Protesters affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement rally in Foley Square before marching through Lower Manhattan (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Originally posted to The Guardian
Occupy Wall Street protesters are understandably angry at the support given big business, while individuals struggle against high unemployment, costly health care coverage and shrinking social services.
A little while ago, opponents of universal health care coverage in the United States claimed that it was a “moral hazard.” The argument characterized people as lazy and irresponsible, prone to “abuse” the system at significant cost to society but none to themselves. The logic and economy of preventative care was largely ignored, as was the fact that access to health care is a human right.
Fast forward to Occupy Wall Street, a grassroots movement protesting the failure of government to hold corporations and financial institutions accountable. The US government’s bailout of banks, mortgage companies, insurance companies and the auto industry over the last three years is demonstrably a moral hazard. Why should powerful corporations behave responsibly when they are “too big to fail” and the government – using taxpayer dollars – will step in to protect corporations and their highly paid executives from the consequences of their recklessness and greed?
The US government’s increasing deregulation of the banking industry over the last two decades created the conditions in which greed could thrive because accountability and independent oversight were deemed superfluous. The argument – promoted by US economists such as the former head of the Federal Reserve Bank – was that regulation was unnecessary as banks and the market would “self-regulate.”
Corporations promote the concept of self-regulation and voluntary codes of conduct. “Trust us” is their motto. But cases of corporate actors behaving badly are plentiful and, absent laws and regulations, cases of corporate actors being held accountable are rare. Whether you are the victim of human rights abuses perpetrated by oil companies in the Niger Delta or the target of predatory lending practices in the United States, justice is elusive. The harm is real.
But it is not just corporations that are acting irresponsibly. Government is, too.
The people occupying Wall Street are taking to the streets because government is behaving as though it is unaccountable. The average household income for the bottom 90% of Americans is $31,244. Yet every member of Congress is in the top 10% income category. Nearly half are millionaires; in the Senate, more than two-thirds are. These wealthy members of Congress are making decisions that directly impact the accountability and bottom line of publicly listed companies. Corporate executives and government officials are cosy bedfellows.
Occupy Wall Street protesters are demanding a more accountable government – a government that regulates businesses, respects human rights, responds to the people it governs and ensures access to effective remedies for those whose rights have been abused.
The US system of democracy was founded on the principle that government is responsive to the people it governs. That principle hasn’t always been applied in practice, but more people have been enfranchised over time. Yet somewhere along the way we have lost sight of this. For too long politics has been the almost exclusive purview of the privileged. Respect for fundamental fairness, equality, dignity and justice has been pushed aside.
To reclaim the moral high ground and legitimacy as leaders, politicians must put respect for human rights above the pursuit of profits.
Those occupying Wall Street and their supporters are articulating a vision of the world as it should be – a world as described by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his “Four Freedoms” speech, in which everyone, everywhere, enjoys freedom of speech and expression, freedom of religion, freedom from want and freedom from fear. His words struck a chord 70 years ago and still resonate today.
On Wall Street, young people are joining hands with longtime activists to demand that the US government address the needs of its people. Lawmakers need to respond, at a minimum by ensuring that regulatory agencies exercise more effective oversight over corporations and financial institutions.
And it may well be that Congress and the courts will need to revisit the 2010 Citizens United rule, which allows corporations to make direct contributions to candidates and finance election-related ads as if they were individuals — a rule that disregards the extraordinarily deep pockets of some businesses and the potential distortions to the electoral process that spending may cause.
It’s time for a government of the people, by the people and for the people, as Abraham Lincoln envisioned in the Gettysburg Address. And those people are not the legal fiction of corporations as “persons” but rather flesh-and-blood human beings seeking the promise of the four freedoms.
his is a huge victory for our hero – Register O'Brien who has been fighting the robosigning, MERS and the banks before it was "sexy" to do so 🙂 And yes, he was also fighting the MA Real Estate Bar Association's President Bloom – they were ready to side with the banks! America – listen and watch – we, the people are winning!
Please read the correspondence between Reg. O'Brien and Edward Bloom: http://boston67.blog.com/peoples-hero/
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2011/10/1…
his is a huge victory for our hero – Register O'Brien who has been fighting the robosigning, MERS and the banks before it was "sexy" to do so 🙂 And yes, he was also fighting the MA Real Estate Bar Association's President Bloom – they were ready to side with the banks! America – listen and watch – we, the people are winning!
