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I seem to recall you throwing a hissy fit when Obama bailed out Chrysler and GM in an effort to keep 80,000 jobs from vanishing. What caused the change in your perspective?
back away from the crack pipe. you got the wrong person.
The role of government is NOT to protect business interests. That is bat sh*t crazy.
The government has many roles, but the primary role of government in business is arbitration between parties during disputes. What you're saying is that the government should automatically side with businesses, no matter what, consumers be damned.
no, but when you have a situation where the fall of a company (or companies) means the virtual end of the US economic system, then yes, government has a role to protect the American way of life by ensuring that it continues.
no, but when you have a situation where the fall of a company (or companies) means the virtual end of the US economic system, then yes, government has a role to protect the American way of life by ensuring that it continues.
what?? no. absolutely not.
there is no company whose failure means the "virtual end of the US Economic system." "The American way of life" doesn't depend on these banks.
It blows my mind that some of you still buy into this scare tactic that the failure of big banks would collapse the economy. These banks exist to make money for executives and shareholders, PERIOD. They make money by extracting wealth from other, more productive people and firms.
What happens if they fail? Do the ATM's explode? Do banks cease to exist? No. Those fungible assets are purchased at a discount by solvent firms who aren't run by reckless moron executives, old shareholders are wiped out, old creditors take a haircut, and life goes on.
The protest was originally based on the collusion between Washington and Wall Street and the impact this collusion has had on the American people. It is also a response to growing corporate profits in the face of the general economic downturn, the rising gap between the rich and the poor, and the rampant financial scandals of the past few years. Wall Street is a clear target for these complaints, but it isn't isolated to Wall Street.
There are people in Washington demonstrating in front of government buildings, as there are in many other cities (my local protest is having a rally in front of the State House). Elected officials don't make the choices they make without the pressure from Wall Street. It is the imbrication of these two sectors that is the problem, and attempting to pretend that Wall Street is innocent is dishonest at best. Most of OWS realizes that this is a structural issue, and every general assembly I've attended has acknowledged the complicity of politicians. In fact, in the non-NYC protests, this has been a central concern, since impacting our local politicians is one of the most important things we can do if we aren't in seats of power like NYC, LA, Philly, or Washington. In my state, we've pointed out that both of our senators received large sums from institutions whose interests said politicians have gone on to defend. This is an issue and bringing campaign finance reform to the table is one of the ways we've acknowledged this. Putting pressure on people trying to get reelected is a good way to get a quick response. This is only a part of the issue, as I've said, but it is relevant.
Not all of the protesters are misguided idiots, despite the claims of the message board warriors who sit behind their computers while things in our country get worse and worse. Many of them actually know what's up.
1. Get Obama out of office
2. End the Fed
3. Stop the Unions and Corporations from controlling the interests of politicians
4. Raise taxes on the top 1% of income earners
5. Bring the troops home
^^ From the protests I've been to, this seems to be the general theme...
The OWS people seem very upset with how Obama's administration bailed out banks and helped JP Morgan attain the largest savings and loans bank in the country for next to nothing while causing thousands of foreclosures. They are very upset with Obama
The role of goverment is to promote the free flow of commerce and protect business interests.
The role of the government is to provide for the defense of the country, and to promote the general welfare. Period... done... that is all that exists...
The general welfare is contingent on the main aspect of our countries focus, that being individual liberty. We are to protect it and promote the general welfare within those bounds.
Period...
Anyone who says otherwise is attempting to establish their own form of government and promote their own concept of justice.
Those paid marchers have no clue what they want, they do as they are told by obama, Van Jones, the unions, Acorn, all of obama's corrupt organizations..
Those paid marchers have no clue what they want, they do as they are told by obama, Van Jones, the unions, Acorn, all of obama's corrupt organizations..
Nylabone, your partisan contributions are valued here.
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