Occupy Washington D.C., not Wall street
First off, I'm glad we live in a free country where people can voice their opinion and protest. It's nice to see that people are willing to stand up for what they believe in. And while the protesters are quite misguided in their efforts, it good that people are waking up and taking action.
Unfortunately, they're directing their action at the wrong entity. Sure, they're upset about the disparity in social classes - but getting angry at corporations and demanding wealth distribution goes against the nature of free economy and entrepreneurship.
These protestors are blaming Wall street, when they should be blaming government involvement in the economy. It's the government that's handing cash rewards to failing corporations and banks with tax payer money. Rather than allow the failing companies to go bankrupt, and allowing a new economy to rise, they're getting falsely propped up. The economy is like a drug addict. Every time he's about to hit rock bottom, he takes another hit of drugs, just like the way the government bails out the economy, not allowing it to completely hit rock bottom. Well that can't keep going on forever, and it will make the rock bottom scenario much worse if you keep on prolonging its arrival.
What these protestors need to understand is that the 1% of wealthy are also the ones who provide the most jobs to society. And the reason they haven't been able to provide as much jobs is due to government regulations, taxes, and more meddling in the free markets. And where do these regulations come from? Ironically, a lot of them come from unions, which demand 'workers rights' such as benefits, workers comp, unemployment rights, healthcare, and so on, which in turn makes it that much harder for companies to actually hire people. Unions are a huge part of the problem. It's honestly no wonder companies are fleeing overseas to avoid bankruptcy.
Lastly, I find it hard to empathize with people that play both sides of the coin. On the one hand, they blame Wall street and large corporations, yet they eat at McDonald's, pump gas at Exxon, hold money at Bank of America, buy from Walmart, talk to customer service in India, etc. all the while complaining about outsourcing and large corporations. You can't enjoy the fruits of these corporations while hating on them. You can't complain about high prices, then demand that companies provide more benefits to employees and not pollute the environment, etc. yet continue hiring more people.
It's just that most average people don't understand the basics of economics and government involvement. If these protesters took a simple course on Micro and Macro economics, I think their direction could be much different. As I first said, nothing against them, more power to them, but I think they should wake up a little bit more and use their energy towards a better cause. I think the cause should be "Occupy Washington", not Wall street.
