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| quote: | Originally posted by Lews
Have the protesters made any specific demands or are they still just running around complaining?
Building awareness about a huge wealth gap is great and all, but do they have any suggestions on what to do? |
the wealth gap we have is a problem, but the major issue is simple:
financial institutions basically preyed on people's consumerist aspirations, which they used to create unsound short term investments meant to generate enormous profits for a small group of people, while socializing their enormous risk among everyone else. because these institutions essentially own our government and politicians, they managed to get away with this, while everyone else has been left by the wayside. one could also argue there are some other industries that operate somewhat similarly (pharmaceuticals, food, energy, etc) (that is, by creating demand for things people don't need, then trying to make a ton of money off of it with no consideration given to global consequence), but this movement confronts the financial sector.
the movement is avoiding making specific demands at this point for a few reasons. first of all, the real revolutionary potential of the movement is direct democracy powered by social media and technology. it's kind of impossible for a leaderless organization to create specific demadns this early on. the goal is solidarity, discussion, and consensus. because of this, the process will undoubtedly take a long time. first you need to build solidarity and awareness, which raises discussion in a democratic environment outside of the media talking-heads feedback loop, and then eventually consensus is requested for specific actions and demands.
but i think you will see eventually that demands that come from political action associated with this movement (not from the occupation itself, which is not a political body), will center around regulation of the financial industry, bailouts for ordinary people as well as banks, fair tax laws, and campaign financing and lobby reform.
Last edited by nefardec on Oct-18-2011 at 21:31
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