# \#OccupyWallStreet **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 19, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/occupywallstreet/596851 "2011-09-19T18:27:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 86
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/occupywallstreet/596851/1701 "2011-11-05T15:21:15Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > Terrorists also issue press releases. I take it that you are uncomfortable with press releases because that is a method used by terrorists. > > What it comes down to is that you are an ass who uses hyperbole and false association to muddy the waters. I don’t think issuing press releases is the methodology of terrorism. Forcing themselves and their beliefs onto others against their will to gain media attention is their methodology The difference between a terrorist group and the group that took over the dinner is that the latter did not use physical violence, but that’s it. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/occupywallstreet/596851/1702 "2011-11-05T15:26:07Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > That accounts for a lot. Hey don’t knock it, once your soul dies all sorts of things come easy! ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/occupywallstreet/596851/1703 "2011-11-05T15:30:31Z")
> [@RedFury](#): > > **JesusScylla** – and after reading your latest posts I do mean you should literally append ‘Jesus’ to your moniker – think you might be taking the whole “manly ruggedness” thing to an unhealthy extreme? Seriously, gets to the point where I am almost relieved you choose to run to exhaustion and beyond, otherwise you’d be self-flagellating like a Mother Fucker. Yeah, there’s something in my nature like that. I think I use running as a mostly healthy outlet. > [@](#): > > Kind of like living Gibson’s The Passion Of The Christ on a daily basis. No wonder that with those lofty (actually, you’ll pardon my saying so, but to me they come off as truly bizarre. See, I don’t go looking for pain, it manages to find me just fine – in spades and in all of its forms.) standards there’s nothing the OWS movement can do that you’d praise. However, from where I stand, I find them admirable. It’s a hijack, but I figure that I actually feel a lot less pain and suffering than the average person simply because i do make the effort to acclimate myself to it. The daily runs where I court pain mean that I usually end up feeling pretty fucking great for the other 23 hours of the day. > [@](#): > > This world of ours could certainly do with less pain and more justice. And believe it or not, that’s what this movement is _working very hard_ for. I agree with the first part of that sentence. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/occupywallstreet/596851/1704 "2011-11-05T15:46:46Z")
Well, thats certainly reassuring! You agree. We can comfort the afflicted, so long as we don’t afflict the comfortable? Pretty radical stuff, there, **Scylla**. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/occupywallstreet/596851/1705 "2011-11-05T15:50:43Z")
> **[More Small Businesses Are Dumping Big Banks](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/small-businesses-switching-from-big-banks-to-local-banks_n_1070547)** > > More Small Businesses Are Dumping Big Banks Here is a small business owner who took his accounts out of B of A and found it was a great decision. The big banks have no concern for the community. They are not building up the area . The big banks were supposed to lend to small businesses and decided not to. They got our tax money and declared it was theirs with no strings attached. They would do whatever they wanted . They could have helped the economy but decided to help themselves to our treasury. Take your money out of big banks. They are the continuing problem not the solution. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/occupywallstreet/596851/1706 "2011-11-05T15:56:03Z")
I already did, putting it all into investments in gated communities and for-profit prisons. Maybe when I get to Hell, I can buy an upgrade to first class. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/occupywallstreet/596851/1707 "2011-11-05T17:21:40Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > People’s lives have been ruined, **Scylla**! What part of that are you having trouble grasping? I actually know some of these people, do you? People who worked, saved, sacrificed for a modest but secure retirement now have neither. And the money went from their pockets into the pockets of people very much like yourself, the money went to assure that people who were already comfortable are even more comfortable, some of them filthy comfortable. > > You say you knew nothing about it. OK, i’ll buy that. All of this was going on, this massive clusterfuck a brewing, and you heard nothing? Despite all your vaunted education and experience, which you are perfectly willing to beat us over the head with, and you knew nothing about it? > > Then tell me: why we should trust your advice and counsel? All that education and experience, and you didn’t even _suspect_? The most massive financial clusterfuck since the Depression, and you didn’t have a clue? You didn’t know anything more than us poor dumb shmucks then, but _now_ you’re smarter? _Now_ you know all about it, and we should listen to you? > > Do you see the disconnect, there? Yes. I do. The disconnect is that you asked this very same question, and made this very same veiled accusation, what? 20 pages ago? Did you forget? It was stupid then, and it’s stupid now. Do you expect the guy at Arby’s to know about the guy at Jack in the Box who let the bad meat through? Do you think the investment community is like 5 people who know everything about each other? Do you think it was simple and easy to see? It wasn’t. Warren Buffet came out saying that he didn’t think the mortgage issue was a big deal, right before it blew up. Do you think everybody in the industry saw it happening and let it come because they could make a quick buck? I don’t like the cutesy little coy veiled accusation. Why mince words? If you want to accuse me of something, go right ahead. