Wall Street preotesters!

This was sent to me by a friend. I find it it very interesting and pretty damn close to how I feel, how about you?

I don't want you to think this is an original piece that I put together.  I gathered much of the text from a variety of articles I have recently read - but none seemed to bring together the thoughts that I have on the protests we have seen lately.  So, with a little plagiarism, I have been able to present my point of view on our current protests:

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Sociologists have shown that a middle class represses the likelihood of a citizen-led political revolution. When enough people make enough money to have something to lose, they are unlikely to try to upend the system.   A middle class, then, ensures that a good proportion of citizens are comfortable and that goes a long way towards encouraging them to relax and enjoy the status quo.  The ability to consume, correlates with a complacent citizenry.

And therein lies our current problem:  We have lost our middle class.

By the end of 2001, only 1% of the American population owned 38% of the nation's wealth. Conversely, 40% of the population - our poorest - owned less than 1% of the nation's wealth. It's just gotten worse in the last decade.

The basic premise of the protests is that at a time when unemployment is high and staying that way, it is no longer acceptable that 1% of our population controls 40% of its wealth. That the Wall Street financiers who did so much to crash the world financial markets are part of this 1%. The logic is that the super-rich are to blame for the problems we all are experiencing. but, being so rich, they are insulated from the damage they have caused.

Who was complaining when they were buying and flipping houses they could not afford? Who was telling Wall Street to slow it down when even cab drivers were making killer bank on their portfolios?  None of us.  Including those who are protesting.

I would be inclined to support these protestors if:

*   They were clean
*   They accepted some of the responsibility for their circumstances

Because they do have a point even if they are unable to articulate it: 

We must rebuild our middle class if we are to survive as a nation with the philosophy and goals of our founding fathers.

When enough people make enough money to have something to lose, they are unlikely to try to upend the system.

I believe there is an interesting parallel between the NBA negotiations and Congress.  The NBA has begun to see some success as a result of third party mediators.  Perhaps what we need in Washington is a group of third party mediators that can find some common ground between these two polarized parties that can get nothing, with common sense value, in place to correct this imbalance and get people bac