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Who Are the 99 Percent?
“I did everything I was supposed to and I have nothing to show for it.”
It’s not the arrests that convinced me that “Occupy Wall Street” was worth covering seriously. Nor was it their press strategy, which largely consisted of tweeting journalists to cover a small protest that couldn’t say what, exactly, it hoped to achieve. It was a Tumblr called, “We Are The 99 Percent,” and all it’s doing is posting grainy pictures of people holding handwritten signs telling their stories, one after the other.
“I am 20K in debt and am paying out of pocket for my current tuition while I start paying back loans with two part time jobs.”
These are not rants against the system. They’re not anarchist manifestos. They’re not calls for a revolution. They’re small stories of people who played by the rules, did what they were told, and now have nothing to show for it. Or, worse, they have tens of thousands in debt to show for it.
“I am a 28 year old female with debt that had to give up her apartment + pet because I have no money and I owe over $30,000.”
College debt shows up a lot in these stories, actually. It’s more insistently present than housing debt, or even unemployment. That might speak to the fact that the protests tilt towards the young. But it also speaks, I think, to the fact that college debt represents a special sort of betrayal. We told you that the way to get ahead in America was to get educated. You did it. And now you find yourself in the same place, but buried under debt. You were lied to.
“Married mother of 3. Lost my job in 2009. My family lost our health insurance, our savings, our home, and our good credit. After 16 months, I found a job -- with a 90 mile commute and a 25 percent pay cut. After gas, tolls, daycare, and the cost of health insurance, i was paying so my kids had access to health care.”
Let’s be clear. This isn’t really the 99 percent. If you’re in the 85th percentile, for instance, your household is making more than $100,000, and you’re probably doing okay. If you’re in the 95th percentile, your household is making more than $150,000. But then, these protests really aren’t about Wall Street, either. There’s not a lot of evidence that these people want a class war, or even particularly punitive measures on the rich. The only thing that’s clear from their missives is that they want the economy to start working for them, too.
“I am young. I am educated and hard working. I am not able to pay my bills. I am afraid of what the future holds.”
I don’t imagine that too many members of, say, the 97th percentile are writing in to this Web site. But imagine yourself as a young person who took out loans to go to college, got good grades, and has graduated into an economy that doesn’t seem to want you. You did everything you were told to do, and it didn’t work out. That hurts, of course, but it’s a bad economy, and everybody is suffering. At least, that’s what they say.
“i am a 19 year old student with 18 credit hours and 2 part time jobs. i am over 4000 dollars in debt but my paychecks are just enough to get me to school and back. next year my plan was to attend a 4 year college and get my bfa, but now i am afraid that without a co-signer i will have no shot at a loan and even if i can get a loan i am afraid that i will leave college with no future and a crippling debt.”
But you look around and the reality is not everyone is suffering. Wall Street caused this mess, and the government paid off their debts and helped them rake in record profits in recent years. The top 1 percent account for 24 percent of the nation’s income and 40 percent of its wealth. There are a lot of people who don’t seem to be doing everything they’re supposed to do, and it seems to be working out just fine for them.
“I went to graduate school believing that there might be some financial security afforded by a higher degree, and that with that security I could finally buy my mom her own house and take care of her. Instead, I have wasted six years of my life.”
Perhaps that’s part of the reason that the movement doesn’t have clear demands. It’s easy to explain how to punish the rich. You can tax them, or regulate their activities. It’s a bit hard to say how to make the economy work better for average people. There’s an intuition out there that part of the reason it’s not working better is that the rich hold too much political power, and so there’s a clear desire to reduce that political power, but it’s not clear how far that actually gets you in terms of bringing wages up.
“I am a 27 year old with a bachelor degree. I ran out of my student loans while trying to find a job. I am ‘living’ with my mother again to get back on my feet. So far, the best I can do is a part time retail job paying $8 an hour. I am hearing impaired with cochlear implant. My cochlear implant warranty expired. I do not have the money to renew it. How can I work at my new minimum wage job when my implant is broken? I need it to HEAR.”
