Tuesday night I had the opportunity, up close and personal, to evaluate the nature of what’s left of the Occupy Wall Street movement. I was on the Tea Party side of a discussion in opposition to five self-described Occupy advocates. The good news is that although Occupy Wall Street garnered some degree of attention during the Zucatti Park days in 2011, toady it is largely irrelevant. While Congress has a Tea Party Caucus and dozens of congressional supporters, Occupy has almost no support anywhere.
As well meaning as some in the movement might be, their message is an anachronism of failed theories, its tone often belligerent, its leadership devoid of solutions and its tactics childish.
The most cursory historical analysis reveals the abject failure of the socialistic solutions advocated by Occupy leadership. The Western European social democratic experiment is in taters. Chronic unemployment, social unrest, enormous debt and tepid growth, when not in recession, characterized Western Europe for a long time. In transition to a more solvent free market oriented economy they suffer the inevitable high cost of trimming the cradle to grave centralized support system. Debt, dependence and loss of initiative can’t be fixed without a painful readjustment period. Generations raised to expect others to take care of their needs will not accept reality easily. Convincing them that their utopia collapses under the weight of economics is not an easy task. Even if all the money and assets of the one percent were confiscated and given to the ninety-nine percent, the welfare state goes broke.
Of course I among others are accused of being complicit with greed and lacking in compassion for pointing out basic economics.
The self-described compassion crowd associated with Occupy tends to ignore facts. Red state charitable giving and volunteering outstrips blue state. The vast majority of those in the one percent are responsible for massive amounts of charitable giving in addition to paying about thirty-five percent of federal income taxes. Adding to their tax burden would mean more money going down inefficient bureaucratic black holes and less going into efficient private charitable giving and investment. In other words creating businesses, jobs and prosperity.
If we examine what happened at Zucatti Park – filth, crime and disrespectfully behavior – we can conclude the lack of seriousness at the heart of the movement. Acting out accomplishes nothing. That’s what teenagers do to attract attention.
I understand that rebellion and arrogance are characteristic of many young people. I too thought I had all the answers at twenty. A defiant anti-establishment movement like Occupy is like a magnet for young rebels looking for an identity. But adults have no excuse for ignorance and lack of wisdom.
Take the advice of a sixty-three year old that once thought he knew everything. Don’t wait until you are forty to read Free To Choose, Milton Freidman; Miracle At Philadelphia, Bowen; Intellectuals and Society, Sowell and watch the wonderful five-minute videos at prageruniversity.com. Open your minds to ideas you have never considered. Who knows, their logic, common sense and historical content just might make sense to you.
So what are Occupy activist so upset about? They are hot and bothered by that greedy immoral one percent and the evil corporations who dominate government decision-making (they allege). When I asked them what nation had the highest corporate income tax rate (among industrialized nations), I got blank stares. If indeed, these corporations have so much control, why this level of taxation? How could a luxury tax have passed? How could a medical device tax have passed? Why are corporations burdened with tens of thousands of counter-productive regulations?
For those of you who look to government for solutions and are wary of corporations, I remind you that it is government that can forcibly tax, incarcerate and fine you.
Many groups and organizations influence government. Environmental groups (Keystone delayed more than 5 years, no drilling off west coast, Monterey Basin), unions, trial lawyers, doctors and PAC’s of every description create the push and shove of politics in America. They organize, raise money, run ads and hire lobbyists. We have billionaires on all sides. John Steyer representing the left., Sheldon Adelson the right and the Kock brothers’ libertarians. This is the way the First Amendment works. People and organizations, big and small, have the right to lobby for whatever cause they choose. In America there is no commissar, no matter how well meaning, who has the power to deicide which organization, individual or corporation loses its rights because of wealth, connection, corporate interest or nature of their cause. It might be messy but freedom can be messy.
The Occupy panelists were largely fact deficient. The corporate income tax was but one example. One passionate panelist told me that America had gone into Vietnam to exploit oil resources. I informed her that Vietnam has no oil. It was a Roseanne Rosannadanna moment, “never mind”. Passion grounded in lies, ignorance, class warfare and envy generates bad ideas.
One young panelist was upset because she could only find work paying her $11/hour. As an honor student who had graduated with a degree in psychology she felt she was due more. Since she had chosen to major in a field that she perceived as helping people, society owed her a higher wage. Or so she had been raised to believe. It’s the classic divide between the Occupy and Tea Party mentality. The former focuses on what they are owed and the latter on individual responsibility.
In the end that’s what it comes down to. Who holds true to the basic founding principles of the freest, most prosperous, least bigoted nation in human history? In the words of Milton Friedman, “In the only cases in which the masses have escaped from the grinding poverty you’re talking about, the only ones in recorded history are where they have had capitalism and largely free trade”. It’s not about feelings. It’s not about self-esteem. It’s about what works.