The 99% movement is disjointed, unorganized and unsophisticated. Like Ramsey points out you will have angry, misguided people joining the movement just as an outlet for their frustrations. The media has been successful at portraying the movement as "a bunch of jacked-up, jobless, wannabe hippies". (see my post above) It's not hard to see what the core message is: Why the disparity? Why has the 1% gotten some much more of the pie while the rest of us have remained stagnate? Have the rich worked that much harder? Have the rest of us gotten 3x as lazy? We are not a nation of individuals whose problems or successes are solely a result of our own actions. Some are born with billionaire parents, some are born with to poor parents. Some are born with unbelievable talents, some are born with multiple sclerosis. Some are born to citizens of this nation, some are born to illegal immigrants. Some people achieve success with everything handed to them, some people have to fight tooth and nail for everything they have. This is a nation of freedom and equality. The Tea party is taking care of the freedom, the 99% is taking care of the equality.
The 99% isn't taking care of jack, they're losers and their protests have already lost in Socialist Europe.
Yes, in my opinion much of the 99%ers are lazier/feel more entitled than those of, say, barfo/Denny's generation, who at least worked most of their lives before attempting to get handouts. Like gates said the other day, in america just about anyone can do just about anything, especially with the educational opportunity the taxpayers generously fund (whether military or otherwise).
Sorry you feel MOST AMERICANS are worthless bums. Why do you bother "protecting" them? Guess it's the money, the bennies, the healthcare, the super-cushy retirement after a mere 20 years, the perks for your family...ALL paid for by the 99%.
ok, add: basement dwelling, sock fucking internet hack0rz from 4chan. oh, I guess you mean Scott Olsen, who was kicked out of the military and founded www.ihatethemarinecorps.com http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/201...t-olsen-is-founder-of-i-hate-the-marines-com/
The most telling thing about America from that chart is the cradle-to-the-grave poverty, over 20%, which mocks the notion of "The Land of Opportunity".
Inbred Republican Gov. Bill Haslam illegally imposed a curfew on areas surrounding the Capitol in an effort to crush the Free Speech rights of the very citizens who's rights he is being paid to protect, making Tennessee liable for the many civil rights lawsuits sure to come. NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Occupy Wall Street protesters and state officials in Tennessee squared off for a third consecutive night Saturday, even though a local judge has consistently refused to jail the demonstrators and said the state lacks the authority to set a curfew on the property... In Atlanta, helicopters hovered overhead Wednesday as officers in riot gear arrested more than 50 protesters at a downtown park. In San Diego, police arrested a similar number of people who occupied the Civic Center Plaza and Children's Park for three weeks. Nashville magistrate Tom Nelson has said there's no legal reason to keep the demonstrators behind bars and he has released them after each arrest. He has refused each night to sign off on arrest warrants for more than two dozen people taken into custody. Some legal experts agreed with the judge. The arrests appeared to be a violation of First Amendment rights that allow for people to peacefully assemble, said attorney David Raybin, a former prosecutor. He and others said the nature of the arrests, coupled with the judge's refusal to sign off on the warrants, could become ammunition for lawsuits. "The government is exposing itself to serious liability here by doing this," Raybin said. Nelson did not return an email seeking and a phone number for him could not be found. The curfew at the Legislative Plaza, which state troopers began enforcing Thursday night, runs from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Others questioned the timing of the curfew. The protesters had been demonstrating for about three weeks before it took effect, a point that Nelson said he factored into his decision. "You can't pass a curfew mid-protest because you disagree with this group of protesters," said criminal defense attorney Patrick Frogge, who is representing some of those arrested. http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/tenn-protesters-to-defy-1212773.html
You have no idea. From 2000-2006, economic security (ability to stay out of poverty) dropped from 26% to 16% for the poor. If you don't like what it is now, welcome to Obamanomics.
Obamanomics=Bushanomics. Meet the new boss Same as the old boss Mere puppets for the same puppeteer, Wall Street.
I don't understand that logic at all. Laws can't be passed because people were previously doing what the law outlaws? Either the law can be passed or it can't, it seems to me. I don't understand why it matter the crime is in the middle of happening or not. Ed O.
