I Love the Smell of Hippies in the Morning!!!!

I decided today after sitting on the sidelines for so long to actually give my opinion for what it’s worth on the whole Occupy Wall Street movement. Since I’m not actually going to go out and protest I figured I would contribute what I can, (irreverent writing made to sound like I actually know what I am talking about). I’m not a tree hugging hippy like many of the people out there protesting probably are. I’m sure for many of them living in a park for a couple weeks without showering is not a large break with their normal day to day activities. However, just because I disagree with their sense of hygiene doesn’t mean I don’t support their cause.

As an immigrant to this country (legally for readers in Arizona) I know better than most people that are born here what this country is about. The whole “American Dream” isn’t about having the white house with the picket fence and 2.5 kids. It’s about having the opportunity to get those things. America isn’t about handouts and everyone having the same things. It’s about everyone having a fair chance at achieving what they want in life. What the Tea Party crowd has gotten right is the idea that Americans don’t want or need government handouts. What they get wrong is the target of their anger.

I’m not one of these people that feel that corporations are inherently evil. That’s like saying Tea Party people are inherently stupid. Ok, bad example. Corporations serve their purpose and they do it well. They make money for their share holders. If that means that a financial institution is going to make risky investments, or product manufacturer is going to save money at the expense of consumer safety so be it. A CEO is measured by how much money he makes and how much bigger the company gets under their tenure. The CEO of BP during the whole Gulf oil spill is probably a really nice guy. I’m sure if he saw a box of kittens on the side of the road he would get out to help, but the board of directors isn’t judging him based on that.

Knowing that corporations will do whatever they can to make money what we need is a government that recognizes that and protects our best interest, not theirs. I say deregulate everything, and if a company is found to have produced a faulty product that hurts a consumer we should be allowed to sue them for every cent they have, and hang the CEO outside the corporate office. Of course though this would never work; who would risk investing in anything knowing that if 1 person makes a mistake they could lose everything? That’s why we need a powerful government that protects people from corporations, and holds corporations accountable when they do wrong.

For far too long we’ve had a government that is more concerned with the needs of corporations than the needs of the people they were elected to service, the Occupy Wall Street movement is here. The Tea Partiers were here first and they are angry too, they are just too ignorant to understand who is actually dicking them over. Both these movements have started because American people are pissed off about what has been going on.

So, I would like to say thank you, to all the people who stood up and have gone out to protest. Although the cynic in me keeps me from believing that anything will really change as a result of these protests, I am still happy to see the message “Hey assholes, we’re still here,” is being conveyed on mine and all of our behalves. Now if we could just get a major corporation to donate bars of soap or something.