OccupyWallStreet

If each generation has its call to arms, I like that this one chose to protest inequality. I didn't think this at first. I criticized their lack of specific issues. And I lamented that while they were bemoaning big business, voters were seating big business:

Republican Wins Democratic New York House Seat, Washington Post, Sept 14

"Turner, who ran as a staunch conservative embracing the tea party, will be the first House Republican representing this portion of Queens since the 1920s — a striking departure from its Democratic traditions. This is the district that sent the late Geraldine Ferraro, the Democratic Party’s 1984 vice presidential nominee, to Congress, as well as Sen. Charles E. Schumer, one of the party most consistent liberal voices.
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This is a special election that is purely reflective of who showed up to the polls."

So it was nice to read Krugman's take on the protests it this morning:

Confronting the Malefactors, Paul Krugman, Oct 6

"What can we say about the protests? First things first: The protesters’ indictment of Wall Street as a destructive force, economically and politically, is completely right.
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A weary cynicism, a belief that justice will never get served, has taken over much of our political debate — and, yes, I myself have sometimes succumbed. In the process, it has been easy to forget just how outrageous the story of our economic woes really is.
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If the protests goad some politicians into doing what they should have been doing all along, Occupy Wall Street will have been a smashing success."

Note that he gets right back to how these protests influence government.

And Dennis Kucinich's take:

"To the young men and women who are braving the overreaction of local authorities to raise their voices against the corruption and manipulation of our nation that emanates from Wall Street: I say to you that your presence is making a difference. You are exercising the right every American holds most dear, the right of freedom of expression, and with that expression you are finally getting the attention of the nation.

Wall Street banks got billion dollar bailouts but the American people get austerity. Fourteen million Americans are out of work. 50 million people don’t have health insurance and a million people a year lose their homes to foreclosure. Our policies take the wealth of the nation and accelerate it into the hands of the few."

Let me add this bit by Krugman from a few weeks ago:

"According to new estimates by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, one-fourth of those with incomes of more than $1 million a year pay income and payroll tax of 12.6 percent of their income or less, putting their tax burden below that of many in the middle class."

12.6% ... Someone earning $35,000 here pays close to 30%.

Politicians are in the pocket of big business because big business knows that's how they get what they want. They corral the pro-business vote. I trust the protesters realize this - that government is a reflection of how people vote, or don't.
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