I wouldn't go that far Gordon. OWS got student loan waivers, and you're in Brazil anyway, aren't you? How's that work there as far as the Latin American pattern of social stratification per kidnappings and drug gangs and such? How are the favelas? You do have a small subset of course that is ... very charming, along the lines that the Most Interesting Man in the World would appreciate, but that's not leaving a lot for others. Lula was about right, although he needs to watch out that his successor doesn't buy too many weapons from the Russians, as that won't go over very well; French weapons are nice, as are Swedish weapons. Although as to success, you are correct, that on average, those who work hard, and are smart, and actually taller and good looking, and importantly too, have good mental health, do better, on average, especially if their families have money to back them, if that can work out poorly too. There are plenty of trust fund heroin addicts, if most don't work out that way. No guarantees in life, just averages that play out a certain way with a full expression of property rights. You are right that one needs to not tread on property rights lightly, ever, or very much, but, from the point of view of national cohesion, you do want to make people feel like they're on the same team, if only to be able to generate a cohesive fighting force.
Are you sad there was no whiff of grapeshot? LOL. There's always a Niedermeyer waiting to do that. "Can I shoot the scum sir? I can disperse the scum with one C-130 Spectre Gunship run.
But the education waiver could be a good thing, if, we need to have better vocational education too, like the Germans do. I like German style thinking to a point, right up to the whiff of grapeshot, and the gas, unless you really need the grapeshot. We didn't need the grapeshot in this case with OWS, Gordo, nor do we need the gas either, ever.
OWS won a very, very small victory on student loans, which was justifiable because the government's loan guarantees created what amounted to an asset price bubble in colleges pricing at the expense of student's future earnings. Clearly America needs to have more of its best and brightest build things, more engineers, and less financiers, more mechanics, and less mortgage brokers etc. Less lawyers, more R&D scientists, less doctors, more inventors. That's what's happening anyway, and that's because we still have plenty of capitalism here, just not the grapeshot or gas.

“Its core is born of insecurity and jealousy of those who are smart enough to figure out how to live rather than trash the American Dream. It will fall not of its own weight, but rather by the utter lack of it.”



Gordon…you are usually better than this.

I’m sure there is more than enough “insecurity and jealousy” to go around, but the core of this group seems to have its genesis elsewhere. There are smart, reasonable, industrious people intimately involved who simply cannot find work these days…and they have finally been able to focus on a problem that has been hidden to them while their situations were other than they are today.

The massive and unnecessary inequality of wealth and income finally has become clear…and they now see the need to protest.

If the “haves” were only “those who are smart enough to figure out how to live”…things would be much different than they are today. The street smart people would own the greater share of the whole…and many of the people who have the majority of it now would be dead or in the gutter.

“The people who have the majority of it now” have it only because of laws aimed at keeping the more powerful from taking advantage of their power. The power of “the people who have the majority of it now” is a false power—one born of artificially limiting the power of the street smart and physically superior.

Take my word for it, Gordon, the last thing the “haves” want is for the survival of the fittest…especially if “the fittest” allowed for the strongest to take what it wants for its own.

" Let them fill the streets with crime and filth, carry illiterate signs, and generally vent. That's what free speech (if not free alternative housing) is all about. But please, let's not endow this ideologically impoverished and unfocused movement with any intellectual airs. Its core is born of insecurity and jealousy of those who are smart enough to figure out how to live rather than trash the American Dream. It will fall not of its own weight, but rather by the utter lack of it."

This isn't what is happening.
This is what the mainstream media would like you to think, that it is dirty losers without intelligence, people who wouldn't do well with "the American Dream" regardless of the economy.

How uninformed and superior you sound, have you personally witnessed any of these protests?

It ain't easy being Gordo on OS, in his defense. This is like Pravda here.

One wonders about the intellect of those who suggest that a person who dispenses an opinion on the OWS protests can be neither credible nor correct unless the opinion maker has some firsthand knowledge of such actions. Such an intellect would claim, of course, that celibate priests would be unqualified to render marital advice to their Catholic parishioners and that, by logical extension, president Obama would be unqualified to hold the office to which he has been elected because he has no prior governmental executive experience.

Presented with the facts, so far uncontested, that many OWS protestors indulge in their activities during the workday and that many also camp overnight, Mr. Osmond wonders, as do I, how they find this kind of time if they are employed, or are seriously looking for work, or are studying sufficiently at a school.

Even I might venture to render an opinion regarding why these protestors might not be gainfully employed if this is the way in which they spend their time. However, I haven’t seen, much less participated, in one of these protests either, even though I am retired and have plenty of time to do so, if I chose.

An intellect capable of rocket science is not required to understand the nature and bases for most of the OWS complaints with which I have become familiar. As Mr. Osmond correctly observes, these complaints often center on demands for more governmental benefits for the 99% funded by forced governmental takings from the 1%. Those labeling themselves “smart” have approved this message, implying that those who do not are thereby “stupid”.

