You'd have more respect for people in the march on Wall Street if they actually knew what the movement was about. amirite?

Large corporations and billionaires or some crap like that. It's developing...

by Anonymous 12 years ago

It'll get there eventually, but sucks for now.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

#OccupyAmirite

by Anonymous 12 years ago

My friend showed me a video of this guy who was protesting that his college should be paid for. When asked why he thought his college should be paid for, the guy said, "it's just my opinion." I mean my God, if you're going to go through the trouble of inconveniencing people by protesting, at least have a good reason to be there.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

you called?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

*You rang?*

by Anonymous 12 years ago

degressive taxation.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Haha, I live in NYC , and my government teacher is encouraging us to go down and see the protests for a first hand view of a contemporary issue that our generation should care about. Some protesters do know what they want, but according to my friends who live around there, a lot of them are just hipsters. The news is calling them a left hand tea party of sorts.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

It's nothing like the Tea Party movement, because the Tea Party movement was stirred up by the government and Republicans by telling them lies and confusing them. That's why you didn't see police trying to stop them as much as you see them trying to stop Occupy Wallstreet. Occupy wallstreet is a movement BY the people, they're fed up with the way things are now, they want change. That's why the police are trying to stop it, because no one is controlling them. To OP, most of them DO know what they want and even if they didn't, so what? The way things are now isn't good and they're looking for change. They don't know how to bring about that change, because it's not their job, it's the governments.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I meant that their movement isn't focused and they can't accomplish anything if they don't have some concrete ideas.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Anon right under me answered that question very well. It's that the 1% at the top is controlling most of the money in the country. I recommend you watch, "Capitalism: A Love Story." It's a very good documentary about the evils of large corporations

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Is that by Michael Moore?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Yas

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I might watch it, but I don't really like Michael Moore.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

http://michaelmoore.com/books-films/capitalism-love-story He's slightly more far left than I, but I still agree with what he says.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I'll try to watch it. I don't neccessarily disagree with the protestors, but I just feel like they're all over the place.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I agree, but tell that to the news stations. Even though the Tea Party is supposedly a grassroots movement, it is so much more organized than the Occupy. It's a legitimate faction of the Republican party. the protesters want things from an overthrow of Wall Street to Communism in America.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Let's just have some consensus building on what they're for. Everyone! Wiggle your fingers!

by Anonymous 12 years ago

If they want to go anywhere, they need someone to speak their ideas for them, and I don't mean someone from the government; they need someone to advocate for them. Otherwise no one is going to know what they want and there would be no hope that anything would change in their favor.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

That's what I really was trying to say in this post. I mean, it just seems like a bunch of random ideas. They need to make an agenda and get a speaker.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Exactly! I for one have no idea what they stand for or what they want. We've tried to uncover it in my U.S. History class in school, but no one could figure it out. Do you know what they stand for, is it just one thing or does everyone want something different? From what I've heard, people are just frustrated with the way things are going in the government right now.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Anon right below me said it the best, if this movement is to be thought of as the opposite of the tea party movement then I would think it's headed towards what Americans might call, "socialism" the tea party movement is all about deregulation? I think what these people are after is the government regulating businesses more than businesses regulating the government? I'm not sure if that's the best way to put it. I think essentially that's what they want, but there are a lot of people who can speak and represent the group as a whole, but they're not going to be heard, because the rich don't want them to be heard and unfortunately "the man" has the "authority" (because they have the police) to keep them down, but that's just my opinion. Postscript, you can't really have a fair argument in a high school about this kind of stuff, because teachers aren't allowed to disclose their true political affiliations... so they probably try to show you both sides of the argument.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Yes, I've heard a lot about the people and the government. Well it wouldn't be the teacher that is arguing, but more the students. I also believe that knowing both sides of the argument is a good thing, otherwise some might be ignorant to what others think and believe.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I guess you're right

by Anonymous 12 years ago

The inequality in wealth distribution, too. Out of all American money, the richest 1% of people hold 50% of the money. C.E.O's give themselves huge pay raises and only get richer, while the poor get poorer, and the size of the middle class is getting smaller and smaller.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Very intelligent response and I'm not being sarcastic about that.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