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/occupywallstreet/596851/1708 "2011-11-05T17:51:37Z")
Not at all. Just as you say, you didn’t know anything. You’re ignoring the important question: if you didn’t know, and, apparently, nobody else did either…why should we ever trust any of you? What good is “expertise” if nobody actually knows anything? People in the financial services sector are pretty well paid, no? So, why? Because its so complicated, we wouldn’t understand? They don’t fucking understand! Are you smarter now? Or at least resolved to be more curious? ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/occupywallstreet/596851/1709 "2011-11-05T18:10:20Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > Maybe it’s because the message doesn’t stand on its own. I’m sorry, but this is just bullshit. The message that the system is broken when: a) 1% of the population controls 40% of the wealth b) Social mobility is at an all-time low _damn well stands on its own_. > [@](#): > > This is kind of my point. The single mother working for minimum wage to feed her child can’t afford to spend a month camping out in a park. In order to be able to do this, to be part of occupy you necessarily have to have sufficient means and freedom from responsibility to have living in a park for a month as an option. > > I’ve seen the films. There’s a lot of college kids, or just past college at these things. That’s the majority in fact. These are not people that have legitimate complaints. Just to be there demonstrates that they are exceedingly privileged. … No. I’m sorry, but _no_. There may be a fair number of college kids, and senior citizens, and what have you present, but you know what? I really, _really_ doubt it’s the majority. When you look through the crowds, there are people of all ages, all races, all demographics. Hell, even the 1% makes a showing!\* To discredit them because “they’re just privileged college brats” is stupid, and more importantly, _wrong_. \*(Okay, so it’s just Michael Moore. Sue me.) > [@](#): > > If your a bank than my savings would be FDIC Insured and I wouldn’t lose them. But no, I don’t complain. Certainly not by camping out in the street. I have a family to take care of. …And if the government raised taxes on all but the lowest income bracket to 80+%? What then? > [@](#): > > I am reasonably sure that it isn’t relative at all. If I buy into your argument than the princess in the Princess and the Pea suffers as much as an orphan freezing in the snow. > > That’s just a bunch of bullshit. So, no I am not impressed by the “relative” suffering of the occupiers. Actually, people can get used to a hell of a lot of things. As long as you’re not, you know, dying. But hey, you know what? I welcome you to put your money where your mouth is and donate a few thousand dollars to, say, Bread for the World or Doctors Without Borders. > [@](#): > > Crap. There are lots of jobs available around where I live. Where the hell do you live, and why’s it so damn different from, you know, everywhere else? > [@](#): > > But, if you are a college student, or recent graduate you don’t want to be a stock boy, or wait tables. Or, you know, you can’t even get the jobs that are demeaning to you. Hell, forget the college kids. What about the people who are in more desperate situations? The people who desperately need jobs but can’t find them. Are they some liberal fantasy? Hell, you know what? Just do me a favor and look up all the job openings that, say, the average college graduate could reasonably apply for. Then compare the number of those to the number of people unemployed, and keep in mind that for every given shitty job, you have to compete not just with the other 9% of Americans who are unemployed, but a good portion of those who _are_ employed. Look, I get that your experience, and perhaps your area speak against this, but the numbers don’t. A damn good number of the jobless simply _cannot_ get a job. > [@](#): > > And again, if unemployment pays you X dollars and the job you are lookingat pays you X + 2 an hour, than yo would be working for $2 an hour which really doesn’t make sense, does it? I wouldn’t take such a job. There’s a bit of this going on. Here’s a tip: the problem may not be that unemployment is too high when you cannot live on it. :rolleyes: > [@](#): > > Tell me about these laws against inflating markets. How would that work? How would you do that? I was under the impression that up until fairly recently, there was in fact legislation that prevented speculation of most physical goods. Am I wrong? > [@](#): > > I do like the idea of removing corporate money from