Sunday, October 02, 2011
Protesting Wall Street
I'm with Margery: It's easy to make fun of the 'brats' protesting on Wall Street and in Boston these days. They're largely your usual-suspect lefties -- anti-capitalists at heart and ignorant about how economies work. But here's the thing: They're right to be protesting Wall Street's shenanigans, even if their world views and motives are wrong. Wall Street is not a true capitalist institution anymore. It's practically an extension of government, or government is an extension of Wall Street. Either way, it's not operating under normal free-market principles. Practically every single major firm on Wall Street should be out of business right now. They're not because we, the taxpayers, bailed them out. But there they are, all the Wall Streeters smugly drinking their champagne and mocking the protesters and believing they're the hotshots of capitalism worthy of huge bonuses, and ... Never mind. Don't get me going on these plutocratic clowns.
I'm with Margery: It's easy to make fun of the 'brats' protesting on Wall Street and in Boston these days. They're largely your usual-suspect lefties -- anti-capitalists at heart and ignorant about how economies work. But here's the thing: They're right to be protesting Wall Street's shenanigans, even if their world views and motives are wrong. Wall Street is not a true capitalist institution anymore. It's practically an extension of government, or government is an extension of Wall Street. Either way, it's not operating under normal free-market principles. Practically every single major firm on Wall Street should be out of business right now. They're not because we, the taxpayers, bailed them out. But there they are, all the Wall Streeters smugly drinking their champagne and mocking the protesters and believing they're the hotshots of capitalism worthy of huge bonuses, and ... Never mind. Don't get me going on these plutocratic clowns.
