# Suggestions for Specific Demands for Occupy Wall Street **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 3, 2011, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-specific-demands-for-occupy-wall-street/598427 "2011-10-03T13:13:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![rozzybear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@rozzybear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rozzybear)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-specific-demands-for-occupy-wall-street/598427/21 "2011-10-04T15:55:33Z")
I don’t think it’s necessary to replace any system we now have. It is necessary to clean up all the systems we now have. Money shouldn’t be put above what is good for the common people. Greed shouldn’t be running this world. ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Dastardly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@Dick\_Dastardly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dick_Dastardly)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-specific-demands-for-occupy-wall-street/598427/22 "2011-10-05T17:45:00Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > What law do you think they broke? Because if there’s clear evidence that they broke a law, then great. But a major part of the problem seems to me to be the fact that such awful behavior was legal. That’s why you indict them under RICO statutes. They invented RICO to get a guys who were previously untouchable for offences like, for instance, organised racketeering. The Feds got to basically write any definition of organised racketeering they wanted. It’d be easy to make a claim that buying off politicians and regulators to allow you to bankrupt the country taking huge financial gambles was racketeering. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-specific-demands-for-occupy-wall-street/598427/23 "2011-10-05T17:55:56Z")
Mother of Mercy, is this the end of RICO? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-specific-demands-for-occupy-wall-street/598427/24 "2011-10-05T18:00:28Z")
> [@Dick\_Dastardly](#): > > That’s why you indict them under RICO statutes. They invented RICO to get a guys who were previously untouchable for offences like, for instance, organised racketeering. The Feds got to basically write any definition of organised racketeering they wanted. It’d be easy to make a claim that buying off politicians and regulators to allow you to bankrupt the country taking huge financial gambles was racketeering. Only if by “easy” you mean “virtually impossible”. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-specific-demands-for-occupy-wall-street/598427/25 "2011-10-05T18:21:28Z")
Turn your banker upside down by the ankles and shake, and a leather pouch will fall out, full of Congressgits testicles, some marked “D”, mostly “R”. All he need do is reach in and _squeeeeze_. An inchoate but sincere and enthusiastic set of protests won’t change that. But it might start something. Hey, you tryin’ to start somethin’? Good. Lets start something. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-specific-demands-for-occupy-wall-street/598427/26 "2011-10-05T18:31:03Z")
And this just in from our good friends at _Daily Kos_ (yeah, lefty as all git out, so sue me…) > **[Over 550,000 Facebook 'likes' for Occupy Wall Street solidarity events, 40%+...](https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2011/10/05/1023045/-Over-550,000-Facebook-likes-for-Occupy-Wall-Street-solidarity-events,-40+-growth-since-last-night?via=blog_1)** > > Raina Dayne/ Over 500,000 “likes” for Occupy Wall Street Solidarity events, 40 percent growth since last night. Since _last night_! _Wall street whores Better start shakin’ Todays pig Is tomorrows bacon_ - Burma Shave OK, that’s a bit much. But then again, so am I. And maybe you. ---
**Author:** ![CJJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecc23a/32.png) [@CJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJJ)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-specific-demands-for-occupy-wall-street/598427/27 "2011-10-05T19:07:53Z")
My only demand is that once this movement follows a similar path to the Tea Party on the right (attack the political system from the wings, get co-opted by the Democrats, then press their agenda as a congressional caucus) that they be referred to as “Owls” (a smart abbreviation). ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-specific-demands-for-occupy-wall-street/598427/28 "2011-10-05T20:05:08Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > To what-another corrupt system run by new people? Out with the old boss, in with the new boss? The system as it now stands was created by human beings and is run by human beings, and nothing I’ve seen so far shows me that protesters have a viable and stable system in mind to replace the one we’ve got. You would have been a Tory in the American Revolution. “But who will replace the King? The Americans have not nominated a King, there is no point in revolting until you have a new King and aristocracy ready to take the reins!” ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-specific-demands-for-occupy-wall-street/598427/29 "2011-10-05T20:06:13Z")
