Other than one or two quips at the expense of the OccupyWallStreeters I have kept my 
thoughts on the protesters to a minimum. In the abstract, I agree with their sort of “message” about corporate greed, bailouts, and the unethical stances taken by most corporations nowadays. Where we completely diverge is in the realm of solutions. Theirs is more of a tear it down and maybe start over axiom, while mine is tear down the trough where corporatists are feeding at and never rebuild. Granted these are overly simplified explanations but they get the point the across.
However, there has been a certainly disturbing trend that has become evident at most if not all of the sites that protesters are occupying. At the epicenter, OccupyWallStreet in NYC, the potential for attacks by sexual predators against female protesters has gotten so worrisome that their sleeping quarters are now segregated. In OccupyOakland, the protest has degenerated into an all out anarchy fest featuring police in one corner and poorly dressed Molotov throwing nihilists in another. At OccupyBoston, doped-up Hipsters making a buck by dealing drugs. Finally as if rape, rioting, and drugs aren’t bad enough, OccupyDC protesters attack a 78-year-old woman who was attending a conservative dinner hosted by Americans for Prosperity in DC.
And please don’t give me the, “Oh there just really frustrated” garbage either. I am not sure how random acts of violence against property and people who have little or nothing to do with the reprehensible actions of corporations and government is going to generate sympathy for the Occupy cause or its message. Moreover, it is because of reasons like this that grad-students and reckless and sophomoric ultraists shouldn’t be leading a so-called revolution. You get anarchy with innocent people stuck in the middle with nothing really accomplished.
Great job, OWS!
Related articles
- Bloomberg Takes Careful Tack With Occupy Wall Street (huffingtonpost.com)
- Occupy Oakland: Tear gas, arrests in early morning violence (csmonitor.com)
- Occupy Oakland shuts down 5th largest US port (antwrites.com)
- OWS: You’re Losing Me (ringingtrue.net)
- Occupy Oakland’s Brutal Night: Fires, Arrests, Tear Gas (newser.com)
Science, math and concerns for humanity left economics early in the 1900′s as wealthy foundations heavily funded the big three neoclassical schools: Mises, Marx, and Keynes.
To try and institute one “school of thought” and omit the others is irresponsible. We need a more dynamic approach. Currently, the extremes are either: panic and fix it as soon as there is a hiccup or abandon all regulation. Lord Action was quoted as saying “The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks.”
I believe he was correct. You have to let new businesses purge out the failing businesses and that can’t happen if you refuse to let failing businesses fail. Likewise, it is impossible to stop a failing business from failing. (This is assuming that the failure is the result of corruption in the hierchy of the business.) However, the stimulus and the bailouts have tried to do exactly that. The result pisses off the OWS. I agree with them on that, but without an understanding of an Austrian perspective, they just don’t get it. No one system should be expected to compensate for all future unforeseeable events. The world is too dynamic and ever changing. We are just hell bent on repeating history by switching extremes.
http://mrctv.org/videos/occupydc-protesters-use-kids-blockade-door-during-violent-scuffle
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“To try and institute one “school of thought” and omit the others is irresponsible. We need a more dynamic approach.”
Possibly one of the most sagacious statements I have ever heard you utter when it comes to economics. There is not one inkling of disagreement on my part with you.
C’mon man, my whole life has been one been saga…
BTW happy birthday
Ugh…just another day closer to death and the saga continues.