RJT said:
I'm pretty disappointed with the statement...
Half of the list mentions illegal practices, the rest mentions the incompetence of elected governments. Why are they protesting Wall Street? Shouldn't they protest the congress, the courts, and the people that have been voting for the same parties every four years?
People are angry at Wall street because it symbolizes the wealthy class who escaped the recession relatively unscathed.
Let's look at the disparity of the situation:
Governments around the world spent trillions to bail out these banks, but despite all the lessons learned, the financial industry still manages to resist the introductions of new regulations to prevent this sort of thing from happening again. In fact, while the rest of the population suffers from unemployment and lowered standard of living, these thanks are still able to pay massive bonuses to their CEOs. How many people have had their wages cut due to companies having to weather the recession while at the same time management salaries remain stable.
Thanks to the recession, governments on all levels are now struggling to balance budget deficits. Their predominate solution is to cut social programs rather than boosting taxes for the wealthy. Here in Toronto, our new mayor froze property taxes and is in the process of cutting various social institutions such as libraries, public transit, arts, and environmental programs. How is this reasonable in any way? Why do the rich escape any losses while the rest of the population get their services cut?
I've already mentioned in a previous post how despite being critical in the creation of this crisis, these financial institutions still get bailed out while students and homeowners are shit out of luck? How is it fair that in America, student debt cannot be cleared through bankruptcy when getting an education is so important for employment?
Finally, the reason this will not be solved by trying to elect better politicians is due to the fact that the financial sector is one of the largest source of campaign donations. Due to the increase in income inequality, people are becoming less and less influential in their political system. This is why protests have sprung up to vent frustration at this disparity. Why do the great majority of people who had no hand in this financial crisis be the ones who have to suffer while the rich have not given up an inch? Some people continually criticize the movement for having no clear goals, but this crisis was complex in its making and any solution will be equally complex.
Hasphat'sAnts said:
YOU DO REALIZE THAT A LIQUIDITY CRISIS AFFECTS EVERY COMPANY OF EVERY SECTOR, RIGHT?
Bailout didn't fix the banks because it never meant to do it.
Obviously, but I think the chief complaint is that the taxpayers were the ones that funded the bailout. The lower and middle class suffered, while those responsible in many cases benefited financially from the bailouts. It's also hard to trust claims of doom without the bailouts from people like John Paulson since he bought CDS on mortgage back securities en mass right before the crash and made a killing off of them.