But this is why I’m taking Occupy Wall Street -- or, perhaps more specifically, the ‘We Are The 99 Percent’ movement -- seriously. There are a lot of people who are getting an unusually raw deal right now. There is a small group of people who are getting an unusually good deal right now. That doesn’t sound to me like a stable equilibrium.
The organizers of Occupy Wall Street are fighting to upend the system. But what gives their movement the potential for power and potency is the masses who just want the system to work the way they were promised it would work. It’s not that 99 percent of Americans are really struggling. It’s not that 99 percent of Americans want a revolution. It’s that 99 percent of Americans sense that the fundamental bargain of our economy -- work hard, play by the rules, get ahead -- has been broken, and they want to see it restored.
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63 Comments so far
Show AllWhen you've got nothing you've got nothing to lose. When you've got less than nothing, as with massive student debt, you've got motivation to change the system that put you there.
That's what the one percent has failed to appreciate. Their hubris makes them think they can keep heating a pressure cooker with no safety valve without having it explode in their faces.
read Klein again. there are plenty of people who don't have nothing and the rather disgusting and ongoing concentration of wealth here hasn't yet stripped it out and also hasn't yet stripped away the expectation that things will soon improve.
people are slow to believe that things won't improve
fuster: You make a good point. I guess only time will tell if the boiling frog or the pressure cooker analogy wins out. Maybe there's a frog in the pressure cooker but the pressure is getting to be more than the vessel can hold.
I certainly agree with you about the "disgusting and ongoing concentration of wealth.."
many decades ago, particularly in the Great depression, old socialists such as my grandfather (who fought in the Russian revolution) were mystified as to why Americans didn't want a revolution here.
turns out that surveys in the fifties and sixties almost all Americans consider themselves middle-class and expect things to get better for their kids, if not for themselves.
I always thought that perception went a long way to explaining how Reagan was able to sell that preposterous bag of crap that passed for his economic ideas.
...and how Bush in 2000 was able to sell it again.
It fucked up things under Reagan and blew the hell out of the economy this last time around.
fuster: Sometimes it seems like you're coming from the right ( ie saying anti-US Hostilities were started by Iran) and others it seems you're coming from the left. I must admit to some confusion.
Most Americans ARE confused because the Government, corporations and media have strived to confuse as many Americans as possible. The author is confused if he really doesn't consider Americans in the 95 percentile (household making $150k per year) to be part of the 99% who are concerned about their future.
A household making $150k per year probably doesn't need to worry immediately...until they lose their job(s), until they want to or are forced to retire...until Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are gutted...until they need to sell their house and find there is no market for it...until their medical insurance denies payment for expensive medical care...the list goes on.
Although Americans with no job or assets are the first to feel it, the banksters know that the 85 percentile and 95 percentile Americans have a lot of assets and entitlements that the Washington DC politicians will redistribute to the banksters as soon as they are told to.
Although $150k may go a long way in the hinterland, its doesn't buy much in the cities of the east and west coasts.
ray,
$150k/yr buys plenty in any city on either coast.
Not when an ordinary house can cost 5-6 100 k or more. 1
Why the Hell is Ezra Klein on CD? this article makes it clear he has not been to Liberty Plaza. there are people there of all ages and actually, they do want punitive measures for the rich. Klein's figures for income in various percentiles are highly suspect. He has been obnoxious on many issues including entitlement programs, health care reform, you name it. He is just a snarky little technophile who is totally out of touch. He takes the "99%" meme literally, the idiot.
no one who ever knew me would ever think that I'm rightwing or ever was, but mostly I'm coming from inside my own head.
Don't try to figure me for those convenient left/right boxes. I'm not going to fit them well.
Just take each comment as it comes and check out how much of each one is or isn't worthless.
