What The “Occupy Wall St.” Protesters Are Actually Prote

jkleman79

This is not negative but very informative.. Also if you own a business, or you are in management and you do not have Bob Burg on your facebook or read his blog you are holding yourself back from success. He is an amazing mentor and speaker.

What The “Occupy Wall St.” Protesters Are Actually Protesting
October 17th, 2011 by Bob Burg

Like many, I’m often asked my thoughts regarding the protests taking place, first on Wall St. and now in cities throughout the world. And, my typical answer includes that often annoying term I use, “false premise.” And, truly, I can’t think of anything that is based more on a false premise than this. And, apparently, neither Democratic nor Republican politicians are aware of it.

One often hears it is an assault on Capitalism; that Capitalism and the greedy bankers for which it stands has ruined the economy, creating a 1 percent super-rich and 99 percent everyone else. That seems to be the summation.

However, not one of the protesters is actually protesting against Capitalism. Oh, I know they believe they are. But, they are not. They are protesting against Corporatism, where big business is given special advantages and privileges by the politicians they buy (err, to whose campaigns they contribute). There is a significant…significant difference and it needs to be understood in order to be dealt with effectively.

Corporatism is often referred to as “Crony Capitalism.” I wish that advocates of Capitalism and Free Enterprise would stop using that term because, well, it has the word “Capitalism” in it. And, that confuses people.

Please understand (warning…here comes a tweetable quote) :

“Crony Capitalism is to Capitalism what Chinese Checkers is to Checkers.”

So, I’m not telling the protesters they shouldn’t be protesting. I’m only suggesting that what they are protesting is not what they think they are protesting, and they are protesting to the wrong people. Here are my thoughts for the protesters:

“You are right; Wall St. helped ruin our economy. But they could ONLY have done so with all the special rules based on corporatism enacted by government. So, if you want to protest anywhere, it should be in Washington, D.C., and only Washington, D.C.! And protest, not for more rules and regulations, but for government to STOP making rules and regulations that allow both corporations and government-sponsored entities (i.e. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) the ability to take excessive risks with no consequences.”

Not that anyone who truly hates the idea of Capitalism/Free-Enterprise will listen. They will only tweet out their disagreement using all the technology made possible by Capitalists/Free-Enterprisers (Holy irony, Batman!). But, at least for everyone trying to intelligently reason out the issue, it will make sense, and cause those on the fence to look a little deeper than the sound bites they are hearing from the usual media outlets.

MayMaydoesntrun

I imagine this is going to get locked....

ilovedeadlifts

If only someone would send this to everyone who is protesting, so they knew what they were actually out there for.

Gilbrod

My point exactly. People use the means given to them by corporations to spread the word electronically. very ironic.

jkleman79

I imagine this is going to get locked....

I guess there is a chance of that...but if they read it first and see that there is nothing positive or negative supporting or arguing in this post. It is simply a clarified view of a situation. There is nothing in this post that would spark a debate here.

Silverkittycat

Good post!

unsuspectingfish

Except for the fact that Adbusters, the group that started the protests, is an anti-capitalism movement. Yes, they're currently protesting corporatism, but they're still against capitalism as it's practiced in this country (which happens to include corporatism).

unsuspectingfish

I imagine this is going to get locked....

I guess there is a chance of that...but if they read it first and see that there is nothing positive or negative supporting or arguing in this post. It is simply a clarified view of a situation. There is nothing in this post that would spark a debate here.

It's politics. Of course it's going to spark a debate.

MayMaydoesntrun

I imagine this is going to get locked....

I guess there is a chance of that...but if they read it first and see that there is nothing positive or negative supporting or arguing in this post. It is simply a clarified view of a situation. There is nothing in this post that would spark a debate here.

It's politics. Of course it's going to spark a debate.

Exactly..

binary_jester

Protesters actually understanding what they are protesting? Going beyond bumper sticker politics? A pipe dream indeed.

binary_jester

I imagine this is going to get locked....

I guess there is a chance of that...but if they read it first and see that there is nothing positive or negative supporting or arguing in this post. It is simply a clarified view of a situation. There is nothing in this post that would spark a debate here.

It's politics. Of course it's going to spark a debate.

Exactly..

A debate is healthy. The inability for people to separate their opinions from the emotions is truly sad. You don't understand a subject unless you can debate it.

I wish we, as a society, could go back to the day political debates were entertainment. Force a politician to actually understand a subject and present it properly.

miriamtorason

Interestingly, this is what I've understood the protest to be about all along. Maybe I'm in some kind of minority, or I'm not exposed to the 'usual suspects' of sources, but it's seemed obvious to me all along that the protest is primarily a statement of discontent surrounding the practice of crony capitalism that has led to the current economic state and the current distributions of the country's wealth, contributing to the gap between the rich and everyone else (not just "the poor" anymore) becoming wider and wider. Seems to me that a lot of people are protesting things like the lack of accountability Wall Street has, and how a growing number of people that are not wealthy have to work three and four jobs just to make ends meet.

unsuspectingfish

I imagine this is going to get locked....

I guess there is a chance of that...but if they read it first and see that there is nothing positive or negative supporting or arguing in this post. It is simply a clarified view of a situation. There is nothing in this post that would spark a debate here.

It's politics. Of course it's going to spark a debate.

Exactly..

A debate is healthy. The inability for people to separate their opinions from the emotions is truly sad. You don't understand a subject unless you can debate it.

I wish we, as a society, could go back to the day political debates were entertainment. Force a politician to actually understand a subject and present it properly.

Oh, I enjoy a good debate, but the MFP mods don't. Plus, they usually devolve to name-calling around here, anyway.

Mike

Sorry folks, we don't allow political discussions on the forums, so I am locking this topic. Please review the forum rules for more information:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/207785-forum-rules-please-read-before-posting