Occupy Wall Street

I’m going to the Occupy Seattle rally tonight. So that right there should tell you my position on these protests.

It probably won’t get anything done, but if it does, I’m all for it. There’s no rally here in Austin, though. I’ll just be watching.

EDIT: Nevermind, there’s a rally here in Austin. But I obviously didn’t know that. And I have a PSAT to take tomorrow, so… Yeah, good luck anyway.

While there are some valid points, whoever wrote the “List of Demands” is an idiot. Almost every single point on it would do more damage than good.

To list a few (going from memory):

  • Tariffs on all imported goods: While this sounds good in premise, it does more damage than one would expect. While it would create US industry, companies would use this as a way to increase prices to the tariff rate, and rely on their lower prices to keep from innovating. India was a good example of this, although they are starting to open up.

  • Living wages to everyone regardless of employment: This underestimates how lazy the vast majority of people are. I currently have 3 jobs. They do this, and I’ll be one of the first people to quit my job and live off the government.

  • Free college education: This cracks me up on many levels. First, we’ll start with cost. Everyone is complaining about the debt, saying the government needs to cut costs. This is not a good thing to be taking up at this time. Secondly, it’ll dumb college down more than it already has been. The US ranks far below a lot of other countries in education (Most of those countries kick kids out if they don’t make the cut), and yet they want them running colleges as well? Doesn’t sound like a good idea to me.

Anyways, feel free to offer other arguments and such, I’m all for logical discussion on the matter. :stuck_out_tongue:

I agree with you on almost all points, Zurg.

Naturally, these demands would have to change and be molded to actually function. Anyone with a brain can clearly see that some of these proposals won’t work unless we clear out the gray area.

As for free education, I think it could work, but only if the education system itself changed. Teachers in America are ridiculously underpaid, the No Child Left Behind act completely screwed up funding for schools, and the emphasis placed on success over failure to improve self-esteem are destroying what little education we have left. If the country were to put more emphasis on the importance of education, then maybe one day we could have a free college education. That said, I don’t see that as a possibility in the near future.

And, as always, this is merely my opinion. I’m more than open to discussion about whether I’m right or wrong on the subject. :smiley:

What do you know, more agreement from me.

One point I want to raise… Did you see what Obama added to NCLB? Now kids get to ‘grade’ their teachers… Can you imagine what’s going to happen when a kid doesn’t want to work, and gets failed because of it? They’ll crucify the teachers!

My mom is currently going for her masters in early childhood education… and it’s sad because to be honest, she’s barely making minimum wage once you factor in the hours she spends at home working on lesson plans and such.

And another point that should bring up some debate:
The education system will never shift, because if they started aiming higher, and accepting the fact that kids will fail, the racism/discrimination card will be played. Why? There are higher failure rates in poor neighborhoods, in a lot of cases because the parents of the kids don’t care about their child’s education. They want them to drop out and get a job, bring money into the house. Well these kids would be the first to fail, due to lack of parent support, and then it would be a case of discriminating against lower income families (much as it is now). I have some experience on this, as I went to the oldest high school in my county, and I saw this kind of reaction to school every day. Kids expect to get A’s for just showing up, and then get mad at employers because they won’t hire them, due to lack of education.

I’m glad I don’t live in the States anymore.

I wish I could share that sentiment, but I’m financially locked into staying. :stuck_out_tongue:

thats why i bought all the nukes when i had the chance

once im on mars the cleansing begins

I have no idea what finance means.

Can I come to Mars?

Also Swan: I feel the same way. I’m gonna get my degree and move… somewhere.

I recommend Germany, Switzerland, or Denmark. From what I’ve heard, they’re pretty awesome.

I would also say Canada, but that’s a little too close to the blast zone for me (read: America). :stuck_out_tongue:

Not Germany. It’s just like every other European country except it rains a lot more.

Why not go to Australia? Everyone forgets about them anyway. Which reminds me of a flash animation most of us have seen anyway, but it vaguely relates to this whole off-topic nuke business.
Fun Fact: The actual abbreviation for “Nuclear” is “Nuc” or “Nucl”, not “Nuke” :stuck_out_tongue:

go to the moon instead :slight_smile:

Not to steer things back on topic or anything but…

What’s more, the schools in poor districts like the ones you bring up are already pretty fuckin terrible to begin with, start emphasizing actual accomplishment over self esteem like they have been for the past several years and these schools may as well close their doors, since any level headed education system would fire most of the teachers there on account of thats where the tenured bad teachers tend to get dumped and most of the kids would fall through the cracks anyway.

Long story short: Your Fucked.

I’m all for the protests. Down with corporation power! Down with Investment Bankers! Down with Fox News, and all those other Biased News Networks in America!

We’re doing protests in Canada too, Like the one in Montreal. I’m just waiting for an Ottawa one.

I want to visit or maybe live in Australia some day.