More than 50% now I think.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

The problem with that is that most of those C.E.O's worked their butt off for the money. I'm not saying all of them because yes, some were born into money. But the rich are rich because at some point in time someone in their family or them themselves worked hard and earned that right to have money. Also, those rich people do donate a TON of money to help the poor. Some of the poor are honestly working hard and trying and they deserve respect for that. BUT there is also a large portion that are doing nothing about it except complain. What I would like to see is someone from this protest explain what they would like happen as a result. They are in the streets protesting the fact that there are poor. Wouldn't it make more sense to spend that time working to earn money, or since they have no job- attempting to get one to earn money. If they are not one of the poor but fighting for the cause, it would sure be a lot more helpful if they were actually to help the poor through service or something than to stand in a street saying that someone should. I say this from the stand point of a middle class citizen who some would consider poor, I have a min. wage job but I survive.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I agree with most of what you're saying. The people on wall street are a lot like the hippies at Woodstock. Saying that they need to do something, but just complaining instead.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

How can you say that? Do you know how much corruption goes on in these companies? The rich get rich at the cost of the poor. Most of these rich people get that way, because they stepped all over poor people. The rich "donate" money only to make themselves look better. It doesn't even begin to dent their wealth, because they might donate through one side of their company, but they're pick pocketing the same people on the other side. Large corporations throw parties and give LARGE bonuses to their employees and celebrate growth, while laying off others in another sector of their own company. I can't imagine anyone surviving from a min wage job, because I have two and I have to live with my parents.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

But, while I agree that most should get off their asses and try to get a job, it's extremely difficult. (obviously this won't happen) in the Middle East, it was like 30% unemployment in Egypt, Libya, etc... Some you may consider "lazy" because they took no action to get a job, but most knew there was no way, so they thought, wait, instead of sitting around shitting about how crappy our lives are, lets go out and protest. And they did. Anyway, i have no idea what this had to do with your comment, i kind of got off track, but it's an interesting anecdote.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I bet they claim tax credits for their donations too.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

They also pay around 30 percent of the taxes...and people still think they should pay more.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

33-35% taxes.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Well yea if your talking gross, but thats misleading. if they only pay 35% of the taxes but control 50% of the wealth then they are paying proportonally less than the min wage earner!

by Anonymous 12 years ago

yes, it's proportionally less. but they still put way more money back into the economy than the bottom 50%

by Anonymous 12 years ago

The fall into the 35% tax bracket. They pay 35% of their income to taxes. However, there are ways around this. Like the donations and other lupholes. Also, the increase would be marginal and they could totally afford it.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Just giving the other side of the argument. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CEkQtwIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DqdLa6c3hN1w&ei=_LMcUMaXGIqm8QTJ-IHYDg&usg=AFQjCNFeRprgciXE-GaZrQYtAmnB_GslPg&sig2=nWv5DmKmF7GUBXgY30ayGA I hear their is a part two, in which they speak of the banking crises, the source of jobs, and the great depression.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

UGH c'mon man I don't do work anymore. I stopped caring about anything months ago.

by Anonymous 11 years ago

Nah, some of them know what they're talking about, but the media focuses on the idiot to belittle the movement.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

They don't have a leader or an actual concrete reason though. It's just a mishmosh of ideas.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Agreed, but there are several things to protest as well.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Occupy amirite is a success. Still not sure about Occupy Wallstreet. XD

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Lol chap.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

WE WANT...... SOMETHING!!!

by Anonymous 12 years ago

My problems with the Wall Street movement: 1. They think that just because they're less fortunate, that's everyone else's problem. Sure, it'd be nice if they were given help, but they have no right to demand it. 2. Those people who say "I have three jobs and you don't her me complaining!" are complaining more than anyone. 3. Any of the time they spend protesting COULD be spent working and earning money, instead of demanding undeserved handouts.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