politics, but I don’t really favor higher taxes. I think the government gets more than enough money to do what it needs to do. It is just wasteful and innefficient. I do think you could remove sales taxes which punish the poor and make the tax code a bit more progressive, so I’m ok there. I think we’re mostly on par with this one, but I’m just really bothered by loopholes and the low tax rate on corporate profit, because high taxes on corporate profits leads to an incentive to reinvest, and loopholes just make everything bullshit. > [@](#): > > As for the gambling, I don’t think that’s really the problem. Too big to fail is the problem. Banks should fail. They should make mistakes, and pay for it. This helps keep the system honest. The problem is when a bank is too big to fail, and the public has to assume the burden of sustaining the bank. I’m all in favor of breaking the banks up to prevent moral hazard in the future. But, let them gamble, if they are so foolish. Correct me if I’m wrong, but when a bank folds, don’t most, if not all investors in that bank (read: people who save money there) lose their money? That’s kind of unacceptable. The way the bailout was handled was bullshit–the banks should’ve been _completely_ socialized, not just have been handed a big wad of cash with no strings attached–but letting them fail was basically not an option. > [@](#): > > I don’t think think things are as simple to fix as you think they are. I don’t like the idea that you think you can fix things for “everyone.” I don’t think this movement speaks for everyone. Outside of liberal message boards I think the more common view is that the occupiers are a bunch of spoiled brats. Where people watch which “news” network? :rolleyes: Most of the people I’ve seen strongly opposed to this are the same people who call Obama a communist, and buy into the bullshit right-wing rhetoric that plagues our country with idiocy. > [@](#): > > Oh come on. For two years Obama controlled the executive branch and both houses. > If we are going to blame the Republicans than you are going to have to argue that the Democrats are horribly incompetant and the Republicans are like the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae. Well, let’s see here… First of all, the Democrats are not a very united party. There are a decent number of Dems who should, in fact, be running as Republicans; you can’t really expect the party to band together all that well. The Republicans, on the other hand, were pretty much entirely united. Now throw in the fact that Obama was really banking on bipartisan support, and waited, and waited, and waited for what most of us knew was never going to come. Then add that a simple majority was never enough–he needed a super majority on basically any bill that would accomplish anything because of the wonderful tool known as the Filibuster… Can you see now why there’s a problem? Yeah, it’s not all on the Republicans. It’s also on Democrats acting like republicans, and democrats who were simply Naive enough to believe they’d ever get support from those partisan shitbags across the aisle. > [@](#): > > I saw it on the news and I can’t link to it, or find it, and it wasn’t Fox , but the story was about Oakland and the bad effects that the Occupy thing was having on some of the already struggling businesses, and that the disruptions of occupy basically put the kibosh on several businesses that shut down losing 500 jobs. > > They interviewed some Occupy people about it, and the response was that those businesses were part of the system that they were against. Yep, citation fucking needed. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/occupywallstreet/596851/1710 "2011-11-05T18:18:22Z")
You shouldn’t listen. In fact stop listening now, and go do something else. Wait! If you do that you’ll still be listening. So, don’t do that. Damn, now you are listening no matter what you do. While you are at it, stop listening to drs. They fail to predict and cure all diseases. What a fucking stupid question. Doubly do since you ready asked it 15 pages ago. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/occupywallstreet/596851/1711 "2011-11-05T18:39:05Z")
Didn’t answer it then, either. Just puffed out a cloud of sarcastic smoke and scampered away. But hey, our recent Yurpeen correspondent is handing you your ass, don’t want to interrupt. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/occupywallstreet/596851/1712 "2011-11-05T19:14:37Z")
I wouldn’t call it “handing him his ass”. I’d be handing him his ass if I had far more citations and actual data than I do right now. Right now though, all we really have to go on is what the media shows us of the protest, and what the protesters themselves say. I don’t think that the claim that “they’re mostly entitled college kids” is fair or accurate, but I do not have the data to back it up, unfortunately. I am, however, spending _way too much time_ on something that is not my Seminararbeit, which is due on tuesday oh god I am going to die ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/occupywallstreet/596851/1713 "2011-11-05T19:29:44Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > …While you are at it, stop listening to drs. They fail to predict and cure all diseases. … This is, of course, an incredibly dumb analogy. But it illustrates my point nicely. Perhaps now you’ll catch on. See, a doctor can make a bad mistake