5 ms·

I find this comment to be more or less true. Where I work we cannot find enough qualified people to hire, and we are hiring as fast as we can. These are very

I find this comment to be more or less true. Where I work we cannot find enough qualified people to hire, and we are hiring as fast as we can. These are very highly paying jobs. Also, to hell with occupy wall-street. Banks may not be looking out for 'the little guy', but since when are we surprised by that? What do these protestors want exactly? For bigwigs to go to jail for causing all their personal problems? I can't help but think that these same people weren't exactly great success stories before the financial meltdown, and would be barely scraping by if things were great. To be supplied with an income to reward them for years spent putting no effort into gaining useful skills? Bah, I say let them eat cake. If they can't be bothered to learn how to do anything that is worth paying them to do (despite years of free educational opportunities, heavily subsidized community colleges, etc), and they can't be bothered to take their future into their own hands and start a business, then I simply cannot be bothered with them.

forensic 15y ago
Does your opinion apply to children born into poverty? Kids whose parents can't afford healthy food for them so their brains don't develop? Kids who are unable to get educated because their schools are corrupt and 90% of the high school students graduate illiterate? People who were abused as kids and so have mental illnesses and live on the street because they can't hold a job? People who had their health insurance scam them and had to go $100,000 into debt to pay doctors? Kids who were brainwashed from birth by parents, teachers, media that they no matter what the expense they must go to university, and now find themselves 22 years old and $100,000 in debt with nothing to show for it? You live in an extremely exploitative society where the powerful coast while the vulnerable drown. The majority of the sufferers are people who were born into their situation. They are chronically ill from lack of access to healthcare and quality food. They are mentally ill from being abused and discarded and having nowhere to turn. They are in financial ruin by following the mainstream, standard advice regarding mortgages, investing, and education. If you were King of America, what would you do with all the destitute? You're right - there were already tons of miserable pre-2008. I just want to know what your plan for the unwashed, stupid, suffering masses is. Because it sounds like you're saying we should just let them wallow in their misery and watch as more cities crumble like Detroit. When you tell mentally ill homeless addicts to "use their bootstraps" you're really just advocating for the growth of the vast American ghettos that are already the shame of the nation.
- Jach 15y ago
  I voted the comment up not because I agree with the view, but because I think it's an interesting blurry-mirror into society at large (not necessarily the "1%"). Similar to Tim Minchin's "Fuck the Poor" song. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcdtVD8X1-A http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcdtVD8X1-A ) People might claim to care about mentally ill homeless addicts and strongly disagree with the comment, but their behavior suggests otherwise. How much effort do people spend lobbying the government for a structural change that could help the mentally ill homeless addicts? How much money do people donate to them? How many of their actions directly benefit mentally ill homeless addicts? People care about the poor a lot less than they profess; I don't think that means they should necessarily stop professing (though it is worth an examination to see if what they are professing is the best thing to be professing), but instead to work a bit harder on making their professed beliefs better match their behaviors by changing their behaviors.
  - forensic 15y ago
    How many people can afford to lobby the government? By talking to people I am reaching out trying to make structural change. There is no poverty in Sweden. America does not need to be such a heartless country. I've dedicated my entire career to helping people who are wallowing in misery and are simply unable to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. But it's an extremely hard job because the nature of the economic system is that the most valuable services such as healthcare, education, psychological treatment, healthy food, and child card are NOT available for the people who are desperate for them. You have any idea how many mentally ill people people, after much misery, have told me they simply cannot afford the treatment they need and they simply go without? If you saw these cases like I have you would have nightmares. The easiest way to make money is to sell to the already rich who don't really need your services. The easiest way to be poor is to spend your time helping the miserable ungrateful masses who have nothing to give back. For my own sake I wish I could just forget about the miserable poor because my life would be a lot easier. But the demands of conscience make it impossible for me to slide into the comfortable cognitive dissonance of silicon valley. You're implying that I'm all talk, but I'm not. But talk does go a long way. Right now silicon valley elites have enough money, talent, and resources to reshape society into either a technocratic heartless corporate grinder, or into an egalitarian higg tech civil society that recognizes the inherent worth of all people ala Sweden. I left the computer field years ago to enter the mental health field. From my new perspective, of being in contact with the underclass, I am continually horrified at the heartless elitism displayed by computer people who I used to consider my brothers and sisters in creating a better world. Political change isn't a fucking mystery. You tell your politicians to take care of the poor, you tell them to fix crony capitalism, you tell them to stop their imperial wars of aggression, and if they accept bribes you tell everyone you know how corrupt they are. You build a positive vision of a society without ghettos. You hold up examples like Sweden - a social structure that mos Americans would prefer if they just looked into it.
wnight 15y ago
I'm earning a very comfortable income and I want the people who've exploited our lax and corrupt laws to go to jail for doing so, along with the politicians involved in passing those laws and rubber-stamping their behavior. OWS isn't about scruffy street kids - they're there too though, because fighting an inefficient, corrupt, and warmongering system is something almost anyone can get behind.