Maybe fuster is just calling 'em as he/she sees 'em, issue by issue.
The fifties and sixties were the high point of American power and prosperity. No wonder most people didn't see the need for revolution. As we know, things are way different now. With so many fomerly in the middle class reduced to a difficult existence, it's not hard to imagine revolutionary aspirations boiling up.
The disconnect and confusion will continue as long as people who work for wages think they are 'middle class' - sorry, folks, but if you work for wages, you are WORKING CLASS. Get used to it - that's the way it works in the real world. Lying to yourself will keep you dumbed out - keep swallowing all that propaganda, like how if you make X dollars and are making house payments for 30 years, you are somehow 'middle class' - or that 'the US is Number One' - the plutocrats love that crap.
If you're 'working class' - your responsibility is to show up whenever there is a need for bodies - cannon fodder, if you will - in class warfare. After all, both the working class and middle class are hurting these days - even some of the wealthy are on our side. And since most cops and soldiers come from 'working class' families - be sure to talk to your thus-employed relatives and get them on board, or they will shoot your friends and neighbors and consider themselves 'patriotic' for doing so. It happens in every 'revolution' - so get them on your side early.
What 'revolution' of any kind has ever succeeded when it came from the bottom up? Did slaves fight their way to freedom? Dream on. Most social gains come from the real middle class - educated dreamers who want a better society for all - not from the top or bottom of the heap. When's the last time you saw homeless people demanding decent food, housing, and jobs? Somebody has to organize protests - and it's usually younger people who are well-educated and whose parents are wealthy enough to support them while they build their 'revolution' and plan that 'better' future everyone wants and deserves.
This is good -
"The disconnect and confusion will continue as long as people who work for wages think they are 'middle class' - sorry, folks, but if you work for wages, you are WORKING CLASS."
The slaves did fight for their own freedom, in many ways. The best we can say for the whites is that in some places for a certain amount of time they stopped interfering with and thwarting the slaves fight for freedom, and in fewer cases actually assisted in the fight.
It is remarkable that to this day the slaves themselves have been largely whitewashed out of the history of the Civil War era.
Cathy, there's certainly a great deal more discontent now than existed between 1950 and the mid 60s.
But there is about zero support for revolution. Revolution was a slight possibility from the mid 60s until the time Nixon got kicked out.
Since then .....zip.
if you're hot to trot for revolution, you best hope that the economy worsens over the next half-dozen years.....or that large numbers of Americans start dying from violent attacks occurring inside the country.....
I'm perfectly happy if these things don't happen and we instead get some evolutionary progress.
We are watching our "friends" creating pressure relief valves for the benefit of the ruling class all of the time. The Madison recall effort comes to mind.
Much of the content in articles and replies here at CD is explorations of safe alternatives for releasing pressure, for the purpose of propping up the system and protecting those in power from the growing resistance
That is a gross exaggeration. Would you argue that it's better not to support these issues (taken from headlines her from today and yesterday) because it would prevent the pressure from building? I've got news for you. We can't afford not to support these reforms, especially tar sands, whatever the effect it might have in "propping up the system."
Stop the tar sands pipeline.
Global Justice movement.
Close Guantanamo.
Troy Davis and al-Awlaki: Two Murders, One Outrage
Stop Nuclear Power
The Madison recall effort may not be radical enough because it did involve a Democratic-Republican fight. But in pushing back against Tea Party overreaching it provided an example to the nation of what can be done. some of the momentum of Occupy Wall St. surely comes from that. What's great about the movement is its inclusivity and respect for what everyone can contribute. Your attitude is the opposite from that. You would sit in your arm chair waiting for the pressure to build to the right level, no matter who gets hurt alng the way. Drivel.
I did not, and would not, oppose any of these -
Stop the tar sands pipeline.
Global Justice movement.
Close Guantanamo.
Troy Davis and al-Awlaki: Two Murders, One Outrage
Stop Nuclear Power
Occupy Wall Street
So I have no idea what you are attacking me about.
