Ninety-Nine and Three-Quarters Percent Fake

The secret of the Occupy Wall Street organizers is that you would have to be over 50 to actually remember the protests of the Sixties.  This is all 1960s redux.  Their main theme was the Vietnam War.  But they were also all about racial justice, feminism, and redistribution of wealth.  They won a huge victory with the introduction of the Welfare State.

Saul Alinsky was known for beating down on the businesses in Rochester, N.Y., until they were willing to negotiate the hiring of uneducated minorities.  Nancy Pelosi was on one of the Sunday talk shows cheerleading for the Occupy Wall Street crowd.  “We’re the 99 percent,” they cry, of Middle America.

What they actually are is a composite of liberal student activists and union members.  They had a picture of a little boy holding up a sign claiming that his mommy cried because she couldn’t afford to buy him a birthday present.  Of course, the sign never said just what that birthday present was that he wanted:  a $350 X-box, perhaps?

Occupy Wall Street’s main street complaint is that they can’t live in the style to which they want to be accustomed.  Ninety-percent of Americans own a refrigerator, a stove, a telephone (a landline phone, that is) and a television.  In addition, a slightly lower number own a washing machine, an air conditioner, and have cable television.  Meanwhile, those dastardly wealthy (including Democrats in Congress) are flying off to Caribbean Islands in private jets.

The greatest rewards go to those who take the greatest risks.  From those great risks, there are sometimes great failures, but also great inventions and discoveries.  No one can guarantee the future.  Big Brother was just talking about job security.  “Those last 15 years fly by the fastest,” said he, “and that’s when you make the most in pension, but also need to be careful in how you spend so you’ll actually have something when you retire.”

The stocks and bonds of Wall Street were America’s best means for preparing for future retirement and also for the country’s future prosperity.  Americans invested in company’s, which were then able to use the capital to build businesses and jobs.  In return, retiring Americans could count on the dividends to help them in their golden years.

The system was quite fair and positive.  Sometimes it’s risky, but the old saw was true – that the stock market always goes up in the long-run.  At periods, like now, it’s volatile, but generally dependable, if you a) didn’t panic and b) diversified your portfolio; didn’t put all your eggs in one basket.

The government employee unions,  like the train robbers of old, saw a much better way:  hold a legal gun to taxpayers’ heads.  Those union employees, boasting about being part of Middle America?  They’ve got to be kidding.  They live much better than the average American, and why shouldn’t they?  They’re doing it on our dimes, our savings, our retirement funds, and they want more.  Then they have the nerve to “sympathize” with us?

They’re comparing themselves to the Tea Parties; taking notes from our book.  There’s one word missing from their book, however: freedom.  The modern Tea Parties – heck, even the 1773 Tea Parties (after Boston, others followed) – were about freedom and free market capitalism.  The freedom to make it on your own.  The freedom to choose the object of your charity.

Occupy Wall Street is about servitude.  Some foolish starlet called for beheadings?  That’s not the American Revolution; that’s the French revolution.  Such invectives are meant to frighten and intimidate Middle Class American, not join in solidarity.  Reports from the park in New York City are that it’s turning into an urban Woodstock, with Occupiers fouling the streets and openly doing drugs.

If you go to school in New York City, you either have to live there and attend CUNY or you have to have some nice little family trust fund to support you.  Being vagrants, they have the time to “occupy” Wall Street, or rather, lay siege to its neighborhood since they’re not actually allowed on Wall Street itself.  We working people, and even those of us who may be on the verge of unemployment or are already there, would confront them peacefully, but we still have to work or look for employment.

This is what comes of “compromise.”  There is no compromising with those who argue for social issues.  In the end, welfare, bailouts, unemployment, government healthcare, are all an unproductive, economic drain on our economy.  Capitalists provide the best chance for secure employment; it is the government – a socialist government – that destroys opportunity, hinders creativity, punishes achievement, and robs the productive of their own gains, place those gains into the hands of the corrupt, the wicked, and the lazy.

Food, clothing, and shelter are the traditional primary needs and the baseline for poverty.  Even on a minimum income, a family could procure these three necessities.  The rest is icing on the cake.  The refrigerator, the stove, and the air conditioner (at least for the elderly) are the minimum.  Some of the extras are so low-cost these days, like a microwave oven, that even a working-class “poor” family could afford one.

If Occupy Wall Street and its backers really want security for their minions, then they need to support Wall Street, not tear it down.  Stop encouraging the poor towards illusory, unrealistic dreams.  Renting isn’t pleasant, but it’s not the end of the world.  Teach them to save what money they have, to be economical.  Encourage their children to learn to read and write.  Forget about the cable television.  Let the kids wear hand-me-downs.  Don’t drink or smoke; aside from the obvious health problems, those are expensive habits.  Speaking of expensive habits, they should also cut up ther credit cards and take away the kids’ cell phones.  The working poor should abandon those dream vacations to Acapulco or the Bahamas.  They shouldn’t be taking expensive holidays when they don’t know where their next paycheck is coming from. 

Life is tough; stop whining and get used to it.  If you plan wisely and carefully, you can get through it.  Give in to this occupation, and you’ll be beggars forever.