Occupy Wall Street: What's the Deal?

So I keep hearing about this, but I honestly have no idea what the deal is.

Anyone following this story?

We had a discussion in my American Political Thought module on this subject.

We came to a conclusion that this is just step one of a show of dissatisfaction. In reports it was being compared to the Tea Party movement, but with much more focus on the economy and the mega-rich and how they influence the government (bail-outs and etc). However I think for now it will just be protests and traffic nuisance rather then a true movement. I have a feeling that it would evolve into one eventually. Keep watching its progress. I think it would be rather surprising.

So bail outs are the main issue here?

Or are there other major elements?

Does the "movement" seem to be calling for anything specific?

It's all got to do with Anonymous, and the "Army" that's been building about the corruption and such in the US. Long story, but here's some links that can help provide you with more information, and some searches on google and youtube will bring more information to the table as well.

http://www.whatis-theplan.org/forum
http://occupywallst.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF_lOHUMyX0

It's some interesting stuff, it's been on the news in multiple states and on multiple channels about the whole thing surrounding Anonymous and the "Plan"

I saw this recently and it was pretty interesting. I assume its connected?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5xRaQnHGA0

These people are awesome, check out the occupy wall street link above, some of their demands:

Demand one: Restoration of the living wage. This demand can only be met by ending "Freetrade" by re-imposing trade tariffs on all imported goods entering the American market to level the playing field for domestic family farming and domestic manufacturing as most nations that are dumping cheap products onto the American market have radical wage and environmental regulation advantages. Another policy that must be instituted is raise the minimum wage to twenty dollars an hr.

Demand three: Guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment.

Demand five: 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.

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

Demand seven: 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.

Demand eleven: Immediate across the board debt forgiveness for all. Debt forgiveness of sovereign debt, commercial loans, home mortgages, home equity loans, credit card debt, student loans and personal loans now! All debt must be stricken from the "Books." World Bank Loans to all Nations, Bank to Bank Debt and all Bonds and Margin 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." And I don't mean debt that is in default, I mean all debt on the entire planet period.

OK, good for a laugh...

These hippies would be be put to better use as filling for pot holes.

It's people standing around, not trying to get a job, telling people with jobs to make it impossible for them to not have a job. I saw a video clip of a guy who sold his house and quit his job to go protest....that it's difficult to get a job and pay for a house.

Yeah. It's hard to find a job, if you're unwilling to do the work. I've been unemployed (for the most part) for about five months, living off of savings. Two days after I posted a resume, I was in an interview and offered a job. Didn't want that one, but I could have had it.

These people need slapping. Yes, there's a LOT wrong with Wall Street, but they aren't going to change it. And Anonymous, with their badly edited V for Vendetta over-dubbed clips with idealistic portrayals of what will happen aren't going to achieve anything. It won't happen in the storybook way described.

It will require reform of policies and individuals educating themselves about finance and investment.

Solutions will come through creative people inventing new ways for people to EARN a wage.

Goddammit I hate hippies.

I'm a little disturbed that OWS is being compared to the Tea Party. The Tea Party has a handful of very specific issues, and a very unified platform. OWS seems to be all over the place. Also, the Tea Partiers have done a pretty good job of being pretty civicly minded demonstrationers. They are known for cleaning up after themselves, not vandalizing private property or impeding commerce.

I also think its absurd that a lot of the demonstrators at OWS are condemning the corporate bailouts, and blaming the evils of capitalism. But bailouts aren't capitalist at all. I'm also regurgitating some stuff I heard from John Stossel. Which brings me to another point. If you want to get your message out, why would you chase away, heckle, and drown out a journalist? If you really believe in your message, wouldn't you want even a second to explain your position?

Again, wiki does a great job. There is no list of demands and the movement is not uniform. Different people in the movement have different kind of demands. Basically, the way I understand it is that it is the leftist equivalent of tea party movement and both movements are pretty much the same but they just have different idealogical colors.

Personally I sympathize with their demands of reducing the corrupting power of money, i.e., special interests influencing political decision process. There are many people who have realized that the US political system has a systemic bias; since more money almost always implies more chance of victory, it follows that different sections of society have wildly different influencing power when it comes to politics. The end result is that the government becomes a representative of special interests, lobbyists, corporate powers, and the wealthy class rather than all the citizens.

https://sites.google.com/site/the99percentdeclaration/

I'm just reading this now but if people are asking about substance, this provides a bit more.