- Jun 6, 2007
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The "Occupy" movement is a real disappointment because it isn't a positive movement the participants aren't offering solutions and working to get them implemented and this is why only a minority of Americans support them. They complain about the scandalous greed, about the terrible loan burden on young people about the growing chasm between the wealthy and the non-wealthy in America and the like but don't work for solutions. These "Occupy" movement people don't embody and honor the American Spirit, most Americans are either immigrants or descendants of immigrants who came to this country with not much more than the clothes on their back and they made a good life for themselves and their families through hard work. America's history displayed this American spirit in the civil rights movement of the 1950's/1960's where the movement members spent their time and effort pushing for laws and politicians that would give them their fundamental rights. There is plenty of actual systematic changes the "Occupy" movement could be working on to right the wrongs they are protesting.
One thing everyone can be certain of is that the presidential primary process for the 2012 elections for both the Democrats and Republicans won't produce a champion for ordinary Americans the Democrat candidate will be biased toward unions and environmentalists and the Republican candidate will be biased toward big business and the wealthy America's money driven political system will see to that. America's hope for a truly good tomorrow is in electing a good crop of elected officials into Congress in 2012 that will create an inertia in that direction. Quality Americans if they supported the goals of the "Occupy" movement would not be sitting in tents and such in major cities across America but would be handing out literature and the like for Congressional candidates who when in Congress would be working for these goals. There is an ocean of room for good candidates for the 2012 elections. America needs to get rid of these Tea-Party members of Congress who this summer reared their heads as such extremists that they were prepared to not lift the debt ceiling and let the government default on its debt (or just as bad denied the danger) and want to way too quickly implement a balance budget amendment which will require brutal budget cuts to achieve. America needs to get rid of members of Congress that have sold their soul to ignorant union leaders who at the eleventh hour want to stop Boeing from opening an airplane manufacturing plant in South Carolina for a new Boeing plane because it isn't unionized and who see their job as not just getting just and good wages for the workers they represent but forcing employers to hire as many workers as they can get away with and who cause unnecessary divisions of labor amongst a workforce thereby pushing management to rightly chafe at such abuses and thereby sometimes causing them to off-shore jobs. There is a big need in America for candidates to run for Congress that know how to discern the right thing on the issues which often means finding the right balance between competing interests and there is a big need in America for citizens to work on these candidates campaigns and get them elected, such work by the occupy movement is something the majority of the public would respect.
Another area of actual change the "occupy" movement could work on is getting some laws passed curbing the exorbitant salaries and bonuses that many executives receive in America financial institutions and overall corporations. America pays a steep price for these exorbitant salaries. To pay these salaries corporations off-shore jobs to increase profits, they excessively cut staff and wage and benefits in their U.S. operations, they maintain sales prices on their products too high often as high as they can get away with at the expense of the consumer, they lobby government at what is in their best interests and not is what is the right by all the American people's interests. The American people are not after seeing these executives not well paid but their salaries are extravagant. Yes, it is true that these corporations make huge incomes but that still doesn't justify the exorbitant salaries of these executives most of the non-top employees of these corporation don't get paid exorbitant salaries. These exorbitant salaries in general are a significant cause why these executives don't run their companies like good corporate citizens. One example is home mortgages, home loan interest rates are practically at the lowest levels on record and the difficulty of people not underwater with good credit good income being able to refinance is truly unbelievable, the lost paperwork the scheming used to increase the cost of refinancing, the illegitamte denials these borrowers experienced is scandalous, not to mention those home owners that had subprime mortgages looking for loan modifications where the banks committed to cooperating but did all the abuses mentioned before and more to gigantic numbers of borrowers and home owners who were underwater on their loans and wanted a loan modification or a short sale that would have saved the bank money but were put through the ringer and treated terribly - this whole epic abuse of borrowers by banks of course went on with either the approval or acquieessence of top banks executives; this is just one issue of a huge multitude with the banking industry. The pharmaceutical industry has their own epic scandalous treatment of customers in regards to the sky high increase of drug prices through the years, over the last seven years there has been at least fifty cases of drug prices set or increased to levels that were outrageously