oh, and quit fucking with those people that bust their asses working for "the money machine" what gives you the mother fucking right...

to keep them from getting into their job?

If you are asked to leave someplace, like the privately owned property you are fucking up during your protest, then DO SO

if you are asked to leave the street, or the sidewalk, or any other place that you are causing traffic and safety problems with your protest

DO SO

if not, then you bloody well deserve to be kicked to sleep

Oh yeah, when people protest correctly, they usually have some sort of an agenda, maybe even some idea of HOW to change things

try working on that

Oh, and if I were one of the cops that you so "peacefully" antagonized or decide to throw a brick or what not at because "that shit's ok"

I would crush your skull under my goddamned boot heel

I have such mixed feelings about the Occupy movement.. some of them are doing things horribly wrong like you state, but some of the ideas

I agree with, but I just keep my mouth shut. Learn to peacably assemble and people wont fuck with you!

Like a bunch of rebels without an actual agenda.

And I don't hate the 1%. I hate the fact that, there's just about nothing else but them and the poor anymore.

I don't expect a handout, I EXPECT every person in the country (legally) to at least have a chance to make it...

And a roof over their head and food on their table.

The top 10% (yes I said 10, not 1) do pay less percentage wise in taxes than the other 90%, and that isn't fair, right, or acceptable.

They whine and complain about the economy then jack the price of gas and food and utilities, and wonder why nobody's doing/buying anything.

HOWEVER, most of the protesters are ill-informed and acting inappropriately in their protests...they are more of a mob in a lot of cities.

points to what george said Why are my husband and I paying 25% of our income in taxes (thereabouts these days) while the top 10 & 1 aren't

Because we're barely surviving out here! Do these Government people even have a CLUE what's going on in the real world?

On the other hand, having seen real, true, genuine poverty. The bone crushing sort with people starving to death and literally no way out,

I have two reasons for believing how I do. If Warren Buffet (who just purchased 10.1 Billion in IBM stock) thinks it is unfair that he pays

more percentage wise in taxes than his own secretary, then we should listen. The other is when is the last time Democrats wanted to raise

taxes and Republicans didn't.

and no aid and no government assistance of even a vague sort, I can't help but feel less sympathetic toward the movement.

Starry Eyed: I never thought I'd see THIS country spiraling toward such a point, but it's becoming a sick reality.

Protests turn into mobs turn into revolutions. I'm not sure this is going to end well.

for anyone.

Don't worry George, they are my fellow liberals. the most we do is make a lot of noise and then lose momentum and putter out.

There's a lot going on. It's just a question of which mess is going to trigger an internal war first.

The huge one right now is this whole internet censorship bill.

RIGHT? but I don't think it's going to happen this time. I think this isn't just getting written in the history books in a sidenote.

If they organized maybe, but mostly they are a bunch of over-privilaged students attempting to act like they aren't the 1%

I firmly believe this will have "The Great" attached to the title of it when people look back at it in history books.

Who the hell can afford to take weeks and weeks and weeks off work. Or waste all that tuition money they are going into debt over?

The Second Great Depression.

You know why I haven't been to the protest? Because i'm not about to fail a fucking class I spent tuition on.

people without jobs are out there too though. Literally living there. It's that way here in Athens, anyway.

He needs to work in porn cause he's got me all fluffed up now.

two valuable lessons:
1) Live within your means
2) Stop fucking the people

I think #1 is the biggest one.

the top 1% own @ 42% of the wealth in this country. The top 10% own double that, leaving about 15% for the other 90% of us.

That makes it hard for everyone to live within their means.

That's easy to say. But when they cut my hours, raise taxes, raise food, raise insurance, raise utilities, and I'm told I need to cut back

I agree with those statements, but I also spent 3 years trying to find a job and got turned down at Wal-Mart because of hiring freezes.

on things to make it work, I get all that taken from me and then I'm asked to sacrifice MORE to fix it??

I'm sorry but I don't take kindly to that.

Excuse me for wanting to get by on more than 30 bucks a week just to feed my family.

And I'm one of the lucky ones. A lot of people don't even have that right now.

Nope, I'm done with this thread, before I sink myself into a depression that I'm not coming out of.

Things I've read: apparently the GDP is HIGHER now than before the Crash, higher ups aren't releasing the money, and banks aren't

loans.... just sitting on money waiting for interest rates to rise

RainbowFartsandGlitterBu...: I do try

I buy alot of things I don't need, but I also am saving and I pay things off as quickly as possible.

The top 1% should still pay equal percentage shares in taxes? 1.2 trillion instead of 840 billion is a LOT of money toward us debt each YEAR

When i went back to school I saved for several years, and paid tuition in cash, and only borrowed room and board which left a managble loan

indeed they can't.

exactly!

This makes me tired.

I'm pretty sure Curt's original posting stemmed less form the issue and more from the lack of respect and behavior of the protesters.

No one can deny there have been some serious jackasses out there....but you also can't deny that the news likes to show the sensational.

mob rule has a tendency to take over in those cases too.

Thankfully someone in history was brave enough to stand up and protest so that you have the freedom to have this rant.

I'm tired of some 20 something who never had a job with a master's degree telling me I need to pay his bills.

I put myself through college. I joined the Army to help with tuition. I worked a series of shit jobs to pay off my bills.

I have worked like a dog to help support my family, and now that I have something I get someone telling me I need to pay more taxes.

I worked in a job where I saw all those welfare folks driving better cars than me, eating better than me, living in a house for 50 bucks

on federally subsidized rent.

