Plenty of bull on Wall Street
So the "Occupy Wall Street" thing has been going on for a week or two, now. What does it all mean? Damned if I know. What I see are hippies, new and old. We have the old, who protested Vietnam and somehow really believe that they changed the world -- when, in fact, it was more likely the war was just becoming an expensive, losing battle. But what the hell, the Baby Boomers love to believe they changed everything with some sit-ins and Mary Janes, so let them have their little glory delusion. Accompanying the old hippies are the new hippies: The ones with Liberal Arts degrees and boundless love for the Earth and boundless hatred for anything connected to corporations.
Let me clarify: I love the Earth. I live here, full-time. I don't expect to move, although I think it would be nice to see some scenery on other planets. I'm stuck, so I make the best of it. I recycle. I don't kill non-infesting bugs (like spiders or centipedes) in my house; I just release them outside. Same with mice, even though they could be classified as "infesting." I've had two mice in this house in two years, so it's not really cause to start a genocide. Ants, I kill on sight... but I digress. I also love money. I'd love to have lots of money. In fact, I can't honestly say how much money would be too much. I really like to find that one out.
Oddly enough, I have a lot in common with the folks occupying Wall Street. They love money, too. A lot -- or else they wouldn't be there complaining that they don't have enough of it. They complain about corporate greed, but those corporate bosses love money just as much as the hippies. The bosses and bankers just have marketable means with which to get that money. The Liberal Arts graduates would be lucky to see $30,000 a year in the field of their degree. The world has plenty of artists. Art is easy. Really, really easy. Great art is really, really hard. Most art and artists are poor to mediocre, so the field doesn't pay well; it's practically choking on mediocre art.
As an aside, there may very well be some medical students or international law students among the 99% (as the occupiers call themselves, under the imagined premise that 1% of the US population holds most of the wealth), but it's likely those med or law students either aren't very good or just haven't gotten the right job, yet. I pick on the Liberal Arts crew because based on the 99% testimonials, it appears the protestors "followed their dreams" in college and got the degree that satisfied their souls -- mostly fluffy art degrees of some kind. I can sympathize: I have a fluffy English degree. Totally worthless, but I loved learning and really enjoyed college. I don't regret a day of it.
But I'm not blaming anyone for my useless degree. I chose a different field. I'm a network engineer and have been for over a decade. It pays way better and I have many more job opportunities. I enjoy it (computers were always a hobby) and it's got that magic word associated with it -- marketable.
I'm all for people following their dreams. We need artists -- just not so damn many of them -- but we need them. It's just that the 99% has a bit of a murky message, and like the Tea Party, is prone to having much kookery in its midst.
Allow me to address the Great Satan of the 99% -- the corporations. They hate corporations. They portray them as evil, gluttonous, greedy groupings of white guys dressed in impeccably tailored suits gathered around a big mahogany table in a darkened room far at the top of a skyscraper. Each man, bloated with wealth, fiendishly fastidious in style, and forever cooking up ways to manipulate the "little people" in their employ. The 99% use the word "corporation" as if it conjures a specific image, something like the aforementioned caricature. But that's not at all what a corporation necessarily is. As Mitt Romney said (and got lambasted for it), "Corporations are people."
Indeed, they are people. The term "corporation" is a legal definition of an entity that can be one person or more than a million people. And I should mention that the Wall Street squatters are being characterized as a highly electronic protest. They reside in a park that has power outlets, giving them access to their laptops, tablets, phone chargers, and any other gadget that will give them Twitter, YouTube and Facebook access. They're plugged in and turned on to the Internet.
Ah, but where would the malcontents be without the corporations inventing, improving and fabricating all these marvelous, indispensable gadgets? Do you think a Mom-and-Pop store would be able to invent, fabricate, program, and support a smart phone? What about the cell towers? Mom and Pop would have a helluva time with that one. I'm not even going into the satellites for their GPS contraptions. Mom and Pop would have a hard enough time putting together an analog camera, let alone a digital one.
Sure, the bankers got off easy. I get it. I understand the rage. But tearing down the banking system is a foolish notion. Not even foolish. There are insufficient words to express the combination of naivete, lack of foresight, lack of willingness to understand, and delusion that most of these folks exhibit. Times are tough everywhere. Even people with marketable skills are finding a dearth of jobs out there. Yeah, the bankers had something to do with it. The way the market is driven by futures is part of it.
There will be good times again. This is a low point in the cycle, mistakes were made. Greed is the gas that drives the engine of capitalism, and more than a few people were running their engines a little too rich. But lets not forget the part we played in that. We got a little drunk on money, ourselves.
The banks gave out bad loans, but who was taking them? It's not politically correct to blame the borrowers, but if they read the fine print, they knew their mortgages would balloon after a few years... nearly triple, in some cases. If they didn't read the fine print, shame on them. There have since been laws put into place to make the fine print less fine -- but all the laws in the world won't eliminate stupid. At best, it can just be reduced to a more manageable factor.
