Wall Street protesters: We're in for the long haul

[Caliga]

http://hotchicksofoccupywallstreet.tumblr.com/

I note that some of them were taken by 'David Shankbone'.  That guy has taken thousands of pictures for Wikipedia/WMC.  He's provided the celebrity photo for literally hundreds of celebrity pages on there.  He really has a thing for photographing porn stars.

[Razgovory]

http://hotchicksofoccupywallstreet.tumblr.com/

I would call them all hot...

Some of them should stay inside.

The last one looks like a Tranny.  Also some have those arm tatoos.   When will people stop doing that?

[Admiral Yi]

You genuinely don't have any notions what would make the protesters less unhappy?

I have many notions about what would make the protesters less unhappy, at least temporarily.  The feeling of power.  Having created some change.  If Congress were to pass a law that the maximum salary for anyone working at any financial institution was $50,000 they would be jumping for joy.  If Congress passed a law that all debts owed to anyone were null and void they would be estatic. 

Then when the repercussions come home to roost they can blame someone else.  That's the nature of populism.  Simple solutions with no consequences.

[Caliga]

I have many notions about what would make the protesters less unhappy, at least temporarily.  The feeling of power.  Having created some change.  If Congress were to pass a law that the maximum salary for anyone working at any financial institution was $50,000 they would be jumping for joy.  If Congress passed a law that all debts owed to anyone were null and void they would be estatic. 

If Congress passed either of those laws many Congressmen would mysteriously pass away in unfortunate accidents within a couple of months.

[Ideologue]

If Congress passed a law that all debts owed to anyone were null and void they would be estatic. 

Squee.

I've wondered what kind of default rate it would take to break the system, in a "choke the rivers with our dead" sort of way.

[MadImmortalMan]

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/livenow?id=8416255

[Ed Anger]

http://hotchicksofoccupywallstreet.tumblr.com/

I would call them all hot...

Some of them should stay inside.

The last one looks like a Tranny.  Also some have those arm tatoos.   When will people stop doing that?

Young people astound me with their stupidity. They come in for interviews and it looks like the Latin Kings tagged them. And they whine about nobody wanting to hire them.

[Jacob]

What system is fucked?  What regular folks are getting shafted?

The US system.  People in the US?  The Canadian system which is heavily subsidizing the education of most of the people I see outside my window?  How exactly are they getting shafted?

I take that to mean that you think that there is a message then, even if you don't get all the particulars and would like more detail.

As for the Vancouver occupiers, I think the message that "the system is fucked" is much less salient than it is in the US. Our employment rate is a bit better, we don't have huge sectors of middle class people gutted by the property bust, our banks didn't get bailed out with taxpayer money, we have health care security for the whole population, there is less food insecurity, I believe student loans burdens are lower and so on; so like you I think taking action through the established political processes is more effective and appropriate than protests.

Still, if enough people agree with the occupiers that "the system is fucked", and they express that agreement publicly, then we may so more action on those issues as the established political processes kick into gear. Whether that happens in Canada, or the US, remains to be seen. I think there's some evidence that the terms of the debate has shifted a bit in the US in response to the occupiers, but it's early to tell yet. I haven't seen much evidence for a shift of the debate in Canada, but it may yet come or it may fizzle out. In both cases, time will tell.

[Caliga]

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/livenow?id=8416255

It looks like those people are blocking the streets and thereby disrupting commerce.  It's kind of hard for companies to make the money they need to hire people if they're not able to deliver their products to paying customers and/or receiving the supplies needed to manufacture products.

[Ed Anger]

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/livenow?id=8416255

It looks like those people are blocking the streets and thereby disrupting commerce.  It's kind of hard for companies to make the money they need to hire people if they're not able to deliver their products to paying customers and/or receiving the supplies needed to manufacture products.

Live ammo is the cure.

[Jacob]

I have many notions about what would make the protesters less unhappy, at least temporarily.  The feeling of power.  Having created some change.  If Congress were to pass a law that the maximum salary for anyone working at any financial institution was $50,000 they would be jumping for joy.  If Congress passed a law that all debts owed to anyone were null and void they would be estatic.

Hopefully something more reasonable could take the edge of the populism. I don't know, maybe better health care coverage and better corporate and financial governance rules that remove the moral hazard of "too big too fail" banks making investments where if they succeed, they reap the benefits, but if they fail the government picks up the tab. Perhaps trying to address the huge student debt load out there and the apparently ever increasing cost of tuition. There might be some solutions that aren't straight up "eat the rich." It does seem that most attempts to lessen income inequality and address corporate/ financial governance immediately gets debated in terms of "class warfare" though, so maybe it's not possible to find a functional middle ground that addresses some of these concerns.

Then when the repercussions come home to roost they can blame someone else.  That's the nature of populism.  Simple solutions with no consequences.

Well yeah, that's the problem with letting the situation deteriorate to the point where populist solutions dominate the discourse. That goes in both left and right directions, of course.

[Admiral Yi]

Hopefully something more reasonable could take the edge of the populism.

Or we could just wait until they max out daddy's Visa and go home.

I opposed to all efforts to placate populism.  It's like paying off hijackers.

[grumbler]

There was nothing random in my bashing.

You mean you picked that particular strawman for a reason? 

Still sounds like sore-loserdom to me. 

[Jacob]

Or we could just wait until they max out daddy's Visa and go home.

Well, if this is just bored kids living of dad's money then it'll go away soon enough. For my part, I've been led to understand that there are some not insignificant economic hardship going on in the US at the moment, for not small parts of the population. If this occupation movement is an expression of that hardship and of more general popular discontent, then the occupiers may not be going home anytime soon.

I opposed to all efforts to placate populism.  It's like paying off hijackers.

So the US shouldn't address the deficit since that issue was put on the agenda by the populist Tea Party movement?

[grumbler]

You genuinely don't have any notions what would make the protesters less unhappy?

I don't believe even they know what specific policies would make them less unhappy.