Kinsley: Iron-Clad Demands for Occupy Wall Street

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-20/my-iron-clad-demands-for-occupy-wall-street-commentary-by-michael-kinsley.html

So I sat down to write up some demands for Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Washington and the related groups that have sprung up to terrify the political and financial establishments.

Not everyone thinks demands are a good idea. Could this disparate collection of malcontents actually agree on a platform? Would the attempt destroy the almost magical unity the protesters have achieved? Might a list of demands -- or, as they were called in the 1960s, “nonnegotiable demands” -- turn out to be embarrassingly anti-capitalist, offering grist to the Glenn Becks of this world and turning off many potential recruits? Or might it be the opposite: so banal and unambitious that the most devoted followers lose interest?

My list is not very romantic; it’s all about taxes. It has nothing to offer those who would like to see a banker or two guillotined. In that sense, it doesn’t do justice to the Occupy movement, which has inspired excitement even among many who haven’t attended a rally. On the other hand, working on my list, I ran into the same problem as when I tried to distill the goals of the Tea Party movement. What these people want can’t be supplied by government or Wall Street. They need the tooth fairy.

To take the obvious example, we can spend hundreds of billions of dollars on another stimulus or jobs program. But we do have to pay the money back. It’s not good enough to say that now is not the time to worry about that. Now may not be the time to actually start paying down the debt, but now is certainly the time to commit ourselves to doing so, and that has to be part of any well-conceived demand. There are no free lunches.

removing the ocean of corporate money from our political process Michael?

I KNOW, has included Deficit Reduction in an overall plan.

We just have a sorry lot of Communicators in this thing we
call the Democratic Party. They seem incapable of explaining
that there is a plan formed of two pieces. The economy
is so fragile we could teeter backwards into a double dip
at any minute. THIS VERY SITUATION requires action in two
parts. IMMEDIATE ACTION aan LONG TERM ACTION. Therefore
we need the "JOBS PLAN" in the immediate term to keep some
economic activity moving. Business if frozen in place so
Government must act. At the same time Deficit Reduction
is necessary so they are working on a long term plan.

Yse, we do have a few rogue Hoover Democrats, but most
Democrats subscribe to the notion that when the Private
Sector is failing the Goverment must step in.

Now for the 99%, they are not asking for a "free lunch".
THEY ARE ASKING FOR FAIRNESS IN OUR ECONOMIC SYSTEM.
The Gap between the rich the and the poor is obscene.

Yes the system is designed that way. Businesses have only
responsibility to their shareholders.(Increase earnings
and profits every quarter) Our Trade Policy and Wall ST
encourages Businesses to travel the world seeking the
cheapest labor. Maximize profits by lower the cost of
labor. The collateral damage is lowering the standard
of living for the American Worker, while making the
elites and Inveestors more and more wealthy.Rules changed
so that we no longer reward people who labour for a living
but rather reward those who "clip stock mkt coupons and
invest for a living. This means more and mor more wealth
accumulates at the top and poor gets poorer and the Middle
Class disappears. In other words, over the past 30 years
policies have been put in place which created our present
circumstance. The decision to make the U.S. a SERVICE
ECONOMY has failed. Our mfg base was gutted throwing
the middle class out of work.

All the 99%ers are asking: Make changes so there is
fairness for all Americans and not just the chosen few.

Reinstate Glass-Steagall and the Fairness Doctrine, and overturn Citizens United.