The Democratic party co-opted the growing resistance movement in Madison and steered it into a partisan dead end. I see no reason not to point that out. If the recall effort is an example "pushing back against Tea Party overreaching" and provides "an example to the nation of what can be done" then we are in big trouble.
The rest of your post is merely unfounded insults and personal attack.
---"It’s a bit hard to say how to make the economy work better for average people."---
It is????
Lets see, off the top of my head:
1. Raise US minimimum wage to what it is in the rest of the industrial world - $10 to $18 per hour.
2. Free or very cheap, publicly funded university education or skilled trade school for all - like the rest of the industrial world - and most US states until the 1990's.
3. Free or very cheap publicly funded or subsidized healthcare for all - like the rest of the industrial world
4. A basic social wage package of rent and food assistance availabe to students and others crrently disqualified form such assistance - like the rest of the industrial world
There; that wasn't hard at all! Not a single one of these persons would be in the situations they are if the above measures wer in place, or if they hadn't suffered the misfortune to be have been born in the USA instead of Germany, France, Canada, Australia....
We should also add affordable and accessible Green Transit also available in
other civilized countries in Europe or Japan. The cost of transportation per capita in the US is double that of Europe, primarily because of our monolithic auto-addicted Transit system. While listening to "On Point" interviewing 20-30 year olds on their current economic situation one listener had to quit college because his car broke down and he
could not afford to fix it which of course also impacted his access to a job.
Why should it be required to spend $8,800 per year (AAA's own estimate) to own
a car to get anywhere in the USA?
Actually there ARE potential options in train/lightrail, bus lines all over the US -
Brookings found that 70% of working age Americans in 100 US Metro areas lived only 3/4th's mile from a Transit stop. BUT only 30% could reach a job even during
peak hours of most frequent Green Transit in less than 90 minutes!
The first "Infrastructure" investment we should make to save oil, lives, and the planet
is to hire more conductors, engineers, drivers etc to run the Green Transit we already have on a regular basis Then get electric shuttle vans to provide last mile connections, bikeways and finally restore key Transit links on the 233,000 miles
of mostly unused Rail all over the USA. And finally put Rail/Lightrail down median
strips of major highways where there is no existing Rail right of way.
Free public transit is another good idea, but I'd accept forgoing making it free for now -as long as the service is improved. If no new state of federal funding is forthcoming, then it is better that they raise the fare considerably in order to improve service. Toronto has an excellent public transit system with very frequent service - a lot of it 24 hour/7days. The TTC fares are rather high ($3.00), becasue it is 80% self-supported, but using it is still far cheaper than owning and driving a car everyday. In contrast, Pittsburgh's is $2.00, but they are cutting service to the point that it is approaching an death spiral. If the state won't provide more funding, they should raise fares by a dollar. It's still a bargain.
Streetcars and light rail provides a nicer ride and more room, but good public transit does not have to be on rails, buses are fine as long as they run many routes and frequently. Except for outer suburban routes, "frequent" means so frequent that riders don't have to check a schedule - four times per hour from 5 AM to 1AM at a bare minium.
And what about those of us who live 'out in the sticks' where there are no transportation options, no local grocery store or pharmacy (doctors and dentists left decades ago), and jobs pay minimum wage? I live in a college town, and I'm one of the best paying employers around - but I can't provide benefits (nobody else does either, though). And I wouldn't have worked for that kind of pay 30 years ago - but all those 'middle class' wage-workers voted for fascist Reagan and his unholy brood. Now their children and grandchildren will pay the price for their arrogance. Ask kids who have traveled abroad if the US is 'Number One' in anything besides bullshit.