with a patient. Sure, it happens. But how many doctors in America are currently recommending that their patients eat two pounds of bacon a day while watching TV and smoking cigarettes? Now, how many financial services people recommended that their clients buy these cool new securities, with the high payout and low risk. Based on real estate, can’t get more rock solid than that! How many, do you guess? Fifteen or twenty? Hundreds? Thousands? A “few bad apples”? You support reform? To what extent? Isn’t it clear that such reform would mean the good old days are over for that industry? Wouldn’t such a reform signal a lot of jobs lost? (I’m wondering how many of those kids on the street are business majors, who wanted to be you, have what you have. They could afford to repay their student loans with a one hundred K a year job. As a barista? Not so much. Like you, they were perfectly happy to give up the best years of their lives for a cash payoff down the road. But now they’ve bought their ticket, on credit, standing in the station, and the train isn’t coming. Ever. Yeah, I know, “spoiled punks”, eh?) ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/occupywallstreet/596851/1714 "2011-11-05T19:51:23Z")
I don’t think any financial advisors made such recommendations. They were institutional products, not retail. So, no. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2011, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/occupywallstreet/596851/1715 "2011-11-05T20:00:26Z")
Is it unreasonable for me to put some of the blame for the aforementioned “entitled college kid demographic” on either of the following? 1. The unrealistic expectations fostered in them by their Baby-Boomer parents 2. The fact that college in the USA is going to put you far, _far_ into debt unless you’re already stupidly rich ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2011, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/occupywallstreet/596851/1716 "2011-11-06T00:52:38Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Not at all. Just as you say, you didn’t know anything. You’re ignoring the important question: if you didn’t know, and, apparently, nobody else did either…why should we ever trust any of you? What good is “expertise” if nobody actually knows anything? It’s a stupid question. Why is it stupid? Because in order to answer the question I have to equate ‘not knowing something specific’ with ‘not knowing anything.’ Maybe you think these two things are the same thing. Maybe you think you are being clever and nobody will notice. I don’t really get it. You seem to be harping on this as if you asked something intelligent or worthy of an answer. It’s kind of retarded because you asked the same question 15-20 pages ago to the same effect. Do you also think playing the “pull my finger” game over and over is clever? Grow the fuck up and don’t get all pissy when stupid shit like what you’ve asked gets a sarcastic answer. > [@](#): > > People in the financial services sector are pretty well paid, no? So, why? Because its so complicated, we wouldn’t understand? They don’t fucking understand! > > Are you smarter now? Or at least resolved to be more curious? Pull my finger. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2011, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/occupywallstreet/596851/1717 "2011-11-06T01:13:41Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > I’m sorry, but this is just bullshit. The message that the system is broken when: > a) 1% of the population controls 40% of the wealth > b) Social mobility is at an all-time low > _damn well stands on its own_. I keep hearing that, but the number keeps changing. Do we actually have a legitimate source for either of these two facts? > [@](#): > > … > > No. I’m sorry, but _no_. There may be a fair number of college kids, and senior citizens, and what have you present, but you know what? I really, _really_ doubt it’s the majority. When you look through the crowds, there are people of all ages, all races, all demographics. Hell, even the 1% makes a showing!\* To discredit them because “they’re just privileged college brats” is stupid, and more importantly, _wrong_. > > \*(Okay, so it’s just Michael Moore. Sue me.) Well, based on the news stories I’ve seen, I disagree. And, since nobody has taken an actual census I’m afraid both of us are stuck with our suppositions. > [@](#): > > …And if the government raised taxes on all but the lowest income bracket to 80+%? What then? No that exact # but the concept has been done before. People concentrate on loopholes and move their money offshore. > [@](#): > > Actually, people can get used to a hell of a lot of things. As long as you’re not, you know, dying. But hey, you know what? I welcome you to put your money where your mouth is and donate a few thousand dollars to, say, Bread for the World or Doctors Without Borders. Thanks. Generally speaking I kind of like the Bible’s suggestion towards charitable giving. Do it, and don’t seek any recognition for it. > [@](#): > > Where the hell do you live, and why’s it so damn different from, you know, everywhere else? Pennsylvania. I doubt it’s all that different. > [@](#): > > Or, you know, you can’t even get the jobs that are demeaning to you. Hell, forget the college kids. What about the people who are in more desperate situations? The people who desperately need jobs but can’t find them. Are they