Please read the correspondence between Reg. O'Brien and Edward Bloom: http://boston67.blog.com/peoples-hero/
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2011/10/1…
his is a huge victory for our hero – Register O'Brien who has been fighting the robosigning, MERS and the banks before it was "sexy" to do so 🙂 And yes, he was also fighting the MA Real Estate Bar Association's President Bloom – they were ready to side with the banks! America – listen and watch – we, the people are winning!
Please read the correspondence between Reg. O'Brien and Edward Bloom: http://boston67.blog.com/peoples-hero/
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2011/10/1…
his is a huge victory for our hero – Register O’Brien who has been fighting the robosigning, MERS and the banks before it was “sexy” to do so 🙂 And yes, he was also fighting the MA Real Estate Bar Association’s President Bloom – they were ready to side with the banks! America – listen and watch – we, the people are winning!
Please read the correspondence between Reg. O’Brien and Edward Bloom: http://boston67.blog.com/peoples-hero/
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2011/10/19/sjc_puts_foreclosure_sales_in_doubt/?camp=misc:on:share:article
Where were these "occupiers" when the bailouts were happening? Oh Yeah – smoking dope, chanting "Obama, Yes we Can" and clapping like tesones seals. The Tea Party hated the bailouts more than anyone – but it was cool to call them racists angry mobs. Now anarchists walking on the flag, storming and shutting down the air and space museum, stinking up the streets in NYC, closing down the Brooklyn Bridge, clashing with Police and getting arrested by the hundreds! What a bunch of useful idiots for those that dream about collectivism and socialism. Not going to happen in the USA.
IT IS BELIEVED THAT LABOUR CREATED MAN, BUT, I THINK, NOW MAN IS CREATING LABOUR!
I THINK IT IS TIME MAN REDEFINES LABOUR!
Where were these “occupiers” when the bailouts were happening? Oh Yeah – smoking dope, chanting “Obama, Yes we Can” and clapping like tesones seals. The Tea Party hated the bailouts more than anyone – but it was cool to call them racists angry mobs. Now anarchists walking on the flag, storming and shutting down the air and space museum, stinking up the streets in NYC, closing down the Brooklyn Bridge, clashing with Police and getting arrested by the hundreds! What a bunch of useful idiots for those that dream about collectivism and socialism. Not going to happen in the USA.
NO ONE can stop socialism and collectivism because as days pass "THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE IS SOARING! AND THESE PEOPLE, THOUGH EDUCATED AND CAPABLE TO WORK, ARE HELPLESSLY WAITING FOR THEIR DOOM!"
IT IS BELIEVED THAT LABOUR CREATED MAN, BUT, I THINK, NOW MAN IS CREATING LABOUR!
I THINK IT IS TIME MAN REDEFINES LABOUR!
NO ONE can stop socialism and collectivism because as days pass “THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE IS SOARING! AND THESE PEOPLE, THOUGH EDUCATED AND CAPABLE TO WORK, ARE HELPLESSLY WAITING FOR THEIR DOOM!”
help africaaaaaaaaaaaa pleazzzzzzzzzzzzzz
help africaaaaaaaaaaaa pleazzzzzzzzzzzzzz
HELP AFRICA INDEED! BECAUSE SOME OF PROBLEMS FACING THE WEST ARE A PRODUCT OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC IMBALANCE!
HELP AFRICA INDEED! BECAUSE SOME OF PROBLEMS FACING THE WEST ARE A PRODUCT OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC IMBALANCE!
OCCUPY WALL STREET !
Arab Spring, bombed out by NATO in the MidEast, has flowered its North American Autumn in a russet blaze !
OWS, we've been awaiting you long time !
REAL Peoples' Movement. Ground up. At last !
No fake like the Tea Party.
No xenophobic / antiimmigrant / antilabor / antiIslam / prowar / pro death sentence posse.
No creation of the Koch brothers, no spawn of Big Money.
No white underbelly of extremist Establishment ideology.
No platform for Palin or some other pretender politician.
No imitation of Fox News or any Rightwing pulpit.
This is the REAL thing.
Call OWS "anarchist" ?? When it's a movement without ANY identifiable FACE or FLAG or COLOR or leader ???
Here are 100 flowers blooming, 100 schools of thought contending !!!
Lump em ALL as former Obama believers ??
Think then how openly they've broken with ALL their yesterdays, how far they've come just one morning !!
Here's the end of the bipartisan deadend !!!!
Here's the break with the 2 – party shuffle !!
OWS !!
Fight Capital !
But also fight Empire, Capital's global form !!
