Jumpin said:
HappySqurriel said:
Jumpin said:
Funny thing is a lot of those protesters probably still maintain business with banks and work for corporations. If you Americans want to successfully protest:
1. Cancel your bank accounts
2. Sell your common stocks, withdraw RRSPs, and all other investments.
3. Don't work for anyone with links to a corporation
4. File for bankruptcy if you have debt.
If millions of people did this, THEN the corporations in the US would be downright terrified.
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That is about the worst idea I have ever heard ... While transferring your bank account to a credit union or a small bank can be an effective protest against a large bank, the rest of your suggestions are moronic.
Corporatism is a problem where gigantic corporations buy influence from politicians to gain favour with a government which has so much power that its decisions can make these corporations billions of dollars. The core problem is the government has so much power and leeway to make decisions which favour a corporation (or industry) at the expense of the general public. With that said, you’re not even attempting to target corporations that have behaved poorly and bought influence, and your untargeted and poorly thought out action will likely result in far more honourable and well run businesses struggling than large corporations; and your actions will likely have significant negative effects on countless individuals, in particular young people looking for jobs (as large corporations shift their workforce to countries where people actually want to work) and the elderly (who’s fixed income is heavily dependant on the investments you destroyed).
Rather than doing this, why don't you do something completely radical and research which companies are behaving well and which are behaving poorly and publish this information in an attept to sway people with a similar worldview to support the good companies? If you convince enough people to buy these products and services, and to invest in these stocks, you will have created an incentive for companies to act in the way you want them to ...
If you combine that with a massive reduction in the power of the government, and force the government to treat all corporations under the same rules (with no special treatment for any corporation or industry) you would likely see a massive change in how business is done.
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Considering governments are elected democratically in the US, and these protests are directed at wall street, I am not sure how your anti-government post is relevent in effectively arguing anything.
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That's the problem. Why are the protests directed at Wall Street for taking money and favors rather than at D.C. for giving it to them to begin with? To the extent that they are not merely a demonstration of inchoate rage by the flakier elements in American society, the OWS movement would seem to be a protest against corporatism. But since money always finds power, as long as the government retains the power to pick winners and losers, there will always be corporatism. OWS is generally in favor of a larger and even more powerful government, but they assume that it somehow won't be even more corrupt than the present one because they labor under the misguided belief that you can legislate away corruption. In reality, ethical consumerism and a higher wall of separation between government and business would be much more effective in attaining their purported goals.
