to understand, since the next generation fighter jets may be remotely operated too.

In reply to alex:

It was really stupid for Howley to take the lead as "agent provocateur". Then again, how smart was it for the others to follow his lead?

Xceler8x The youngest of our country will feel this for years if not decades. If we want a strong country in 10, 20, 30 years we need to act now. Personally, I think education is a start. But hey, if your panties are too tight to let yourself think about helping some young kids get a good start, I hope you're not around to see our place in world standing in the coming decades.

Which kids? The ones who called me a douchbag and said I was a traitor to my race because I happen to be a Hispanic conservative who went to a Tea Party rally during the height of the rallies in Madison?

Or, the 30 something perpetual student I had the pleasure of being behind at Starbucks last weekend who wouldn't stop talking about his thesis for his Masters in Celtic Studies?

Or how about my best friends 25 yo daughter who gets food stamps and free BadgerCare even though she has no kids, no job, no HS diploma and no desire to do anything with her life other than to wake up everyday at 2:00 pm and bitch how it's everybody else's fault her life sucks.

And FWIW, I've NEVER worked for a company that didn't offer some sort of tuition help for higher education. In fact I have an appointment today with a counselor to further mine (on the company dime). So all this boo-hooing about kids not being able to pay for college is crap. Either they are too lazy or too stupid to figure out how to get the help they need.

As much as this march and ideology seems flawed there is a real problem, but how do you attack it?

We need term limits to get rid of the professional politicians and get us back to what our founders envisioned which was everyday people serving for a limited time and then going back to their jobs and families. That really limits the special interests and insures a wide variety of viewpoints

Here's the problem without term limits - being elected becomes your job. What happens when you get a job? You want to advance and get a raise. You want job security and long term employment. By not having term limits the JOB becomes more important than the people they are supposedly representing.

We also need to get rid of the electoral college to make people feel more like their vote matters. Remember all the hubbub of the electoral college members telling everyone they were going to vote for Obam no matter who the voters voted for? Once upon a time when the votes had to be carried to Washington we needed the college. We don't any more. There are any number of safe ways for us to vote. We could even vote on more things than we do now - that is if the voters would turn out. I wonder how the vote would have gone for the Dodd-Frank bill if we'd have gotten to vote?

in a recent race for a senate seat*, the candidates spent a combined $80 MILLION DOLLARS on their campaigns, split pretty evenly between the (R) and the (D) candidate. for a job with an annual salary of about $180k base. either they know something that the general public does not know, or they're berkeleying morons, or perhaps both. but like Hess and others throughout time have said, if you want the answer you just have to follow the money.

*names withheld to avoid further derailment of this thread

The sad thing about this thread is that if you look at the resume of Steve Jobs before he got together with Mr. Wozniak and started Apple Computer in that garage, he looked a lot like these 'perpetual students' you guys keep bashing here.

In reply to Snowdoggie:

The sad thing is that you ignore Jobs' accomplishments; the one's achieved through hard work during the tough times and the good times.

It's not about the looks, it's about the actions.

In reply to oldsaw:

His actions were later in life.

At one point he was out travelling the world and taking in the sites. Being a bum.

In reply to Snowdoggie:

How much debt was he accruing during that time? Who paid-off that debt?

Or, did he work his way around the world and take in the sites along the way?

oldsaw wrote: In reply to Snowdoggie: How much debt was he accruing during that time? Who paid-off that debt? Or, did he work his way around the world and take in the sites along the way?

I'm sure that any debt he accrued has been paid off by now...10 times over.

Snowdoggie wrote: In reply to oldsaw: His actions were later in life. At one point he was out travelling the world and taking in the sites. Being a bum.

But what does that show in relation to people demanding that their education be handed to them because working for it is too hard? I really don't see the connection. The people in the streets claiming that a complete erasure of the global credit system is a good plan are never going to lead a business to success like Jobs did.

To respond to all this about the cost of college, have anyone of you seen how much the cost of education has risen over the past few years?!? It is getting ridiculous and pricing kids out of possibility of college (I am talking about state college here not private). There are lots of scholarships out there but it is becoming very difficult for the middle class to afford college when even an in-state school is approaching $10-$15k a year. In order to say a world power, we need educated people believe it or not and if we are not willing to invest in our future, well we shouldn't be complaining if the Chinese take us over because it will be our own damn fault. In both Alabama and Kentucky (the two states I have experience), the cost of a college degree at a public college has increased by a fairly large amount over the last 4 years (much higher then inflation or any other economic factor). Also to the people who say you don't need a college degree, what world do you live in?

I do agree I don't feel too bad for people who went to private colleges, got a useless degree, now can't find a job and are deep in debt. They should have thought of that before they decide to end up that deep in debt.