If you don't like how america works, you can always leave for greener pastures. If you can find any. http://www.fool.com/investing/gener...protestors-youre-probably-part-of-the-1-.aspx Attention, Protestors: You're Probably Part of the 1% About a year ago, The Wall Street Journal ran an article describing the plight of Americans struggling to rebuild after bankruptcy. The article highlighted Linda Frakes, who filed for bankruptcy after accumulating more than $300,000 in credit card debt. "Ms. Frakes is now unemployed, living on $330 a week of unemployment benefits and odd jobs," the Journal wrote. Frakes "struggled to rent a home and buy a car after bankruptcy. A used-car dealer ultimately gave her financing on a Jaguar." No one's hardship should be belittled. Becoming unemployed or losing a home aren't just financial problems. They're social and emotional problems that strike at people's sense of being. But things always need to be kept in perspective. Only in America, I thought to myself after reading the article, can someone be driving a Jaguar and portrayed as living in an impoverished underclass. Context is crucial with these issues. The recent Occupy Wall Street protests have aimed their message at the income disparity between the 1% richest Americans and the rest of the country. But what happens when you expand that and look at the 1% richest of the entire world? Some really interesting numbers emerge. If there were a global Occupy Wall Street protest, people as well off as Linda Frakes might actually be the target. In America, the top 1% earn more than $380,000 per year. We are, however, among the richest nations on Earth. How much do you need to earn to be among the top 1% of the world? $34,000. That was the finding World Bank economist Branko Milanovic presented in his 2010 book The Haves and the Have-Nots. Going down the distribution ladder may be just as surprising. To be in the top half of the globe, you need to earn just $1,225 a year. For the top 20%, it's $5,000 per year. Enter the top 10% with $12,000 a year. To be included in the top 0.1% requires an annual income of $70,000.
Which only points out how truly inhumane the personal accumulation and hoarding of millions and billions of dollars really is. They're not really the .01. They're the .0001.
How does it feel to be in the top .1%? People all over the world who aren't should be protesting that you do so well.
Speaking of Ron Paul... http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.co...-both-tallies-at-gop-pres-straw-poll-in-iowa/ Ron Paul wins both tallies at GOP straw poll in Iowa Posted by CNN Political Reporter Shannon Travis Des Moines, Iowa (CNN) - Ron Paul has won two separate tallies for the National Federation of Republican Assemblies Presidential Straw Poll. Paul won both the Iowa-voters-only count at the Saturday convention in Des Moines as well as a tally of non-Iowans who participated. In the Iowa voters result, Paul took 82%. Following him were Herman Cain with 14.7%, Rick Santorum with 1%, Newt Gingrich with 0.9%, Michele Bachmann with 0.5%, Rick Perry with 0.5%, Gary Johnson with 0.2%, with Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman 0%. The total number of votes cast in that tally was 430. In the tally of non-Iowans who voted, Paul won 26% followed by Cain at 25%, Perry and Santorum tied at 16%, Gingrich at 11%, Bachmann at 6%, Romney at 1%, and Huntsman and Johnson with 0%. The total number of votes cast in that count was 101. Though Paul won both tallies, the NFRA has not yet officially endorsed a candidate. Delegates to the convention will decide that later Saturday.
This past week I found out that myself and about 75% of my coworkers will likely be squeezed out of our current positions over the next year or two. Many of us will be able to find equivalent jobs elsewhere, in fact, I already have, but for the majority of people involved this is a very stressful and trying time. My point in bringing this up is simply that I suppose that at the root of much of the protesters core, is fear that they will continue to struggle until they eventually die. This is common in third world countries, but in America, going back 25 years, I don't think that this fear was so great. Most people believed that hard work could lead to a level of comfort where we did not have to worry about how to pay the monthly bills. Now, a great portion of the populous fears the future. I have not been part of the Occupy movement, but I do understand where the protesters are coming from. If we do not find a way to stop the disappearance of the middle class, expect that even if the Occupy movement does go away, another and another and another movement will pop up until eventually, America as we know it will end.