OWS' spreading around the world !! 800 cities now !!
OCCUPY THE PLANET !!!
OCCUPY WALL STREET !
Arab Spring, bombed out by NATO in the MidEast, has flowered its North American Autumn in a russet blaze !
OWS, we’ve been awaiting you long time !
REAL Peoples’ Movement. Ground up. At last !
No fake like the Tea Party.
No xenophobic / antiimmigrant / antilabor / antiIslam / prowar / pro death sentence posse.
No creation of the Koch brothers, no spawn of Big Money.
No white underbelly of extremist Establishment ideology.
No platform for Palin or some other pretender politician.
No imitation of Fox News or any Rightwing pulpit.
This is the REAL thing.
Call OWS “anarchist” ?? When it’s a movement without ANY identifiable FACE or FLAG or COLOR or leader ???
Here are 100 flowers blooming, 100 schools of thought contending !!!
Lump em ALL as former Obama believers ??
Think then how openly they’ve broken with ALL their yesterdays, how far they’ve come just one morning !!
Here’s the end of the bipartisan deadend !!!!
Here’s the break with the 2 – party shuffle !!
OWS !!
Fight Capital !
But also fight Empire, Capital’s global form !!
OWS’ spreading around the world !! 800 cities now !!
OCCUPY THE PLANET !!!
Amnesty (via Curt Goering) – Thank you. You made some very good points and helped clarify the concerns and actions of many of those participating in this movement.
You also identified one of the biggest (just one) problems facing our elections process and so invariably our entire system – the 2010 Citizens United decision. I agree, this decision was a huge mistake and should be re-examined. Perhaps the concept of corporation personhood was reasonable in the past to protect them against unwarranted search and seizures of their properties, but this decision has far-reaching consequences that bode ill for all of us. So thanks.
Amnesty (via Curt Goering) – Thank you. You made some very good points and helped clarify the concerns and actions of many of those participating in this movement.
You also identified one of the biggest (just one) problems facing our elections process and so invariably our entire system – the 2010 Citizens United decision. I agree, this decision was a huge mistake and should be re-examined. Perhaps the concept of corporation personhood was reasonable in the past to protect them against unwarranted search and seizures of their properties, but this decision has far-reaching consequences that bode ill for all of us. So thanks.
Simple rule: If you call your bank or credit card company after hours and find that a person from India, The Phillipines, or any OFFSHORE country is there to "assist you"… then it is time to MOVE YOUR MONEY TO A CREDIT UNION that has USA employees. DO NOT USE BANKS THAT OFFSHORE AMERICAN JOBS!!!!!! LET THEM FAIL!!!!
Simple rule: If you call your bank or credit card company after hours and find that a person from India, The Phillipines, or any OFFSHORE country is there to “assist you”… then it is time to MOVE YOUR MONEY TO A CREDIT UNION that has USA employees. DO NOT USE BANKS THAT OFFSHORE AMERICAN JOBS!!!!!! LET THEM FAIL!!!!
We essentially have had modern-day bank robbers — except that they wore gray suits and not masks — and there's been no accountability for it Every day we see energy speculators, war profiteers, managed health-care providers, media propagandists, and/or financiers of Wall Street given some unfair advantage over the average consumers and taxpayers, and the cumulative effect of the American people watching selfishness prevail over the public interest has been an undermining of the public's trust in government. There's no question the system is rigged against the little guy. The Wall Street interests have a lot more information. They jerry-rig the system so that they always win. Oligarchy is political power based on economic power. And it's the rise of the Wall Street in economic terms, that it'd turn into political power. And Wall Street then feed that back into more deregulation, more opportunities to go out and take reckless risks and– and capture huge amounts of money. The American democracy was not given to us on a platter. It is not ours for all time, irrespective of our efforts. Either people organize and they find political leadership to take this on, or we are going to be in big trouble. That's absolutely the heart of the problem. I would also say and tell you, and emphasize, these Wall Street people will not come out and debate with us. The heads of Wall Street or their representatives, they will not come out. They're afraid. They don't have the substance. They don't have the arguments. We have the evidence. They have the lobbyists. And that's all they have. Wall Street Corporations don't make anything. They don't produce anything. They gamble and bet and speculate. And when they lose vast sums they raid the U.S. Treasury so they can go back and do it again. Never mind that $50 trillion in global wealth was erased between September 2007 and March 2009, including $7 trillion in the U.S. stock market and $6 trillion in the housing market. Never mind that the total amount of retirement and household wealth trashed was $7.5 trillion or that we saw $2 trillion in 401(k)s and individual retirement accounts evaporate. Never mind the $1.9 trillion in traditional defined-benefit plans and the $2.6 trillion in nonpension assets that went up in smoke. Never mind the job losses, the foreclosures and the 35 percent jump in personal and small-business bankruptcies. There are bundles of new money, taken again from us, to make deals and hand out outrageous bonuses. And when these trillions run out they will come back for more until our currency becomes junk