> [@rozzybear](#): > > I have been doing alot of thinking since this protest began. I kept seeing people mention ONE demand. I realized, that’s impossible. These people in power for decades, have been helped by the government and media for decades to bring us to where we now are. One demand isn’t going to cut it unless the one demand is FIX IT ALL AND MAKE IT LIKE IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE. The more one thinks about it, the more a person realizes all our systems are corrupt and need to change. Campaign finance reform would do the trick, all by its lonesome. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-specific-demands-for-occupy-wall-street/598427/30 "2011-10-05T20:12:15Z")
Hey, one dollar, one vote, its the American way. So far. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-specific-demands-for-occupy-wall-street/598427/31 "2011-10-06T14:03:25Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Mother of Mercy, is this the end of RICO? This is why SDMB must always exist. ---
**Author:** ![Acid\_Lamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Acid\_Lamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acid_Lamp)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-specific-demands-for-occupy-wall-street/598427/32 "2011-10-06T14:24:22Z")
I suggest the following three demands. Campaign finance reform: Get the Money out style publicly funded elections. Revoke/redefine corporate personhood to reflect a sane and resonable level of “rights” for such institutions. Immediate moratorium on all foreclosures while we decide where the money is and what to do about the problem. Those three should be enough to get the ball rolling in the right direction, and are a clear, concise set of demands the public can understand. They are also the three most important things we can do immediately to effect large scale change. Other progressive issues are just muddying the water. ---
**Author:** ![Acid\_Lamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Acid\_Lamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acid_Lamp)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-specific-demands-for-occupy-wall-street/598427/33 "2011-10-06T14:44:29Z")
Some good secondary demands might include the following: Creation of a clear, concise, regulatory system whose highest priority is the public health and safety. Regulations should be written to be as lenient and sensible as possible while keeping the prime priority in mind. Creation of an industry IP “bank” that is used for new products and procedures that are sensitive to industries. When a new process, material, or product is developed that may _have impact on the public health_, corporations will use the bank to deposit their idea on record with this confidential office. It will have complete disclosure, but otherwise the IP will remain internal and confidential. The workers here are responsible for acknowledging receipt and review of the new IP and either approving it for private use/research or flagging it as a probable hazard. Hazards are placed on a no implement list until they can be determined to be reasonably safe. This procedure should be based on a set of simple, concise principles and results swiftly returned to the companies. The goal is to create accountability, and ensure that someone outside of the industry _knows_ about a new procedure/ material/ product before it is implemented. A tax code that is fair, simple and easy to understand and administer. An investigation into the medical industry to see where the abuse is coming from. We can afford to wait on this issue a bit, and it is so complex that it needs a proper look at everything involved to find a good solution. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-specific-demands-for-occupy-wall-street/598427/34 "2011-10-06T17:05:26Z")
> [@Acid\_Lamp](#): > > I suggest the following three demands. > > Campaign finance reform: Get the Money out style publicly funded elections. Can you translate that into English? 😉 > [@](#): > > Revoke/redefine corporate personhood to reflect a sane and resonable level of “rights” for such institutions. There you go with the “revoke” again. Not gonna happen, nor should it, unless you want to turn back the clock on the economy about 300 years (at least). > [@](#): > > Immediate moratorium on all foreclosures while we decide where the money is and what to do about the problem. That’ll do wonders for the housing market. Might was well forbid the banks from giving out any new loans, because they won’t under those conditions. Here’s the thing. Demanding to turn the economy completely upside down and eliminate centuries of progress in certain areas because you just don’t like how much money certain people are making is a non starter. It just puts your demands in the loony fridge bucket. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-specific-demands-for-occupy-wall-street/598427/35 "2011-10-06T17:30:06Z")
As I think about it, I don’t think the financial issues we are dealing with lend themselves to this kind of protest. End the War. End Jim Crow. US out of Afghanistan. Repeal Obamacare. Those are all things that can be compartmentalized and protested. But “End greed” is so vague and amorphous as to be completely useless as an operational goal. Perhaps something like: No more Too Big to Fail. But I’m not sure that would be very catchy. It would get my vote, though. ---
