They don’t know what they want, but they want it now!

By Rich Kozlovich

I am always amazed at the lack of clear thinking in so many, especially those who just can’t seem to stay out of the streets with an overwhelming need to protest something. The greenies and the lefties all are filled with a sense of self-righteous superiority. Yet, I don’t even think most of them have any idea why they are really there, and from the interviews it is abundantly clear that they don’t even know what they want done.

Greenies and lefties are great at finding fault, but they are clueless when it comes to finding solutions. Why? They have never owned businesses, never met a payroll, never had to worry about meeting their payments to the bank, and never worked for months without a paycheck so that the employee’s checks wouldn’t bounce. They have never done anything that has contributed to the nation’s riches for which they are demanding a share. And they want a voice in the management of those riches.

Recently we have seen a huge number of people picketing Wall Street demanding….. well…..wait…..let me think a minute….. hummm…. it turns out that I just don’t know what it is they are demanding! I really hate being ignorant, but actually in this case; I don’t feel so bad about my ignorance, because they are apparently as ignorant as I! For someone to be ignorant of someone else goals isn’t that big of a deal; but when they are ignorant as to what they want themselves (while spending so much energy to promote it - whatever “it” is) goes beyond stupid.

One of these protestors was interviewed on the radio Thursday saying that he didn’t know what change he wanted but he definitely wanted change. To what; he was asked? “I don’t know” was the answer, but he still definitely wanted it. What’s even more fascinating are the prominent, rich and important people who have been applauding them. Those who have benefited so much from this system are applauding them for doing……what? And promoting …..what? Well someone finally came up with a thirteen point list of demands and a fourteenth caveat.

Follow the link to see the original list. I have condensed these demands into 7 categories properly reorganizing them into some kind of logical order; a common problem when dealing with the ramblings of the greenies and the lefties; that and their unrelenting use of logical fallacies and outright lies to justify their positions.

1. Income and employment

a. Restoration of the living wage.
b. Minimum wage to twenty dollars an hr.
c. Guarantee a living wage income regardless of employment
d. This demand can only be met by ending "Freetrade".
e. Re-impose trade tariffs on all imported goods entering the American market.
f. Free college education.
g. Allow all workers to sign a ballot at any time during a union organizing campaign or at any time that represents their yeah or nay to having a union represent them in collective bargaining or to form a union.
h. Open borders migration. Anyone can travel anywhere to work and live.
i. This was the 14th caveat - These demands will create so many jobs it will be completely impossible to fill them without an open borders policy

2. Debt.

a. Immediate across the board debt forgiveness for all.
b. Debt forgiveness of sovereign debt, commercial loans, home mortgages, home equity loans, credit card debt, student loans and personal loans nowc. All debt must be stricken from the "Books." World Bank Loans to all Nations, Bank to Bank Debt and all Bonds and Margin
d. Call Debt in the stock market including all Derivatives or Credit Default Swaps, all 65 trillion dollars of them must also be stricken from the "Books."
e. And I don't mean debt that is in default, I mean all debt on the entire planet period.
f. Outlaw all credit reporting agencies.

3. Health Care

a. Universal single payer healthcare system.
b. Ban all private insurers must be banned from the healthcare market.

4. Environmental issues.

a. Begin a fast track process to bring the fossil fuel economy to an end while at the same bringing the alternative energy economy up to energy demand.
b. One trillion dollars in ecological restoration planting forests, reestablishing wetlands and the natural flow of river systems and decommissioning of all of America's nuclear power plants.

5. Public works

a. One trillion dollars in infrastructure (Water, Sewer, Rail, Roads and Bridges and Electrical Grid) spending now.

6. Civil Rights

a. Racial and gender equal rights amendment.

7. Bring American elections up to international standards of a paper ballot precinct counted and recounted in front of an independent and party observers system. (I have no idea what this is about. RK)

Clearly they believe that capitalistic prosperity is a problem and they are looking for a ‘solution’ to end it. Well….this is it. The long and the short of this is they are insane. They are demanding that everything be given to them on demand and that all their demands be met without challenge. What will their contribution be to all of these expensive and unattainable and unsustainable demands? They will have to right to make more demands that no one will be allowed to say NO to.

Others of this group insist on a caveat to these demands clearly stating that;

“This is not an official list of demands. This is a forum post submitted by a single user and hyped by irresponsible news/commentary agencies like Fox News and Mises.org. This content was not published by the OccupyWallSt.org collective, nor was it ever proposed or agreed to on a consensus basis with the NYC General Assembly. There is NO official list of demands.”

