Occupy Wall Street

oh, ok. Well first off if the temper tantrum comment was also directed at me, I don't get it. your little protests in the street are temper tantrums. What I'm doing is actually changing shit.

I'm not trying to make the people on wall street less rich or make everyone rich. If everyone could see a few simple truths, they'd be able to make themselves richer.

While you all sit around and bitch on the keyboard, I'm training to make money. I'm getting educated. I'll be the one making money. Money to fund real political reform campaigns that might actually get laws passed. I'll be investing money into portfolios managed by firms who only invest in companies who have good ethical practices (they exist).

all I'm saying is that these protests will not only achieve nothing, most of the people protesting don't even know what they're doing

Life is not fair.

You can bitch that it's not fair, or you can do something about it.

Americans are lazy fucks. So lazy they don't think for themselves.

My parents came to the US from Taiwan with less than $400 USD. Neither parent had a college education. My sister is a doctor and I am a lawyer.

I just know that when something broke in my house my dad fixed it. It could be an overflowing toilet, or the microwave. That man will try.

they may be corrupt and such, but what they're doing is NOT illegal. you can use the same argument for Apple and how they're unethical with their ridiculous prices for their gadgets and constant upgrades to reap more profits, yet people still buy their shit at the end of the day. same concept as someone in the middle class taking out a loan knowing full well that the bank is trying to make profit off of their mistakes.

yeah, but noone is looking for handouts. noone is hating on anyone for being more successful or making more money.

the people who are trying to occupy wall street see the financial sector as corrupt and inhumane and unethical. but if you're gonna blame the banks for profiting off the debts of the middle class, you have to blame the middle class for taking those damned loans. it's the whole consumerist "bigger-the-better" extravagant lifestyle that has gotten the world into this mess. sure, the money lenders and whatever may be greedy, but so is everybody else.

the people marching there don't have a problem with people working hard or making money. they have a problem with the perceived exploitation of people by banks.

but congratulations on your professional success.

but yeah, it's a waste of time. noone marching there even knows what the hell they want. and word to homes. protests aren't gonna do shit. you either have to get violent, or you have to work within the system or have someone work within the system for you. but i doubt it'll do any good. the wealthy have all the power and influence and if they want the status quo to remain, it will. hopeless.

please watch this

www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-S6rZ18KKk&feature=related

the investment banks and rating agencies flat out lied to their investors. they're snake oil salesmen.
People lost their 401k's and retirement funds over this shit. someones grandma is now on fuckin welfare somewhere, and some CEO gets to run off to St. Barts with her money. and its ok cause its not illegal? is this the kind of unhindered free-market capitalism you like Homes & Powerball?

I agree that financial sector is corrupt, and sadly the only way for any change to occur is through acts of violence. Its obvious the government does not give two shits, so sitting around with signs is just retarded.

But anyways, this actually isn't unhindered free market capitalism. If it was, financial institutions would be allowed to fail. The government would never step in, except to enforce property rights and contracts. I think it's interesting to consider that, especially as of late, the "invisible hand" might be more effective at steering ethical business practices than government policy.

Our currency hasn't been anchored to gold since Nixon. What is fucked up about this? That's how lending works.

good point, but they don't exclusively control the money supply. The Fed and the Treasury have control too, which is why I'm saying people should be protesting in DC, not Wall Street. If you think they are abusing the money that they are "given" by the gov, then you should be protesting the Fed's policies instead. The banks are doing what is legally allowed, and they always will. They are huge profit driven corporations.

Ok, but why don't you blame the average ♥♥♥♥♥ that took the loan? I'm not saying it's all their fault, but it's not completely the bank's fault either.

Yo you are right b, I misspoke. Federal reserve notes aka our dollar are currently backed on good faith lmao. The reason why I think it's fucked up is because all the money they "have" is virtual and just numbers on a screen yet they can loan it out to the gov & you at interest. So basically they are making money out of nothing after making money out of nothing. idk man it just seems stupid to me that by virtually creating money they can take away your real,tangible assets.