The people there aren't looking for handouts... They are protesting the fact that more than 50% of the income in the US is being directed towards 1% of the population. Private companies (the banks) have been given money by the government because they were failing (going out of business). Is that how a capitalist system works? The government gets to decide who stays in business and who doesn't? The worst part was then how irresponsibly this money was handled. This is a main reason for why people are protesting.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Yes, the top 1% controls a lot of the wealth, but they also pay a lot of the taxes. Here's a look at individual tax rates and shares by income in 2007, the most recent data available from the Internal Revenue Service: The top 1 percent: Americans who earned an adjusted gross income of $410,096 or more accounted for 22.8 percent of all wages. But they paid 40.4 percent of total reported income taxes, an increase from 39.9 percent in 2006, according to the IRS. The top 5 percent: Americans who earned $160,041 or more accounted for 37.4 percent of all wages in 2007. But they paid 60.6 percent of the country's total reported income taxes, up from 60.1 percent a year earlier. The top 10 percent: Americans who earned at least $113,018 paid 71.2 percent of the nation's income taxes, up from 70.8 percent a year earlier. The bottom 50 percent: Americans who earned less than $32,879 paid 2.9 percent of the nation's income taxes, down from 3 percent a year earlier

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Who cares if they pay a lot of taxes? The money goes straight back to the government, where it came from.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Want to hear something funny? Some of the people taking part in protesting quit their job to go protest and I don't mean a pizza place job I mean slightly acceptable jobs.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Source?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Sorry, but I don't remember, I heard it on the news in class a week or so ago. If I could tell you where, I would.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

there are 5 people for ever ONE job!!! of course its not their fault! they cant magic themselves new jobs you know. I cant stand people who would just say 'they are lazy and should just go earn some money' do you think if your poor you want to be that way? you think its as easy as pie getting a job? for christs sake: its the goverments job to create jobs b/c the so called 'job creaters' certainly arnt making any.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Ok it is "creators". And I really want to see that five to one statistic.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

In a capitalist society like the one we're in, it is not the government's job to create jobs. The government cannot create non-governmental jobs. It's up to the corporations and other companies to create jobs for the people, and the government cannot force them to do so. It's how capitalism works.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

The problem is they are protesting so many things that they can't even keep them straight.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

It looks like our protests worked!

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I think someone answered my prayers. smirk

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I wonder who..

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I love how everyone is just suggesting "Get a job!" What JOBS are they talking about? There aren't any jobs to get. Companies keep laying off workers and downsizing. What are they supposed to do? Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur, so don't even suggest starting your own business.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

How about starting their own business? troll

by Anonymous 12 years ago

It annoys me so much when people say "Get a job!" My dad was laid off and he's been looking for a job for 6 months. People don't understand how hard it actually is.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Same. My dad was filling out two to three resumes a night and going to interviews once a week or so. He finally got a job, but it took six months of non-stop searching.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Same here. Both my brothers and my mom have been looking for a while. There's just nothing out there.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

In America for every 1 job available there are more than 4 unemployed people. It really isn't as simple as just 'get a job'.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

But how many of those four are qualified for that job? And jobs don't always provide adequate support for their families. It's all fine and dandy when you're just talking about numbers, but a lot of the situations are like Shun's Apple_Pie's and Idling_Rocket_Ship's.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Huh? I was saying that it isn't easy because there aren't enough jobs.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Ahhhhh Sorry. I read that as "is" instead of "isn't" I was wondering why you were disagreeing b/c we usually agree on things. wary

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Besides, you need money to become an entrepreneur in the first place. (Unless you're selling cheaply homemade stuff out of your house).