In other words they really don’t have any idea what they want, and if someone should make statements to the contrary they can claim that anything anyone says is an individual view. Pretty good! That way they can be for and against everything at the same time….maybe…..or then again….maybe not….as the whim should strike them, which can also then be discounted. So that brings us back to; I don’t know what I want but I want it now, and I don’t want to be responsible for anything or pay for those things I want.

I remember when protests of this type were going on in Seattle a few years ago. NPR interviewed a young woman asking with what they would replace this system of international trade. She kept saying; “great minds are working on this”. After repeated questions with this same inane answer the interviewer eventually said, “So you don’t have an solution?” She emphatically stated that “great minds were working on this”.

Wow! Great minds are apparently still working on it. That must be a great gig for unending employment. That is if there is someone who is willing to pay these great minds. And who exactly are these ‘great minds’? And do they have any idea when they will have a working framework for this ‘great minds’ solution?

Since there are only two systems of economics in existence; central planning (socialism) which has been a failure everywhere in the world, and individual responsibility (modern capitalism) which has brought more people out of squalor, misery and suffering than any system in human history, I have to wonder what these “great minds” are working on? Has there actually been a successful socialist system that eventually didn’t self corrupt with mediocrity, sloth, waste, poverty, hunger and tyranny.

That leaves capitalism, and since that is what we already have, what is left out there for these “great minds” to work on? Since we have capitalism (sort of), their only alternative is socialism, or some form of feudalism, which is a crude form of socialism. Guess which one works? So what is there left to think about?

Everyone wants perfection, yet as one person said, “the best we can hope for is the most tolerable imperfection”. A man once noted some years back that, “if you find the perfect organization, join it! But remember, once you have joined it has now become somewhat less than perfect!” I find this to be one of the basic truths. No matter how well intentioned or well organized anything is, eventually corruption will set in simply because people will be people.

Sweden was probably the only socialist system to have a successful posture. Why? The Swedes believe in work! They were a monoculture with an intrinsic work ethic. They have now become a major multicultural country with the problems this brings. What is the number one health problem in Sweden now? Monday! More and more people are calling in sick because they are going to be rewarded whether they go to work or not. So Sweden is now abandoning their previous system of absolute socialism and moving toward capitalism.

Do we have economic injustice in our quasi-capitalist system? Yes, and it is generally caused by government interference. The only economic injustice in a true capitalist system is when someone lies, cheats or steals from others(or damanges their property)for financial gain. And we have laws to punish those who have done so. But we have adopted so much socialist thinking in our economic planning that we have a ton of economic injustice that has been imposed the government.

This goes back to 179o’s when the federal government passed the Whiskey Act. Who supported this bill? The whiskey distillers in the major metropolitan areas! Why? Because it would eliminate competition by preventing backwoods farmers from turning their corn into moonshine and then transporting it into the cities without added unnecessary costs.

Is that an example of economic injustice?

In his book, The Big Ripoff, Timothy P. Carney makes this observation about big business, big government and everyone’s perception about both. “And so it goes that every time a regulation is defeated, its proponents claim a victory for big business and a loss for the little gal. Every time commentators see a big business favoring higher taxes or greater regulation they note it as an oddity. The big myth is alive and well.” One commentator noted that the National Association of Manufacturers, “has broken with its old reputation as a bastion of laissez faire.” In 1993 John Boehner noted that, “the Chamber of Commerce, has refused to be what it had been in the past, a firebrand, principled organization.”

Big business loves higher taxes and more regulations because they are big enough to absorb them without much ado and they can pass the cost along to the customer, and this tactic keeps the competition down. The bigger they are the more they love it.

Is that an example of economic injustice?

Whether it is the sugar industry, airline industry, the tobacco industry, and even WalMart, you will find massive government involvement that enriches these large corporations at the expense of the American public. And I am talking billions and billions of dollars.

Is that an example of economic injustice?

So let me help these poor misguided and foolish people find a goal. End these socialist programs of corporate welfare, and end government involvement in business that has nothing to do with corruption, fraud or theft. Reduce the size of government and regulations by 80% at the federal level. This will seriously reduce the 1.75 trillion dollars regulations cost the consumer. This will automatically end so many unfunded mandates to the states, which will in turn reduce the size of local government. Everything else could be handled by common law. How’s that for a start?

Of course the people they support are demagogues who publically scream about the rich while at the same time they are the worst offenders of the economic injustice of these socialist policies, so I don’t expect to see much justice come out of their efforts. Economic or otherwise!

Of course the goals I have suggested should only be a start. Their ultimate end goal should be to go out and get a job instead of hanging around Wall Street being supported by someone else. Because staying in New York City isn’t cheap.

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