Yo dude, the federal reserve exclusively controls the money supply. what i think is messed up is that its a private corp that has never been audited and if you know history you would know that the people who helped create it are warmongers and shit lol. I agree that ♥♥♥♥♥s should be protesting for monetary reform as that is the root cause of our "recession". Imagine if we were to issue currency debt free!

isnt the bold kind of a contradiction? those are the institutions people are mad at. and it is their fault. theyre the ones who did it.

and watch the second video i posted after i edited, it might clear some things up that i failed to illustrate. the investment banks, the rating agencies all knew exactly what they were doing with those shitty, but highly rated CDO's, and speculators were betting on other people's investments to fail.

and i understand that america isnt totally free-market but this was one of those instances where an aspect of a business (CDO's, Credit Default Swaps, Derivatives, etc.) that went unregulated turned shady and corrupt.

also, i completely agree that the banks or any private industry for that matter shouldn't be bailed out with taxpayer money, unless those institutions were essential and were going to be nationalized.

and imma keep this short, but my problem with total free-market capitalism is that it relies on the belief that people running businesses are going to behave with integrity and that there will always be competition in a given industry. But what happens when a business or a group of business corner a market so that they can maximize profits at the expense of thei customers and their own integrity? (peep what the railroad barons did the midwestern farmers in the 1890's).

lol ok man. I guess I will try to explain this to you, in simpler terms, one more time. But if you still don't understand, that's on you.

Specialization does not only refer to the movement you are referring to (which is not from the 1700's, btw, you're about 200 years off). It refers to the idea that every country in the world is the best at "something." Obviously, if the auto industry needs bailouts from the government just to stay afloat, America is no longer the best at producing cars. What you are advocating is that rather than let that industry fail, and have thousands lose their jobs, we should artificially support it through government money, putting us further into debt. Instead, we could let the auto industry fail, and have those thousands of laid off workers find a new job in an industry that America is actually good at.

and if the government is meddling in the market- by bailing out banks/car companies, and regulating- when things go sour they need to evaluate the system

Pretend you live in a small town in the middle of the desert. There's one lake in the desert. Besides this one lake, there is no other water for hunreds of miles. So when you grow up, you decide to start up a fishing shop where you sell fishing rods, bait, etc. to all the locals so they can fish in the lake. Over the years, however, the climate changes and the lake dries up. Do you:

a) ask your friends, family, and neighbors to help you out by lending you money so you can continue selling a product/service that is no longer demanded, but save yourself and your employees from unemployment?

b) let your business fail, lay off your employees, and go into tough times for the next 6 months while you look for work elsewhere.

By bailing out the auto industry, which is aparently your idea of "social responsibility," you are just spreading the burden around to everyone else.

and if the government is meddling in the market- by bailing out banks/car companies, and regulating- when things go sour they need to evaluate the system

You also don't understand what system I'm "advocating" because thus far I've been playing the devil's advocate with a pretty clearly free-market stance. Which means I don't support the bailouts or government regulation.

lol enough with the "you must be really young" "you've probably never heard of the sub-prime mortgage crisis" overcompensation. When shit goes over your head, don't try and pretend like I'm the stupid one.

lol thanks for putting it in your sig and making yourself out to be even more of a dumbass. I know what the goal of a bank is. I don't think it's evil. They aren't "stealing" your money. If you honestly beleive that then I'm probably wasting my time on you... I hope you get the chance to educate yourself about this sort of stuff sometime.

Wait how is it not a private bank?

And are you talking about deposit multiplication?

isnt the bold kind of a contradiction? those are the institutions people are mad at. and it is their fault. theyre the ones who did it.

and imma keep this short, but my problem with total free-market capitalism is that it relies on the belief that people running businesses are going to behave with integrity and that there will always be competition in a given industry. But what happens when a business or a group of business corner a market so that they can maximize profits at the expense of thei customers and their own integrity? (peep what the railroad barons did the midwestern farmers in the 1890's).

Once again if you had better comprehension skills you would see that I said....

and if the government is meddling in the market- by bailing out banks/car companies, and regulating- when things go sour they need to evaluate the system

goddamn it brooklyn718, learn the difference between 'they're' and 'their' and 'your' and 'you're'