No system is perfect. You want to live in a socialist country? Delta is ready when you are.

I like my representative republic, in spite of the flaws. Some of us are working to make things better...

Nope

i like how this started with anger and ended with icecream

...Umm. Me too OriOn, but I also liked the different views brought to the table. It just goes to show that even though we see a problem

we all view it differently and we all express those view...very uniquely.

Anyone more right or more wrong then the other person? I..am not sure as it's really hard to tell someone how they feel is wrong, but

oh the discussion was fantastic... just seeing icecream brought up made me giggle

it is still nice to get to learn a bit more about my interweb social circle.

Indeed, and thanks to the power of suggestion, I now want Icecream.

Yeah, my original post had more to do with the lack of respect for the people that the movement is "fighting" for.

Rowan, the people that stood up for my right to rant actually had a plan to begin with. I have not seen one "occupy" protestor mention

any sort of plan for change. No sort of proposed bill or referendum, they just bitch about the money machine and the fat cats

I would heartily respect them if just ONE would offer any sort of intelligent advice on the matter

then again, you can blame the media for that I reckon, only showing the idiots...

you cant really blame the media for showing what brings in ratings. blame the idiots that only want to watch other idiots.

I don't get it. When did it become a requirement that one must have an idea how to solve a problem before one may protest about the problem?

This smacks of the whole "love it or leave it" and "if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem" attitude....

Personally, I don't think that the "Occupy Wherever" groups are achieving much and they're certainly not helping when they commit crimes...

...and cause issues for those not involved. That's a looooong way from denying their right to assemble.

And I do take issue with the idea that "the 1%" did anything like "busting their asses" to get their money....

A large percentage of that one percent most likely inherited it from their parents and grandeparents who busted their asses to get it.

I always think what if all the people occupying were devoted to a better cause like putting a stop to children being abducted to become

child soldiers or helping communities get clean and sustainable water so that there aren't so many people dying of disease.

Wouldn't the world be a better place if they put just half the effort they put into occupy into something bigger than themselves?

because, let's face it, most of the people protesting are part of the entitled generation and that's kind of selfish.

Preach Lia...

I respectfully disagree. Just b/c people are agitating on economic issues doesn't mean they don't care about social justice issues elsewhere

There are organizations and people that have been working on security issues here and across the globe. That sort of work is of the good.

But let's think of Maslov's hierarchy of needs. Do I care about child soldiers? Yes. Do I want to donate to Keva and Heifer Intl? Yes.

But I can't afford to do much if I can just barely hold onto my apartment & pay my bills, & can't afford to put my mother in a nursing home.

Why is it selfish to ask Wall St. to stop hoarding credit and for the govt to help people get the jobs they need to thrive?

Spot on Magz.

I think occupy is a huge cop-out. It's great to demand companies and the government to take more responsibility, but protesting isn't going

to get the individuals jobs.

The large majority of these people aren't finding jobs because they're not trying hard enough and taking the responsibility to do the very

Aren't trying hard enough? How does someone trying hard enough look?

They do everything they can and don't quit.

They go above and beyond what's required.

They pursue their own interests and if they can't find something, they start something.

They find a passion.

They know that they're not entitled to a job just because they went to college or did a mediocre job at their previous employment.

How you do you know that the majority of protesters don't do that? That the millions of people who are currently jobless haven't done that?

Yes, I think that if they haven't found something, then they need to change their approach.

If the millions of protestors really wanted a job, they wouldn't be out there protesting, they'd be making it happen.

Making it happen.

I am stopping here, because as someone who's been looking for FT work for close to 3 years, I'm starting to take this personally. Bless you.

Lia, I think it is amazing how you know the personal situations of all the people involved. Someone should hire you for that power.

That's right, I'm a mind reader.

I don't mean to offend Magdalena, out of all my friends that have graduated, only two of us have gotten jobs six months out of school.

But I don't think that standing out in Freedom Plaza protesting is the way to get a job.

That's why I think that everyone should find something they really love and make a career out of it, even if it's tough work.

Being in the tech industry has taught me that everyone is talented at something and we all have ideas that we can work together on.

And we can all start now. I was at startup weekend here in DC and it was amazing to see all the ideas that were pitched and the work that

came out of one weekend.

Who knows what will come out of these apps, but maybe one of them will be useful and be worth a lot of money. It's just an example of

taking things into your own hands and doing something you love even if someone's not paying you at first.

I don't think it's a luxury at all. It just takes dedication to a craft.

According to Gallup, seventy-one percent of American workers are "not engaged" or "actively disengaged" in their work.

I think we should be protesting THAT

Yes, if it's your dream, then you don't stop.

www.gallup.com/poll/1503...

no, emotionally disengaged. As in, to them, it's just a job that pays the bills.

I would be if it promised a better career for me in the future.

Or if it was a stepping stone to my dream.

What I'm trying to say is that hopes, and ambition and the drive to pursue your dreams DO create dream jobs, you just have to be dedicated.

I don't think the government can create these kinds of jobs.

Lia, I appreciate your idealism, but I also find it a bit naive. And, ironically, likely coming from a place of privilege. You may not be

wealthy, but you clearly haven't had life beat that kind of thinking out of you yet, like so many have. I sincerely hope you never do.

Yes, I find it amazing that you know my personal situation.

That might help.

I'm sure there's a ton of people out there who are working more hours than they want just because their companies don't want to hire more

Yes, that might actually be a useful way to get the government involved!

A lot of the people I know with ft jobs are already working long hours and weekends and don't want to