forensic 15y ago

Does your opinion apply to children born into poverty? Kids whose parents can't afford healthy food for them so their brains don't develop? Kids who are unable to get educated because their schools are corrupt and 90% of the high school students graduate illiterate? People who were abused as kids and so have mental illnesses and live on the street because they can't hold a job? People who had their health insurance scam them and had to go $100,000 into debt to pay doctors? Kids who were brainwashed from birth by parents, teachers, media that they no matter what the expense they must go to university, and now find themselves 22 years old and $100,000 in debt with nothing to show for it? You live in an extremely exploitative society where the powerful coast while the vulnerable drown. The majority of the sufferers are people who were born into their situation. They are chronically ill from lack of access to healthcare and quality food. They are mentally ill from being abused and discarded and having nowhere to turn. They are in financial ruin by following the mainstream, standard advice regarding mortgages, investing, and education. If you were King of America, what would you do with all the destitute? You're right - there were already tons of miserable pre-2008. I just want to know what your plan for the unwashed, stupid, suffering masses is. Because it sounds like you're saying we should just let them wallow in their misery and watch as more cities crumble like Detroit. When you tell mentally ill homeless addicts to "use their bootstraps" you're really just advocating for the growth of the vast American ghettos that are already the shame of the nation.

Jach 15y ago
I voted the comment up not because I agree with the view, but because I think it's an interesting blurry-mirror into society at large (not necessarily the "1%"). Similar to Tim Minchin's "Fuck the Poor" song. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcdtVD8X1-A http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcdtVD8X1-A ) People might claim to care about mentally ill homeless addicts and strongly disagree with the comment, but their behavior suggests otherwise. How much effort do people spend lobbying the government for a structural change that could help the mentally ill homeless addicts? How much money do people donate to them? How many of their actions directly benefit mentally ill homeless addicts? People care about the poor a lot less than they profess; I don't think that means they should necessarily stop professing (though it is worth an examination to see if what they are professing is the best thing to be professing), but instead to work a bit harder on making their professed beliefs better match their behaviors by changing their behaviors.
- forensic 15y ago
  How many people can afford to lobby the government? By talking to people I am reaching out trying to make structural change. There is no poverty in Sweden. America does not need to be such a heartless country. I've dedicated my entire career to helping people who are wallowing in misery and are simply unable to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. But it's an extremely hard job because the nature of the economic system is that the most valuable services such as healthcare, education, psychological treatment, healthy food, and child card are NOT available for the people who are desperate for them. You have any idea how many mentally ill people people, after much misery, have told me they simply cannot afford the treatment they need and they simply go without? If you saw these cases like I have you would have nightmares. The easiest way to make money is to sell to the already rich who don't really need your services. The easiest way to be poor is to spend your time helping the miserable ungrateful masses who have nothing to give back. For my own sake I wish I could just forget about the miserable poor because my life would be a lot easier. But the demands of conscience make it impossible for me to slide into the comfortable cognitive dissonance of silicon valley. You're implying that I'm all talk, but I'm not. But talk does go a long way. Right now silicon valley elites have enough money, talent, and resources to reshape society into either a technocratic heartless corporate grinder, or into an egalitarian higg tech civil society that recognizes the inherent worth of all people ala Sweden. I left the computer field years ago to enter the mental health field. From my new perspective, of being in contact with the underclass, I am continually horrified at the heartless elitism displayed by computer people who I used to consider my brothers and sisters in creating a better world. Political change isn't a fucking mystery. You tell your politicians to take care of the poor, you tell them to fix crony capitalism, you tell them to stop their imperial wars of aggression, and if they accept bribes you tell everyone you know how corrupt they are. You build a positive vision of a society without ghettos. You hold up examples like Sweden - a social structure that mos Americans would prefer if they just looked into it.

wnight 15y ago

I'm earning a very comfortable income and I want the people who've exploited our lax and corrupt laws to go to jail for doing so, along with the politicians involved in passing those laws and rubber-stamping their behavior. OWS isn't about scruffy street kids - they're there too though, because fighting an inefficient, corrupt, and warmongering system is something almost anyone can get behind.