some liberal fantasy? Hell, you know what? Just do me a favor and look up all the job openings that, say, the average college graduate could reasonably apply for. Then compare the number of those to the number of people unemployed, and keep in mind that for every given shitty job, you have to compete not just with the other 9% of Americans who are unemployed, but a good portion of those who _are_ employed. I apologize, but I don’t buy into any of this. It’s like arguing about sick puppies, or abandoned children, or poverty. All you have to do is tie your cause to one of these things and then you can claim that people who are against you don’t care about sick puppies or what have you. Until such a time as I see some form of reasonable plan for exactly how the occupy group or any other group is going to do something that will actually fix the problem, I consider it nothing more than a bunch of empty platitudes to justify a bunch of self-serving spoiled kids. Show me the plan. Prove me wrong. Please. > [@](#): > > Look, I get that your experience, and perhaps your area speak against this, but the numbers don’t. A damn good number of the jobless simply _cannot_ get a job. How do you know? prove it. > [@](#): > > Here’s a tip: the problem may not be that unemployment is too high when you cannot live on it. :rolleyes: I have a niece in law who just used hers up and she lived on it quite well. Don’t worry. She just got married. > [@](#): > > I was under the impression that up until fairly recently, there was in fact legislation that prevented speculation of most physical goods. Am I wrong? Maybe. I’m not sure what you are talking about. The only thing i’m aware of is a rule that can be put in place to prevent some types of short selling when the market becomes volatile. Is that what you mean? > [@](#): > > I think we’re mostly on par with this one, but I’m just really bothered by loopholes and the low tax rate on corporate profit, because high taxes on corporate profits leads to an incentive to reinvest, and loopholes just make everything bullshit. I agree. If the tax rate is 20%, it should really be 20%. It shouldn’t be 10. > [@](#): > > Correct me if I’m wrong, but when a bank folds, don’t most, if not all investors in that bank (read: people who save money there) lose their money? That’s kind of unacceptable. The way the bailout was handled was bullshit–the banks should’ve been _completely_ socialized, not just have been handed a big wad of cash with no strings attached–but letting them fail was basically not an option. You are wrong. Bank deposits are FDIC insured. This includes checking savings, CDs, some money market funds. All this is insured for up to 250k per beneficial ownership. FDIC is federal, and the government has to my knowledge ALWAYS made good on this very fast when a bank has gone into receivership. > [@](#): > > Where people watch which “news” network? :rolleyes: Most of the people I’ve seen strongly opposed to this are the same people who call Obama a communist, and buy into the bullshit right-wing rhetoric that plagues our country with idiocy. I actually think was on Bloomberg. > [@](#): > > Well, let’s see here… First of all, the Democrats are not a very united party. There are a decent number of Dems who should, in fact, be running as Republicans; you can’t really expect the party to band together all that well. The Republicans, on the other hand, were pretty much entirely united. Now throw in the fact that Obama was really banking on bipartisan support, and waited, and waited, and waited for what most of us knew was never going to come. Then add that a simple majority was never enough–he needed a super majority on basically any bill that would accomplish anything because of the wonderful tool known as the Filibuster… Can you see now why there’s a problem? Yeah, it’s not all on the Republicans. It’s also on Democrats acting like republicans, and democrats who were simply Naive enough to believe they’d ever get support from those partisan shitbags across the aisle. So, it’s like I said, the Democrats were incompetant and the Republicans were like the Spartans at Thermopylae. What do you suggest? Do we just dispense with elections and representatives and make Obama Supreme Chancellor so that he can enact all his programs without the possibility of interference? > [@](#): > > Yep, citation fucking needed. Yeah. I’ve asked you for a few, too. I will go hunting. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2011, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/occupywallstreet/596851/1718 "2011-11-06T01:20:05Z")
Ok. We have this apparently happening [http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=47342](http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=47342) More here: [http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/04/us-usa-protests-newyork-idUSTRE7A28MD20111104](http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/04/us-usa-protests-newyork-idUSTRE7A28MD20111104) here: > **[Occupy Protesters, Cops Struggle to Balance Conflict With Sympathies](https://abcnews.go.com/US/occupy-protesters-cops-struggle-balance-conflict-sympathies/story?id=14878528#.TrXgehyq1KI)** > > Occupy Wall Street protesters may say the police are among the "99 percent" they represent and some cops have expressed sympathy for the demonstrators' goals, but that hasn't stopped tensions from flaring between the two sides. Google “occupy rape.” Lots more. ---
