Raise your hand if you are sick of Occupy? (Oakland: calculator, campers)

[nullgeo]

Originally Posted by Bushrod Polarbears

Too many of the Occupiers are well off suburban trash that come into the city to pretend they have a purpose. I'd happily run them over with my car.

Factual source for your claim? -- other than "The Knee-Jerk Tribune", that is ...

[04kL4nD]

+1

[DocGoldstein]

Originally Posted by nullgeo

Factual source for your claim? -- other than "The Knee-Jerk Tribune", that is ...

The fact is, a lot of the protesters are from Oakland as well. It's not "all" out of towners.

[04kL4nD]

+1

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by DocGoldstein

I think that goes back to my point in my post. You can hold an iPhone, you see the value in it (whether imagined or actual), what you paid for is what you get, and what you wanted (hopefully).

With Wall Street it's different. When Bank of America charges you a $35 overdraft fee because you couldn't remember that you only had $5.32 left in your checking account when you bought that $6 drink from Starbucks, it tends to **** people off a lot more than overpaying for a Chinese manufactured cell phone.

Whether that makes sense or not is anyone's opinion.

Um...I find myself agreeing with you on this point.

[DocGoldstein]

Originally Posted by Gentoo

Um...I find myself agreeing with you on this point.

Trust me, no matter what your income becomes, it still hurts when it feels like someone is unfairly pilfering your pocket.

[EclecticEars]

Originally Posted by 04kL4nD

Either way, I'm sick of them. And so are 99% of Oaklanders

The real 99%...

I'm 99% tired of them and 1% willing to buy them some "new" clothes from the Salvation Army. They might just land a job at Starbucks on Shattuck in Berkeley (I think there's one on that stretch) for a whopping $9/hour, but a start's a start.

[04kL4nD]

Originally Posted by DocGoldstein

Trust me, no matter what your income becomes, it still hurts when it feels like someone is unfairly pilfering your pocket.

Do you selectively ignore/unignore people depending on what they post?

Serious question here

[Cruithne]

Originally Posted by nullgeo

If you think that the Occupy movement hasn't had any effect, consider the dialogue of this thread.

I kind of agree with this statement. The Occupy movement has certainly made me think.

At the moment I'm kind of on the fence. I'm trying to see all sides in order to make an informed decision.

The distorted distribution of wealth in this country is something which bothers me hugely on a day to day basis. In the Bay Area it could not be more blatant.
I do think that something needs to change and the Occupy Movement has definitely woken people up to that.

However, the Silicon Valley article I highlighted earlier, addresses one of the issues I'm having trouble with. (Here's the link again: Why Are There No 1 Percent Occupy Protests in Silicon Valley?)

Are the Occupy Movement venting their frustration on the right people?
As far as I understand you need to earn in the region of $344,000 to be in the top 1%. Granted, more then 99% of us could ever dream of earning. But that's one in every hundred people. That's a lot of people being blamed here. Has every single one of these people earned this by unfair means? By targeting everyone that earns over $344,000 are you not stifling the desire for success?

I've been looking in to what these 1 percenters do:
What the Top 1% of Earners Majored In - NYTimes.com
Seems to me a lot of these people have Science degrees?
Also interesting to note that among chief executives, fewer than one in five rank among the 1 percent.

For me the focus seems to have shifted away from Wall Street and Giant Corporations and on to just anyone in the top 1%, although not towards Silicon Valley as yet. I wonder if that is just a matter of time?

I keep hearing "Occupiers don't oppose wealth, they oppose powerful people". Seems to me they do oppose wealth, otherwise why target the whole top 1% with one blanket? I think they need to refocus.

From what I understand, its not actually the 1 percenters that hold all the power, and that the power, wealth and income are super-concentrated in the top 0.1%, (that's one in a thousand, not one on every hundred).

I don't know what the answer is - I'm still trying to form a decision, but for me the focus should be on the tax that people pay rather than the people themselves. Why aren't people coming down harder on the government about this? Seems to me there is something inherently wrong with the system here. If someone could shed some light on that I'd be grateful.

(Please I'd appreciate not having a slanging match - I'm just trying to understand what is going on here).

[bmw335xi]

The occupy movement is a joke... trashing businesses, ports and public works helps the 99% HOW? By preventing them from going to work? By shutting down an employer for days or weeks so no employees get paid? They are really a bunch of idiots that need to go jump off a bridge. I'm a Democrat, but these idiots are worse than the Tea Baggers. Initially, I thought the movement was about getting corporate money out of government, but in reality, it's just a confused mess of lazy idiots.