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!"
--upton sinclair

"One withstands the invasion of armies; one does not withstand the invasion of ideas."
--victor hugo


occupy party reaches critical mass/seismic effect--now what?

"Having more goodies than others is, not always but more often than not, a correlative of having more talent, energy, and ambition than others."

In other words, survival of the fittest.

If only there were a way to weed out the rest - the old, the dull, the weak, the infirmed, the weary, the less-than-gifted - and round them up and send them someplace like, oh, I don't know, some kind of a camp-like location. One surrounded by fences topped with razor wire, armed guards, snarling dogs and Klieg lights. And find a solution for them, a final solution if you will, so the rest of us can prosper and thrive in blessed peace.

Heil Gordon!

Glad you wrote this. I checked the cover today and saw the Jimmy Zuma article. It was good for a laugh.

"This is what the mainstream media would like you to think. . . "

If this is how you read the mainstream media reaction to the protests, no wonder your reading of them is so far off, Just "thinking."

Thanks, UC, McG, and DR for your support, or at least sympathy. We Heilees need all the comfort we can get.

I have been following the Occupy invasion from my perch here in the North Pole. I have recieved first hand accounts from family and friends in the states. I have recieved a call from a friend in the former Soviet Union, she thinks these people are insane.

It's starting to look like a refugee camp in some areas. Mob mentality is taking over. They have no agenda other than drumming and chanting they want other people's money.

In NYC, the protesters have been obnoxious with their drumming
and chanting at all hours of the night. It is very unsanitary.Lots of unsavory public urination. There have been sexual assaults. Workers are being harassed on their way to their jobs.

In Rhode Island..the homeless and the drug addicts and sex offenders are hanging out with the protestors...most are college students (who are going to school on scholarships and loans from those nasty capitalists). Ally informs me they are now asking companies to donate dumpsters and porta potties. That's so ironic, they protest corporations, but ask for donations from them.

In Oakland, a friend who does not wished to be named, was unable to earn her days pay because her place of business closed down for fear of riots. Look what happened, riots. Yes the one percent will hand over their money because idiots are vandalizing stores and banks. Why is it that mobs always destroy their neighbourhoods?

These froot loops have no idea that what they are chanting for is communist government. That is what it is called when the government takes over people money and property and disperses it. What they don't realize is it comes from the working people and goes to the party officials. This great equalizer the protesters are chanting for makes everyone equal....equally poor.

These "Occupiers" need to grow up, take a bath, and go look for a job or go back to school. America, the one I immigrated to, was the land of opportunity. Now it's in a mess, everyone wants something for nothing. Free HealthCare, more welfare, free education...but no one wants to pay the taxes for these "freebies"

I live in a social/democratic country with free market trading. Taxes are a big thing here...it's how all the programs are funded. The Occupiers do not want to work or pay taxes to support these programs, they want them given to them. They feel "entitled" to them. Here if you refuse to work, you lose benefits.

Without the 1% building companies and creating jobs there is no economy. 49% of Americans do not pay taxes....they get tax refunds, child credits, earned income credits, property tax credits.
So who are these 99% people? There is no 99%, it's a farce.
The Occupiers also want student loan forgiveness....there already is loan forgiveness for people who go into public service careers. Im so sorry you cannot get a job because you majoured in underwater basketweaving, or sanskrit, you chose a stupid useless majour, why should you get your debt cleared ?? It's your fault you ran up a loan for a non existant job market!

"Any government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take it all away." Thomas Jefferson.

Comrad Obama let them down, he delivered debt for "change" instead of the Marxist "utopia" they all dream about. Maybe the Occupiers should move to North Korea or China, or perhaps the Middle East, they would fit right in with their chanting and fire starting.

What ever happened to Manifest Destiny and personal responsibility. How about making your own way in the world.
No one owes you anything. If you want to improve your lot in life, put down the signs and get to work, school, vocational training.
You Occupiers live in a free country for God's sake, cherish that freedom. Show it some respect by acting like civilized people. Use that freedom to make a life for yourself, not a mess of your city!

Thanks very much, Poppi, for your astute comment.

It's too good not to get a broader distribution (my readership in these parts is scant, which bothers me not at all). I'd suggest you add your fine comment to the "mainstream" OS threads. At the moment, it seems as if every other article is focused on the "occupy" happenings. Strange what champions the leftists around here choose to promote their agenda.

Thanks for dropping by. By the way, what did you think of my book? It received a rave review on www.bookpleasures.com

Cheers!

I loved the book! I will look up that review and then I'm off to share my wit and wisdom with the other "Occupy" posts

Thanks for the kind words about the book.

Delighted that you're going to share your erudition on other posts. They will benefit, I know.

There you are; wondered where you went.