unjust. The oil production industry not going to government leaders collectively throughout the world and say lets get a better system to set prices that is fair and provides stability to all parties concerned provides an example. The agricultural conglomerates not going to federal and state governments and saying you have an abundance of land lets convert some of it to farm land so we can decrease these crop prices to a reasonable but fair levels for consumers provides another example. A successful country does not have to pay the executives of their large corporations exorbitant salaries, many of the Asian countries don't. Another red herring one often hears is that to get good people to do these top executive jobs corporation have to pay these high salaries this is just bunk America has an abundance of talented executives if corporate America just pays great salaries and bonuses but not overboard it will still get outstandingly effective people to run its corporations and still be outstandingly successful. One idea on this front why doesnt' t the federal government tax all employees of financial institutions with compensation incomes over $2 million dollars a year for the income over that $2 million dollar threshold at a tax rate of fifty percent, by compensation it is specifically in part meant all the stocks and/or stock options these employees are given. This would in effect be saying to these financial corporations pay your employees well but when you go over two million dollars per year your going overboard it is not in the public's interest to do this it creates all type of distortions which affects the corporations behavior in a negative manner for America and America as a country is going to try to discourage you doing this by reducing the after tax income at these high levels for these executives. America should also do this "higher tax rate for compensation over $2 million rule" for the top executives of all corporations not just financial institutions, this will create a strong force in America's business industries to help get these industries working right for all the American people.
One final note, America has had a severe home mortgage crisis for the last three year but just over the last few weeks the public has heard the excuse quite often from the banking industry that the reason why the banking industry is so resistent to refinancing home loans is because it is concerned that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government sponsored businesses, who buy and insure home loans might come back and accuse them of an underwriting impropriety and force them to take back the loans and this liability would be to great for them. Well if this is true why don't these masters of the universe these top executives of America's banks and mortgage companies go to Fannie and Freddie and say why don't you set-up an office and we'll pay for it and we'll send this office every home loan application we intend on approving with all the accompanying documentation to verify it is a responsible and lawful loan and you can certify it as underwritten properly and we can have an agreement that such certification will protect the banks and mortgage companies from any later charge of faulty underwriting. This would solve the underwriting problem for the banks but I'm sorry no one can solve the lost interest income over refinances problem for the banks because that goes to the purpose for the borrower of doing a refinance, that is, saving on loan interest payments.
One thing everyone can be certain of is that the presidential primary process for the 2012 elections for both the Democrats and Republicans won't produce a champion for ordinary Americans the Democrat candidate will be biased toward unions and environmentalists and the Republican candidate will be biased toward big business and the wealthy America's money driven political system will see to that. America's hope for a truly good tomorrow is in electing a good crop of elected officials into Congress in 2012 that will create an inertia in that direction. Quality Americans if they supported the goals of the "Occupy" movement would not be sitting in tents and such in major cities across America but would be handing out literature and the like for Congressional candidates who when in Congress would be working for these goals. There is an ocean of room for good candidates for the 2012 elections. America needs to get rid of these Tea-Party members of Congress who this summer reared their heads as such extremists that they were prepared to not lift the debt ceiling and let the government default on its debt (or just as bad denied the danger) and want to way too quickly implement a balance budget amendment which will require brutal budget cuts to achieve. America needs to get rid of members of Congress that have sold their soul to ignorant union leaders who at the eleventh hour want to stop Boeing from opening an airplane manufacturing plant in South Carolina for a new Boeing plane because it isn't unionized and who see their job as not just getting just and good wages for the workers they represent but forcing employers to hire as many workers as they can get away with and who cause unnecessary divisions of labor amongst a workforce thereby pushing management to rightly chafe at such abuses and thereby sometimes causing them to off-shore jobs. There is a big need in America for candidates to run for Congress that know how to discern the right thing on the issues which often means finding the right balance between competing interests and there is a big need in America for citizens to work on these candidates campaigns and get them elected, such work by the occupy movement is something the majority of the public would respect.