93EXCivic wrote: To respond to all this about the cost of college, have anyone of you seen how much the cost of education has risen over the past few years?!? It is getting ridiculous and pricing kids out of possibility of college (I am talking about state college here not private). There are lots of scholarships out there but it is becoming very difficult for the middle class to afford college when even an in-state school is approaching $10-$15k a year. In order to say a world power, we need educated people believe it or not and if we are not willing to invest in our future, well we shouldn't be complaining if the Chinese take us over because it will be our own damn fault. Also to the people who say you don't need a college degree, what world do you live in? I do agree I don't feel too bad for people who went to private colleges, got a useless degree, now can't find a job and are deep in debt. They should have thought of that before they decide to end up that deep in debt.

56K and change, without a scholarship where I was going. 38K at the (state) school that was next on my list when I was getting ready to enroll. College in insanely berkeleying expensive, there's no argument there. Edit: I do regret not going to one of the co-op schools that I applied to, as I'd probably still be there.

Anecdotal evidence seems to show me you don't need a college degree to make a good living. I don't have statistics to back that claim up though.

In reply to MG_Bryan:

I think that depends on your idea of good living. I mean yes there are some people who make a good living without a college degree but I am willing bet that many more make a good living from having a college degree.

That list of demands just shows how this is SO not a "movement.". It is just the usual group of fringe discontents that have finally got enough attention that they know where to find each other. A movement implies direction. This is going nowhere. It will last as long as the attention lasts.

Unfortunately, though, I find some liberal people I know echoing such things as Protectionism and Marxist philosophies (from each...to each, etc.) as to be frightened of their ignorance. All we need is for our pandering Govt to pick up the ball on Protectionism and we'll be further down that steep, slippery slope to a Global Depression. Those that don't study history are doomed to repeat it...

In reply to 93EXCivic:

I'll give you this, I don't know anyone, aside from my father, that jockeys a desk and makes a particularly good living without having gone to college. That said, if everyone's ultimate goal is a white collar job, I sincerely hope many of them fail in that regard because that doesn't really strike me a sustainable.

MG_Bryan wrote: In reply to 93EXCivic: I'll give you this, I don't know anyone, aside from my father, that jockeys a desk and makes a particularly good living without having gone to college. That said, if everyone's ultimate goal is a white collar job, I sincerely hope many of them fail in that regard because that doesn't really strike me a sustainable.

I agree. We need skilled labors as well and I am not trying to dismiss them. I think it is sad that many High schools have dropped there vocational school programs. The simple fact is not everyone is cut out for college. We need blue collar workers as well and vocational school programs provide some training for that kinda thing.

For those of you that missed it, the list of demands, is actually a list that was proposed by one ANONYMOUS person on the forum. Pretty much all of the responses to it, which I'm going to guess a healthy portion come from members of the movement, are negative.

They have officially stated that these demands do not represent the goals of their organization.

Marty! wrote: So all this boo-hooing about kids not being able to pay for college is crap. Either they are too lazy or too stupid to figure out how to get the help they need.

You are so kind. Thanks for commenting.

MG_Bryan wrote: But what does that show in relation to people demanding that their education be handed to them because working for it is too hard? I really don't see the connection. The people in the streets claiming that a complete erasure of the global credit system is a good plan are never going to lead a business to success like Jobs did.

Let's hold off on deifying ol'Steve Jobs. The guy was not a saint nor someone to worship. Just because you're rich doesn't make you virtuous. I'm not saying the guy didn't accomplish a lot. I am saying that getting rich and running a successful company does not instantly qualify you as a good and virtuous example of humanity.

Education - the problem with education is that it is so expensive now the average person has to become an indentured servant to get even a four year degree. The student takes out loans that will take most citizens decades to pay back. At least in the colonial period indentured servants only worked for their masters a total of seven years.

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As I said before, the movement is a month old. Give it time. Things will solidify and then they will speak more for the common man than both parties.

Example: 3/4's of people think the rich should pay the same amount of taxes as a plumber or bus driver. The politico's still have not taken this as what it is, a mandate from the people to do the work they were elected to do. That work is to vote as we, the electorate, tell them. Instead they are beholden to the 1% of people who give them the most money. This is the flaw in our democracy and why representative government is no longer representative. That is what Occupy seeks to stop. 99% percent of us deserve representation too.

i'm going back to school... I was shocked at how much school costs have risen... about 200% increase since i've graduated HS 11 years ago...

as for schools pushing "college is the only way"... our school offered a vocational school option for free... but the guidance counselors at our HS (what a joke) only seemed to push the pot heads towards those options...

What is the deal with every one expecting to go to university? It looks like too many have been taught into thinking they are too good to actually work for something. My mother worked 2 jobs and went to school. Paid her own way never did get a degree but was a certified PA and certs in other areas. She eventually ran a daycare for 20 years. She never demanded some one else pay.

Personal responsibility is missing. So is respect by this parasite class. Always demanding things but never working for them.

I talked to some of these idiots this morning while I was in DC working. I asked what they were protesting this woman told me corporations. I asked what about them and she said because they make money. I told she can make money too all she has to do is work for it. She then told me that she deserved to have some of the corporations money because they have more than she does.

At least some one ( probably the city at tax payers expense) dropped off porta potties for these filthy losers so they would stop crapping in Freedom Park. They have ruined that park.