**Author:** ![gravitycrash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@gravitycrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gravitycrash)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-specific-demands-for-occupy-wall-street/598427/36 "2011-10-06T17:30:56Z")
I’ll take it more seriously when I see a ratio of less than 50-50 hippies, maybe. Also when I stop seeing signs that say: Down with authority, up with anarchy! Yeah, that will help with more fair wealth distribution. Hmm, maybe it will since the Tea Party people are the ones with the guns. Naw, they hate hippies too, never mind. ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Dastardly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@Dick\_Dastardly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dick_Dastardly)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-specific-demands-for-occupy-wall-street/598427/37 "2011-10-06T17:37:23Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Only if by “easy” you mean “virtually impossible”. Even if this is the case, write a new fucking law that says that anybody in business of any kind who paid any money in whatever way to politicians, regulators etc. over the past two decades is guilty of a crime of bribing the government (or whatever you want to call it) and is thus eleigible for a mandatory sentence of a hundred and fifty years. Even better. They can have a choice between either a full one fifty in the slammer, in which case they’d be old men by the tiome they got out, or serving a reduced twenty five year term follwed by execution. Would it be fair? The law is there to provide justice and if some fucker can be given fifteen years for robbing a bank of a hundred dollars, feeling remorse and returning the money the next day [http://digitaljournal.com/article/265402](http://digitaljournal.com/article/265402) then a hundred and fifty years for the gentlemen on Wall Street is a very lenient sentence. ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Dastardly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@Dick\_Dastardly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dick_Dastardly)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-specific-demands-for-occupy-wall-street/598427/38 "2011-10-06T17:40:15Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > And this just in from our good friends at _Daily Kos_ (yeah, lefty as all git out, so sue me…) > > [Over 550,000 Facebook 'likes' for Occupy Wall Street solidarity events, 40%+ growth since last night](http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/10/05/1023045/-Over-550,000-Facebook-likes-for-Occupy-Wall-Street-solidarity-events,-40+-growth-since-last-night?detail=hide&via=blog_1) > > Over 500,000 “likes” for Occupy Wall Street Solidarity events, 40 percent growth since last night. Since _last night_! > > _Wall street whores > Better start shakin’ > Todays pig > Is tomorrows bacon_ > > - Burma Shave > > OK, that’s a bit much. But then again, so am I. And maybe you. I’d love to see this thing get bigger and bigger. None of the corporate news will get behind it though, but the whole 99% thing has potential to grow over the years, as let’s face it the 99% are going to get increasingly shafted. If they could just elect a rump hardcore who do to the Dem party what the teahadists are doing to the GOP it would be a wonderful thing. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-specific-demands-for-occupy-wall-street/598427/39 "2011-10-06T17:42:21Z")
> [@rozzybear](#): > > I have been doing alot of thinking since this protest began. I kept seeing people mention ONE demand. I realized, that’s impossible. These people in power for decades, have been helped by the government and media for decades to bring us to where we now are. One demand isn’t going to cut it unless the one demand is FIX IT ALL AND MAKE IT LIKE IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE. Gave it a lot of thought and that’s what you came up with, eh? Sure sounds like the wise and realistic objective of a mature and well-informed movement to me, no doubt borne out a well-developed conception of “how it’s supposed to be.” ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2011, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-specific-demands-for-occupy-wall-street/598427/40 "2011-10-06T17:46:07Z")
> [@Acid\_Lamp](#): > > I suggest the following three demands. The “organizers and law team” have asked that you stop telling people what it is they want until they’ve figured it out themselves. > **[Forum Post: STOP LISTING DEMANDS | OccupyWallSt.org](http://occupywallst.org/forum/stop-listing-demands/)** > > The opponents of this movement are using the demands posted in this forum as the official lists. And some of these lists regardless of how right or wrong are extreme [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-specific-demands-for-occupy-wall-street/598427.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestions-for-specific-demands-for-occupy-wall-street/598427.md?page=3)