—Nalliah Thayabharan
We essentially have had modern-day bank robbers — except that they wore gray suits and not masks — and there’s been no accountability for it Every day we see energy speculators, war profiteers, managed health-care providers, media propagandists, and/or financiers of Wall Street given some unfair advantage over the average consumers and taxpayers, and the cumulative effect of the American people watching selfishness prevail over the public interest has been an undermining of the public’s trust in government. There’s no question the system is rigged against the little guy. The Wall Street interests have a lot more information. They jerry-rig the system so that they always win. Oligarchy is political power based on economic power. And it’s the rise of the Wall Street in economic terms, that it’d turn into political power. And Wall Street then feed that back into more deregulation, more opportunities to go out and take reckless risks and– and capture huge amounts of money. The American democracy was not given to us on a platter. It is not ours for all time, irrespective of our efforts. Either people organize and they find political leadership to take this on, or we are going to be in big trouble. That’s absolutely the heart of the problem. I would also say and tell you, and emphasize, these Wall Street people will not come out and debate with us. The heads of Wall Street or their representatives, they will not come out. They’re afraid. They don’t have the substance. They don’t have the arguments. We have the evidence. They have the lobbyists. And that’s all they have. Wall Street Corporations don’t make anything. They don’t produce anything. They gamble and bet and speculate. And when they lose vast sums they raid the U.S. Treasury so they can go back and do it again. Never mind that $50 trillion in global wealth was erased between September 2007 and March 2009, including $7 trillion in the U.S. stock market and $6 trillion in the housing market. Never mind that the total amount of retirement and household wealth trashed was $7.5 trillion or that we saw $2 trillion in 401(k)s and individual retirement accounts evaporate. Never mind the $1.9 trillion in traditional defined-benefit plans and the $2.6 trillion in nonpension assets that went up in smoke. Never mind the job losses, the foreclosures and the 35 percent jump in personal and small-business bankruptcies. There are bundles of new money, taken again from us, to make deals and hand out outrageous bonuses. And when these trillions run out they will come back for more until our currency becomes junk
—Nalliah Thayabharan
Nalliah Thayabharan,
Absolutely correct diagnosis.
Of Wall Street.
& all Big Capital.
Nalliah Thayabharan,
Absolutely correct diagnosis.
Of Wall Street.
& all Big Capital.
We have to stop giving our citizens improper incentives. We have to increase the “skin” voters have in the game by spreading the burden of government more equally. And we have to ensure the government doesn’t have the power to destroy our currency. Americans now owe $56 trillion in total debt, much of it held by foreign investors. We must spend $3.5 trillion each year on interest. That is already more than the federal government spends, in total.
We have to stop giving our citizens improper incentives. We have to increase the “skin” voters have in the game by spreading the burden of government more equally. And we have to ensure the government doesn’t have the power to destroy our currency. Americans now owe $56 trillion in total debt, much of it held by foreign investors. We must spend $3.5 trillion each year on interest. That is already more than the federal government spends, in total.
Capitalism is NOT compatible with humanism. That is why we have a bi-polar society…Those for capitalism are conscienceless, selfish, sociopaths that are drunk off their own power and need to be 'adjusted.' Be a venture humanist and help turn the tide of greed and societal ills by investing in each other for the common sense approach to life, not the 'con your cents' approach! Don't get me started on eugenics-which still goes on, undeterred by Amnesty…HUH LOW MC FLY???
Capitalism is NOT compatible with humanism. That is why we have a bi-polar society…Those for capitalism are conscienceless, selfish, sociopaths that are drunk off their own power and need to be ‘adjusted.’ Be a venture humanist and help turn the tide of greed and societal ills by investing in each other for the common sense approach to life, not the ‘con your cents’ approach! Don’t get me started on eugenics-which still goes on, undeterred by Amnesty…HUH LOW MC FLY???
Behavioral analysts are not only concerned with the effects of market decisions but also with public choice, which describes another source of economic decisions with related biases towards promoting self-interest.