[detbuch]

Originally Posted by spence

For banks to take HUGE risks, fail miserably, get hundreds of BILLIONS in taxpayer bailouts, then recover and offer millions in bonuses to some while tens of thousands are being laid off.

I thought you were for the bailout? Some disaster was supposed to happen without it? Is it the HUGE risks and the miserable failure that you object to? Then why bail them out? Why reward the miserable failure? Do the bonuses put tens of thousands out of work? The protesters not only don't like the banks, or the bailouts that you approve of, but they also don't like capitalism. They want to eliminate capitalism. To them, apparently, the essence of capitalism is the creation of a 1% which sucks the life out of the 99% simply because that is their goal. Capitalism isn't about private property ownership, private investment to promote private business, a symbiotic financial relationship with free market enterprise for them-- it is the destruction of all that. I don't think they have a clear concept of what the word means. People use "capitalism" to mean all sorts of things, good or bad. Like most "systems," it depends on who use them and to what ends that create good or bad outcomes. Capitalism, for the most part, has facilitated some of the greatest economic good. Some "miserable failures" have resulted from its misuse. I don't know, nor do I suspect many of the prostesters know, what economic/financial method they want to replace capitalism. It sounds like they want more government control--some form of socialism.

This is...the American Dream.

I can't imagine why anyone would protest the American Dream.

-spence

Wha??? How did the so-called "American Dream" get involved with all this mess? What the heck IS the American Dream? What is your idea of the American Dream? Do the protesters have the same vision of an American Dream that you do?