by Anonymous 12 years ago

http://ctrlv.in/44556

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Are clever puns still considered clever a second time around? This may seem off topic, but I am going somewhere with this.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

depends on how clever it is, or if the people you tell it to forgot.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Something happened to my comments, and now I have to make a new comment. Um... let's not occupy Wall Street and get on with our lives because we are in a recession, and drinking is bad for you, but not for that reason.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Your comments didn't get deleted. This is a new post.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Was the previous POTD deleted, or was it just revoked of its title?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I'm not sure. All I know is that I'm in they're out.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I'll be honest, I still don't know what this Occupy thing is about. My friend tried to explain it to me once, and he said that basically it's the working class getting mad at the few rich people out there but that doesn't sound right to me because that just makes them all sound like communists.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

You say communism like its a bad thing, which it's not. As I'm sure it's been said before, communism is a fantastic concept. But that's pretty much all it can be because obviously no one on this planet knows how to do that shit. That aside, the working class has all the right in the world to be mad. Some guy is a politician because his parents were politicians and their parents were politicians, so he's rich and can afford college. On the other hand you have a guy who's averagely smart and not great at sports. His parents have terrible credit so no student loan which means he doesn't go to college OR he works minimum wage until he can afford his own college. Then he gets out of college and becomes a teacher. Now he worked hard to get where he is. The politician did too but the teacher did a LOT more work but makes a quarter of the money. Is that fair?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

The idea about the teacher makes sense, but I do not agree with even the concept of communism. It isn't fair if a doctor makes as much as a cashier. It takes away ALL incentive to do well and try hard.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Yeah I know. I said the //concept// was great. A classless society is communism, correct? That is no class conflict which is exactly what's going on in wall street. I think that would be great. Everyone makes the same money. Regardless. Done. End of story. Of course a lot of things needed to go right for it to work which it could. Just not done by any human. And yes to you and I, the idea of communism is unfair. But if people were taught from birth that communism was good, they would believe it, right? Well the same thing applies to us. We've been taught its bad, so we automatically think terrible things when we hear communism.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

It's not just upbringing. You seem to believe it is fair. If you work harder than someone, you deserve the same amount of money as them? That's just illogical. It's a nice idea that seems good, but if you actually think about it, it's horribly oppressive. You can't choose what you're going to do, you can't start a business, you can't follow your dreams. Every single incentive that there is to work would be gone. Why would someone want to be a lawyer? They would have to work twice as hard as a lot of people. They would have to bust their ass day in and day out, and for what? They could make the exact same amount doing almost no work at all.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Its 100% upbringing. You can tell a child that blue is green and until he gets around his peers he will believe that blue is green. The same applies to whether or not communism is right. But if done on a large scale, he won't have anyone to tell him different. And no, I do not believe that communism is right, in action. Do I believe the concept is right? Yes. Oh and I agree with you. Some people don't deserve to make the same as a lawyer. (I was looking for percentages but couldn't find any since I'm on mobile and being lazy.) but some people do.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

But if all you know is communism, then you'd think it's good. You wouldn't realize that you are working harder than someone else. Communism is still only good in theory, but I'm just trying to make my point.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

How would you not realize that you work harder? Would they hide it from you? I still think the concept of it is completely unfair.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I just want to know what this is about, I pretty much stopped watching TV and listening to the radio back in the end of August. I've heard a bit about the protests but only have a vague idea about what they stand for. All this 99% stuff and whatnot. I have no clue what it means. So judging by the way you went off on a tangent about communism in reply to my comment, I'm assuming that they are indeed communists?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I think Communists is a bit strong of a word. Basically the long paragraph about the teacher and the politician is what its about.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Some of them are communists. Some of them have flat out said that they were socialists. They want free handouts from rich people because they're pissed at rich people because they're rich.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Aww jeez. socialism isnt about free handouts. anyway ideology aside: There are FIVE people for every ONE job: no job no money. I dont believe in a government that would hang those people out to dry when it is THEIR responsibility to get those jobs in the first place. but the are relying too much on these so called 'job creaters' its the wealthy that are getting the free handouts not the poor. Remember the bailout? so actually they are angry at the opposite. also a Lot of rich people dont need jobs. B/c if you own millions you earn money of your money. Its called capital gains.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

You just said that there are five people for every one job. That's 80% unemployment. We have 9%...