**Author:** ![Cyclone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/db5fbb/32.png) [@Cyclone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyclone)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2011, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/occupywallstreet/596851/1719 "2011-11-06T01:29:08Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > Is it unreasonable for me to put some of the blame for the aforementioned “entitled college kid demographic” on either of the following? > > 1. The unrealistic expectations fostered in them by their Baby-Boomer parents > 2. The fact that college in the USA is going to put you far, _far_ into debt unless you’re already stupidly rich I graduated from Southern Illinois University, (arguably the second best communications school in the nation), and I work for national advertising agency. My future is bright. Yes, I was raised in an upper middle-class environment. Sixty three percent of my high school went to college. I was in the middle of my class and had to bust my butt for grades and to graduate from college. I finished B-. To me college was really ticket. Some of my former classmates are running television networks today. Those contacts have helped build my career. I went to the right school for my field, and socialized with everyone. The guys who sat in their rooms getting good grades, but did not know their classmates? Running sound checks at the local television affiliate in Paducah, Kentucky. Anyone who went to college remembers a lot of people who thought the ‘magic degree’ was guaranteed big bucks. Well it is not. All college does is round out the education of the “go-getters” who can go out and make things happen. Folks, “C” students run the country. Sending a resume does not guarantee a job. Getting three interviews does not guarantee a job. Having nationally known professors in your field is only helpful in getting a job. Contacts may open door, but that does not mean a job. In the end _ **you have got to sell yourself** _. Generally, employers hire people who have the potential of making five times as much for the firm, as the firm pays out in salaries and bonuses. An HR, VP once told me, “It is not how you got the job that matters, it is what you produce for the company when you get it that matters.” Any sales person will tell you. First you sell yourself, then you sell your company, then you sell your product. If you don’t like selling yourself, best to stay out of business, and forget big money. College grads who think they are embarking on a blessed career will be in for a shock. All they really have is an invitation to apply. There are a lot of college grads out there who earned the degree, but their lack of personality relegated them to a lab coat. I learned long after I was hired for my first job, (84 interviews over three months), that the real world initiative I demonstrated selling door to door did more to get me my first job than my university education. Knowing how to interface with people is the key to success in **ANY** field. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2011, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/occupywallstreet/596851/1720 "2011-11-06T01:31:31Z")
> **[Oakland occupiers, officials take stock of costs](https://dailycaller.com/2011/11/05/oakland-occupiers-officials-take-stock-of-costs/)** > > Officials take stock of the costs associated with 'Occupy' protests | Oakland city leaders during a chaotic five-hour special meeting Thursday night honed in on the price of business lost because of the protests "City leaders during a chaotic five-hour special meeting Thursday night honed in on the price of business lost because of the protests. The meeting was scheduled a week earlier so the City Council could debate a resolution endorsing the Occupy Oakland camp. The measure ended up getting shelved. “We’re losing 300 to 400 jobs on people who decided to not renew their leases or not to come here,” said Mayor Jean Quan, who also complained about what she said was the protesters’ lack of willingness to talk with city officials about seeking common ground." and: "Joseph Haraburda, president of Oakland’s Chamber of Commerce, blames the city for three deals falling through. Two businesses planning to lease a total of 50,000 square feet of office space and another planning to bring 100 jobs into the city pulled out after Quan allowed protesters to reoccupy to their camp following the police raid cleared them out, Haraburda said. “We want the Occupy Oakland closed,” Haraburda said." "An early Occupy supporter whose views appear to be diverging from the group is Councilwoman Desley Brooks, who camped out with protesters early on. At the council meeting, she expressed skepticism about the camp’s sustainability. “I believe and understand the lack of hope and the pain and the frustration that people are feeling,” said Brooks as her colleagues nodded in agreement. “But I have been extremely troubled, troubled by how far do we allow your rights to go and infringe on other people’s rights.” Can’t find the video where the spokesmen say they don’t care because those jobs and businesses are part of the system they are against. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/occupywallstreet/596851.md?page=85) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/occupywallstreet/596851.md?page=87)