Occupy Wall Street – Fundamental Change?

As I look across the spectrum of media regarding the Occupy crowd, I am wondering what has become of its original message?   There is now examples of violence and more vehement vocalizations against the “Wall Street” crowd.   In a short time, the Occupy crowd has become more organized, better funded, and word pundits are falling over each other to provide articulate words and meaning behind the frustrations of the occupiers.  This is all good for the cause, but it looks more like the core of the Occupy crowd is fundamentally changing.  This may be occurring because of a few radical groups, within the Occupy crowd, who is trying to co-opt the message to hasten a different change.

All of us can state with unequivocal agreement that the economy is in pain, which is being felt by each of us.   The “great recession”, initially brought on by mismanaged mortgage financing, has resulted in thousands of people protesting in the streets, on the left and right.   Of course, there is plenty of blame to go around when we look at the other factors that contributed to the “great recession”, including you and me.  It’s a hard pill to swallow, but each of us had a role in this debacle, either because of apathy or lack of understanding.   To return the economy to prosperity, we need to become more educated about what is going on around us, and start accepting the responsibility to make a difference.

In the beginning, the Occupy crowd had a valid grievance, much like the Tea Party crowd.   We all know that government can help “generate” jobs, but ultimately, the private sector is the engine that drives America.   When times are stable and opportunities exist, entrepreneurs come out in force and smart businesses hire, which leads to more spending, which leads to more jobs, and more growth.   That is capitalism at its best!

I support the right of the Occupy crowd to protest, but when I see the Occupy crowd pointing a finger at Wall Street as the cause of the “great recession” and the poor economy, I figure it was time to add my voice to the cacophony.

I think the economy could get moving again if we stopped trying to oversimplify the problem.  Our economy is a complex set of cogs that is based on faith and trust in the system.   If we don’t believe our money is in the bank, we might collapse the system, which is what happened in the Great Depression of the 1930’s.

Fundamentally, I disagree with the Occupy crowd for a few areas, such as the idea that we must have Social and Economic Equality.   What I would like to know is what does this really look like?   And how does the Occupy crowd and others pushing this agenda think the world will be, once we achieve Social and Economic Equality?

My position is that Economic Equality is really nothing more than activist-speak for socialism or communism.    If I work 2 hours and someone works 20 hours and we get the same wages, then is that Economic Equality?   Let’s get the government out of the way and create a truly open and free market so the economy can turn around.   We are up to our eyeballs in debt (15 trillion dollars).

Big central governments DON’T work and like communism, fail time and again because tyranny runs amuck and liberty get the shaft.    Our constitution strikes a balance, but relies on the concept that it is a government “of the people”.    We lose our freedoms when we give up our self reliance and liberties to others, like our government.