lets break down the OWS grievances and figure out who is really to blame.

[Liberty]

1. They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
2 They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
3 They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
4 They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
5 They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.
6 They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
7 They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
8 They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
9 They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
10 They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
11 They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
12 They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.
They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
13 They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
14 They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.
15 They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
16 They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.
17 They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
18 Oh...so people don't have a right to choose where they get information? You gonna decide it for them?
19 They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
20 They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.
21 They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
22 They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.*

Occupy Wall Street! Collective statement of the protesters… « Bill Ayers

Alright, I think it is important to mention that this statement does not provide a single solution, only complaining. complaining as you will see is inaccurately targeted.

1. That is the individual's fault they didn't read the fine print. Personal Responsibility.
2. That is the fault of GOVERNMENT, not the businesses.
3. Extremely vague and no solution is proposed.
4. So, grow your own food then. No one is forcing you to buy it. Personal choice.
5. So, grow your own food then and convince others to not eat it if you want. That will put them out of business.
6. It is the individual's choice to take or quit a job. If you don't like it find another job.
7. The government provides the loans, and no one forces a person to get loans. Personal Responsibility.
8. No...in generalities its the high taxes and regulation of government that forces businesses to downsize and lay off workers and even outsource.
9. Can't get much more vague than that.
10. No, Obamacare did that. Businesses know it's cheaper to pay the fee than to provide healthcare so that's what they are doing. Blame this one on government yet again.
11. Really? Business owners sell seats on the side of your house to peak in your windows? What does this mean?
12. Buyer beware. Welcome to freedom. Just because you are too stupid and get ripped off doesn't make it anyone's fault but your own.
13. What is your proposal?
14. politicians are RESPONSIBLE for regulating business? really? Is that in the constitution somewhere? I can't seem to find it.
15. Because solyndra worked so well.
16. boo hoo.
17. I will give you that one.
18. Yeah I am pretty sure that is college professors but whatevs.
19. 10th amendment? Derp?
20. Really? Which States have we annexed recently?
21. Really?
22. So...what do you want to do? Crush their businesses and lay more people off?

 

[Mr. H.]

Nice job. But...

Since you're "giving them" #17, could you like back that up?

 

[Liberty]

Nice job. But...

Since you're "giving them" #17, could you like back that up?

id like more transparency is all.

 

[Dragon]

Looking over that list of responses, it seems to come down to a repetition of three things:

1) It's always the individual's responsibility when things go wrong. Big business and government bear no portion of either blame or liability.

2) In any interaction between business and government, when government gives business a handout, it's government's fault, not that of business.

3) To the extent business has done things that have hurt the people, it has been forced to do so by burdensome regulations and taxes.

If I missed anything, point it out and I'll respond to it later. My responses to these three points are as follows:

1) When things go wrong for one individual, it may be that individual's sole responsibility. When we have an epidemic of foreclosures, lost jobs, declining wages, shrinking middle class, exploding college debt, and vanishing opportunities, there is something larger than the individual at work. The individual only plays the game, he does not write the rules. Someone (specifically government, at the behest of big business) has rewritten the rules so as to screw over most of the people while hugely enriching the very wealthy.

2) Business has an enormous influence over the government through campaign donations, direct and indirect. It is not an exaggeration to say that big business owns the U.S. government, bought and paid for. Thus, when the government gives banks or other businesses a handout at taxpayer expense, business is just as much to blame for that as government itself, if not more. We should blame the guy pulling the strings, not the puppet.

3) Considering that business owns the government, bought and paid for, it is not credible to suppose that the government is sufficiently independent as to impose a crushing burden on business so that they are "driven" away from our shores. Nor does a realistic appraisal of the situation uphold this contention. Government has, on the contrary, created incentives in the tax code and in trade agreements that encourage outsourcing, and by failing to enforce labor law adequately has enabled union-busting by business even when its actions are technically illegal. As well as other things done by business that have hurt the economy and the people in general.