So, protest away, 99%. Stay on the streets and complain that you can't get a job while you're too busy protesting about not getting a job. Do you really expect them to toss money out the windows to you? I'm not sure what your end-game is, but good luck with that. While you're out there, at least that's fewer resumes the rest of us will have to compete with on the job market.
Let me clarify: I love the Earth. I live here, full-time. I don't expect to move, although I think it would be nice to see some scenery on other planets. I'm stuck, so I make the best of it. I recycle. I don't kill non-infesting bugs (like spiders or centipedes) in my house; I just release them outside. Same with mice, even though they could be classified as "infesting." I've had two mice in this house in two years, so it's not really cause to start a genocide. Ants, I kill on sight... but I digress. I also love money. I'd love to have lots of money. In fact, I can't honestly say how much money would be too much. I really like to find that one out.
Oddly enough, I have a lot in common with the folks occupying Wall Street. They love money, too. A lot -- or else they wouldn't be there complaining that they don't have enough of it. They complain about corporate greed, but those corporate bosses love money just as much as the hippies. The bosses and bankers just have marketable means with which to get that money. The Liberal Arts graduates would be lucky to see $30,000 a year in the field of their degree. The world has plenty of artists. Art is easy. Really, really easy. Great art is really, really hard. Most art and artists are poor to mediocre, so the field doesn't pay well; it's practically choking on mediocre art.
As an aside, there may very well be some medical students or international law students among the 99% (as the occupiers call themselves, under the imagined premise that 1% of the US population holds most of the wealth), but it's likely those med or law students either aren't very good or just haven't gotten the right job, yet. I pick on the Liberal Arts crew because based on the 99% testimonials, it appears the protestors "followed their dreams" in college and got the degree that satisfied their souls -- mostly fluffy art degrees of some kind. I can sympathize: I have a fluffy English degree. Totally worthless, but I loved learning and really enjoyed college. I don't regret a day of it.
But I'm not blaming anyone for my useless degree. I chose a different field. I'm a network engineer and have been for over a decade. It pays way better and I have many more job opportunities. I enjoy it (computers were always a hobby) and it's got that magic word associated with it -- marketable.
I'm all for people following their dreams. We need artists -- just not so damn many of them -- but we need them. It's just that the 99% has a bit of a murky message, and like the Tea Party, is prone to having much kookery in its midst.
Allow me to address the Great Satan of the 99% -- the corporations. They hate corporations. They portray them as evil, gluttonous, greedy groupings of white guys dressed in impeccably tailored suits gathered around a big mahogany table in a darkened room far at the top of a skyscraper. Each man, bloated with wealth, fiendishly fastidious in style, and forever cooking up ways to manipulate the "little people" in their employ. The 99% use the word "corporation" as if it conjures a specific image, something like the aforementioned caricature. But that's not at all what a corporation necessarily is. As Mitt Romney said (and got lambasted for it), "Corporations are people."
Indeed, they are people. The term "corporation" is a legal definition of an entity that can be one person or more than a million people. And I should mention that the Wall Street squatters are being characterized as a highly electronic protest. They reside in a park that has power outlets, giving them access to their laptops, tablets, phone chargers, and any other gadget that will give them Twitter, YouTube and Facebook access. They're plugged in and turned on to the Internet.
Ah, but where would the malcontents be without the corporations inventing, improving and fabricating all these marvelous, indispensable gadgets? Do you think a Mom-and-Pop store would be able to invent, fabricate, program, and support a smart phone? What about the cell towers? Mom and Pop would have a helluva time with that one. I'm not even going into the satellites for their GPS contraptions. Mom and Pop would have a hard enough time putting together an analog camera, let alone a digital one.
Sure, the bankers got off easy. I get it. I understand the rage. But tearing down the banking system is a foolish notion. Not even foolish. There are insufficient words to express the combination of naivete, lack of foresight, lack of willingness to understand, and delusion that most of these folks exhibit. Times are tough everywhere. Even people with marketable skills are finding a dearth of jobs out there. Yeah, the bankers had something to do with it. The way the market is driven by futures is part of it.
There will be good times again. This is a low point in the cycle, mistakes were made. Greed is the gas that drives the engine of capitalism, and more than a few people were running their engines a little too rich. But lets not forget the part we played in that. We got a little drunk on money, ourselves.
The banks gave out bad loans, but who was taking them? It's not politically correct to blame the borrowers, but if they read the fine print, they knew their mortgages would balloon after a few years... nearly triple, in some cases. If they didn't read the fine print, shame on them. There have since been laws put into place to make the fine print less fine -- but all the laws in the world won't eliminate stupid. At best, it can just be reduced to a more manageable factor.
So, protest away, 99%. Stay on the streets and complain that you can't get a job while you're too busy protesting about not getting a job. Do you really expect them to toss money out the windows to you? I'm not sure what your end-game is, but good luck with that. While you're out there, at least that's fewer resumes the rest of us will have to compete with on the job market.
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