I’m amazed at the over-reaction, in some quarters, to Occupy Wall Street. A bunch of young adults who have nothing better to do, thanks to the lousy economy engineered by those older, sit around in a park and beat on some bongo drums, and suddenly the world is coming to an end. I get the feeling certain people and media outlets are outraged they aren’t doing anything that would allow them to be arrested and thrown in jail. The reason, I believe, is that Occupy Wall Street is undoing the carefully engineered amnesia about the events of and leading up to the financial crisis of 2008, followed by a mass attempt to deflect blame elsewhere and gut any new financial regulation. But there is a way for Occupy Wall Street to really, really terrify the top one percent.
Chanting “End Capitalism” isn’t going to get it done, because once alternatives are considered not only would most Americans prefer the free market alternative, but probably most of those in Occupy Wall Street would as well. Given who controls our federal and state governments, would they really want to give those governments even more power and control over their lives? To decide where they could shop, what they could buy, what would be charged, where they would work and what those working in different fields would be paid – presumably based on campaign contributions and connections with powerful lobbyists? Would they really want to have no alternative to “Too Big to Fail” state-connected organizations, and no possibility of them being challenged by new, competing organizations? No. But there is a very capitalist chant that would have the top one percent recoiling in terror and sputtering with rage. That chant is…“Cut Executive Pay In Half and Increase Dividends.”