Another area of actual change the "occupy" movement could work on is getting some laws passed curbing the exorbitant salaries and bonuses that many executives receive in America financial institutions and overall corporations. America pays a steep price for these exorbitant salaries. To pay these salaries corporations off-shore jobs to increase profits, they excessively cut staff and wage and benefits in their U.S. operations, they maintain sales prices on their products too high often as high as they can get away with at the expense of the consumer, they lobby government at what is in their best interests and not is what is the right by all the American people's interests. The American people are not after seeing these executives not well paid but their salaries are extravagant. Yes, it is true that these corporations make huge incomes but that still doesn't justify the exorbitant salaries of these executives most of the non-top employees of these corporation don't get paid exorbitant salaries. These exorbitant salaries in general are a significant cause why these executives don't run their companies like good corporate citizens. One example is home mortgages, home loan interest rates are practically at the lowest levels on record and the difficulty of people not underwater with good credit good income being able to refinance is truly unbelievable, the lost paperwork the scheming used to increase the cost of refinancing, the illegitamte denials these borrowers experienced is scandalous, not to mention those home owners that had subprime mortgages looking for loan modifications where the banks committed to cooperating but did all the abuses mentioned before and more to gigantic numbers of borrowers and home owners who were underwater on their loans and wanted a loan modification or a short sale that would have saved the bank money but were put through the ringer and treated terribly - this whole epic abuse of borrowers by banks of course went on with either the approval or acquieessence of top banks executives; this is just one issue of a huge multitude with the banking industry. The pharmaceutical industry has their own epic scandalous treatment of customers in regards to the sky high increase of drug prices through the years, over the last seven years there has been at least fifty cases of drug prices set or increased to levels that were outrageously unjust. The oil production industry not going to government leaders collectively throughout the world and say lets get a better system to set prices that is fair and provides stability to all parties concerned provides an example. The agricultural conglomerates not going to federal and state governments and saying you have an abundance of land lets convert some of it to farm land so we can decrease these crop prices to a reasonable but fair levels for consumers provides another example. A successful country does not have to pay the executives of their large corporations exorbitant salaries, many of the Asian countries don't. Another red herring one often hears is that to get good people to do these top executive jobs corporation have to pay these high salaries this is just bunk America has an abundance of talented executives if corporate America just pays great salaries and bonuses but not overboard it will still get outstandingly effective people to run its corporations and still be outstandingly successful. One idea on this front why doesnt' t the federal government tax all employees of financial institutions with compensation incomes over $2 million dollars a year for the income over that $2 million dollar threshold at a tax rate of fifty percent, by compensation it is specifically in part meant all the stocks and/or stock options these employees are given. This would in effect be saying to these financial corporations pay your employees well but when you go over two million dollars per year your going overboard it is not in the public's interest to do this it creates all type of distortions which affects the corporations behavior in a negative manner for America and America as a country is going to try to discourage you doing this by reducing the after tax income at these high levels for these executives. America should also do this "higher tax rate for compensation over $2 million rule" for the top executives of all corporations not just financial institutions, this will create a strong force in America's business industries to help get these industries working right for all the American people.
One final note, America has had a severe home mortgage crisis for the last three year but just over the last few weeks the public has heard the excuse quite often from the banking industry that the reason why the banking industry is so resistent to refinancing home loans is because it is concerned that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government sponsored businesses, who buy and insure home loans might come back and accuse them of an underwriting impropriety and force them to take back the loans and this liability would be to great for them. Well if this is true why don't these masters of the universe these top executives of America's banks and mortgage companies go to Fannie and Freddie and say why don't you set-up an office and we'll pay for it and we'll send this office every home loan application we intend on approving with all the accompanying documentation to verify it is a responsible and lawful loan and you can certify it as underwritten properly and we can have an agreement that such certification will protect the banks and mortgage companies from any later charge of faulty underwriting. This would solve the underwriting problem for the banks but I'm sorry no one can solve the lost interest income over refinances problem for the banks because that goes to the purpose for the borrower of doing a refinance, that is, saving on loan interest payments.