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Every one job available.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

There are five unemployed people for every one job available? Can I see a source?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

It's a bit hard because I'm on a mobile. But it comes from The Bureau of Labor Statistics. It's referenced in lots of economic and business articals as well as in wikipeadia under 'unemployment' if you want to look it up.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

If it's from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, I'll trust you. That's really reliable.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

for the unemplyed there is fivve for every one

by Anonymous 12 years ago

This post might have the least humor-related comments i've ever seen for a POTD. Nice to see that the amirite users can talk about serious issues too.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Sadly, it has a huge number of people who have no idea what the significance of the OWS movement is. At least there are a few people who can explain their reasons with something other than "I just don't get them" or "SOCIALISM! COMMUNISM! DOWN WITH THE REDS!". I thought we got over this after that ugly incident in 1956. The Occupy movement, even if it has no established goal, is indicative of social unrest. And there damn well should be social unrest for all the reasons mentioned above about the rich getting richer and the government preventing capitalism from doing its job. Don't get me wrong, America is still fucked and I'm leaving the country ASAP.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

The government is preventing capitalism from doing its job? How?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I don't know what you meant by the government keeping capitalism from doing it's job. I know they aren't communists, I was just replying to a comment about communism.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Why did they change the wording of this post... I liked it better the way it was before :(

by Anonymous 12 years ago

The first one was a repeat.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

We all know this one is perfect. You don't have to lie for yourself.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

*to

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Ok.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

The problem is that many (no, not all!) fail to understand basic economics. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGL-Ex1CD1c

by Anonymous 12 years ago

There are so many things wrong with what both sides said. I'm ashamed I saw that.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Oh, how so?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

The man seems to have no grip on history and the protesters he chose seem to have no understanding of what they are saying/want.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

How exactly does he have no grip of history? Examples? If someone has no grip of history, it's the protesters.They want socialism (not all of them, but a lot of them) but look at what happened in the Soviet Union, Cuba, North Korea... millions died and they still want socialism? I thought it was pretty courageous of him to go out there and educate people (and himself about their concerns!) while people yelled at him and insulted him, and he kept the conversation civil, and more importantly, logical.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Alright. I don't like socialism, but that was communism. He said that FDR caused the great depression. He was the one that actually started to help. He said that the government should keep it's hands off and we tried that with Laissez-Faire capitalism. That made wages horrible and working conditions horrible. He was saying that it's too expensive to hire workers and that's why peole outsourced. The people that work for those companies make almost no money at all and it would never satisfy the needs to maintain the average quality of life in America.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

1. That was NOT Communism. They were "trying" to achieve Communism, true Communism has never existed, and never will. It's impossible. What they had was a very totalitarian form of socialism. And all forms of socialism inevitably become totalitarian sooner or later. 2. Yes, they taught me that in high school too. Hoover was the non-interventionist who let the economy down, FDR was the hero who tirelessly tried new things to boost the American economy. The truth is that by the end of his term, Hoover had increased government spending by 50% in order to try to help get the economy back on track. However, he was very unpopular, so no one gives him credit for that. He didn't spend as much as FDR did, and so people write him off as laissez-faire, when in fact, he wasn't. FDR continued spending, but that never actually brought us out of the Depression! What brought us out were the drastic cuts in spending after WW2, and that's when the economy started moving again. For some reason, schools fail to explain that part. Keynesian economics don't work. They didn't work for FDR, they're not working for the current administration, as you probably have noticed.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

The drastic cuts in spending after ww2? The economy got back on his feet during ww2.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

DUDE KEEP UP! It's about... uh...just a sec lemme google it...OOH Wikipedia! *an hour later* did you know that [insert random untrue crap here]??? Ohh never mind someone just edited the page. Oh yeah what was it you were asking about?

by Anonymous 12 years ago