And if you wonder why so many people live 'out in the sticks' - well, back when we had family farms and businessmen didn't have to compete with trans-global monopolies, these small towns HAD grocery stores, hardware stores (does anyone even know what they are anymore?), local pharmacies, hair dressers, barbers, garages, and every other type of business. When did YOU start shopping at Wal-Mart? What did YOU do when the farms were foreclosed in favor of 'agri-business' conglomerates? Did your parents protest the Chinese-junk invasion at THEIR town hall meetings? Or did your grandparents think it was 'wonderful' to get stuff so cheap with their meager Social Security checks?
It took a long time for things to get this bad - it won't improve any time soon. There is 30+ years of fascism inching its way along to un-do. I won't live to see it - but many of you have a bright future if you put all your energy into it. Nothing else is as important as freeing this country from the failed ideology of fascism - some of us have seen where it leads, but we're dying off now. You're going to have to put MILLIONS of people in the streets - day after day, in growing numbers - or the plutocrats won't smell the threat from their lofty perches. In post-WWII America, the threat of global socialism put the 'fear of god' into those fascist bastards - and kept them at bay for a good 25 years. Time to start over. Your turn.
---These small towns HAD grocery stores, hardware stores (does anyone even know what they are anymore?), local pharmacies, hair dressers, barbers, garages, and every other type of business."---
Most neighborhoods in Pittsburgh still have these things. Such businesses continue to be viable becasue the neighborhoods are walkable and alternatives to the car exists. The big boxes like Wal Mart are largely a consequence of the car. The big boxes and their enormous seas of asphalt parking would be completey impractical in a compact, main street/walking and transit based community. They only thrive becasue people drive cars everywhere. I suspect that if you look into the history of your region, you would find that all towns and small cities with populations more than about 10,000 once had good public transportation service, and even high-speed inter-urban trolleys or short-line railroads connecting the towns together.
We should also give everyone a free pony - me first.
"It’s that 99 percent of Americans sense that the fundamental bargain of our economy -- work hard, play by the rules, get ahead -- has been broken, and they want to see it restored."
The question is, do we want concessions from a failed system, or do we want a new one?
I don't think it should be either/or. Changing the system fundamentally will take years, and on some issues we cannot afford to wait.
Whether it should or should not be either/or is irrelevant. It is also not a matter of choice for us, since either/or is forced on us by the stance of the opposition, the rulers.
Change never "takes years" and always happens suddenly. The argument that "changing the system fundamentally will take years" has been used against any and all movements for social justice. You are strengthening my point with this post - that the reform ideas are presented in order to urge caution and moderation and in lieu of more eff4ectvei action and militancy. That is what makes them reactionary, and that is why I call them reactionary.
You are promoting a variation on the "lesser of two evils" argument. "Right now we need to elect Democrats, and then after that we can deal with all of those other issues." We have been hearing that from partisan apologists for decades. Urging people to work within partisan electoral politics, demanding that we see all politics as contained within that narrow framework, is a disingenuous way to oppose change while claiming to support it.
The idea that working piecemeal is required, because of the urgency of various issues, falsely suggests that we must forgo calling for radical and fundamental change because that is somehow in the way of fighting. The opposite is actually always true. You simultaneous call for urgency on a limited program, and caution on a more profound, radical - and effective - program.
The Abolitionists were met with similar arguments. "You people are too radical, and are calling for the overthrow of slavery. That sort of fundamental change will take years. Meanwhile we moderates are working on retarding the expansion of slavery. We are doing something while you sit back in your armchairs and demand perfection, or criticize us because we are not as radical as you would like." They wrapped themselves in the sanctimonious and self-righteous robes of being the "true" and "practical" opponents of slavery and demonized the Abolitionists. They demanded urgency on moderate and limited proposals - because of the dire nature of slavery! they would claim - while demanding caution on the larger issue of ending slavery. That served to perpetuate slavery and weaken the opposition to it.
I agree with almost all of your comment, but electing Democrats and Independents is not a bad idea as long as they are real progressives, not neo-liberals or conservatives posing as liberals. Like Chomsky said, the way to tell is to check their list of campaign contributors. Those who won't sell out, like Bernie and Kucinich, can open the way to direct democracy.
Bernie and Kucinich did sell out with HCR. When they apologize for their votes, maybe they'll regain the people's trust.
All the Congressmen and Senators are compromised. They should all be thrown out.
What good would it do to throw out all the compromised Senators and Congressmen and put others in their place when the corrupting system is left intact?
Direct democracy
Bernie and Kucinich did sell out, and their sell-outs are the most destructive of any. Their role has become one of lending legitimacy to a corrupt system, and of getting people to look at feelings rather than results - "their hearts are in the right place!" (as though that mattered, or were even true) - and at personalities rather than organizations and movements.
I think many are now struggling to face the harsh reality that our "friends" have betrayed us and harmed us worse than our enemies have or ever could have.
Indeed EZ, but as long as the big money tells us who we get to choose from, you won't see any real progressives in any race in any party.
It seems like Mr. Thomas Jefferson was right, and it will likely take blood shed by patriot and despot alike to course correct now. He thought there should be an uprising every 20 years to keep those in power always in full awareness that they govern us by our consent. And we're pushing 150 years now!
A couple of conclusions I'm coming to are preventing me from seeing a clear path. As Armybrat indicated, they (the 1% the GdOP) are deranged! All too often you can't even talk to those cognitively dissonant folks with republican leanings. (I can't even bring myself to say "right," because they're not! Nor can I call them "conservatives" for they do not conserve a darn thing that I can see.) And I know, because I've tried and tried. That is insanity; to expect a different outcome, but I keep trying, thinking I'll find an open minded republican. There is no such thing. Holding a conversation requires calling them on their BS, and made up facts. And they can't/won't stand for it. And one often doesn't have the relevant resources immediately at hand when such opportunities to attempt (that's all it turn out to be) arise.
Couple that with the fact that it's always those in power who strike the first blow too. Look at the despots being overthrown (or worse, NOT being overthrown) in Arab spring countries, or our country not arresting our own, wherever they are. (Hey we found Osama, right?!! And he DID make it on to that helicopter! Just not alive.) I for one don't want to make myself an easy target! While I have no doubt they could arrange for me to have an accident, or "take me out" despite being an American citizen, as they've decided recently is their purview without trial or due process, I don't believe for one second that I rise to that level of importance. The thing is, I'd rather make some poor idiot die for his foolish, carry-water-for-the-privileged-ideals, than shed my own, however willing I may be.
So what is one to do? The only sensible thing I, and many like me, have come to is to look for someone else to coordinate a general strike over here and jump on that bandwagon. That's about all I can hope for. Certainly not some Knight in shining armor to come from either party or "the middle" to fix DC from the inside.
Change never "takes years" and always happens suddenly.---
shit.
it may pop out of your ass suddenly, but it took a while to form and to wend its way to the point where it emerged.
Just like your ignorant shit about the Abolitionists.
----" "You people are too radical, and are calling for the overthrow of slavery. That sort of fundamental change will take years."-------
People told the Abolitionists that it would take years for about a century. That's about how long it took the abolitionist movement to get slavery outlawed in this country. . . and it wasn't because the abolitionists were opposed by moderates that it took so long. it was because there was no general agreement that slavery should "suddenly" change and a great number of people opposed to any change at all.
slavery might never have ended at all if Abolitionists were the people responsible for ending it because they were few and weak ....and immoderate.
learn some history instead of making shit up.
The "fundamental bargain of our economy -- work hard, play by the rules, get ahead" that you claim "has been broken," and that you want to see "restored" is and always was a cruel illusion.
Yes, there are those - especially in the upper 10% or so above $70,000 annual income - who wish to restore the illusion.
The 99% are the working class people, including those living in the "middle class" fantasy who imagine that they are neither working class or ruling class, and who betray and sabotage working class aspirations in exchange for favors from the ruling class.
The notion that is is 1% vs 99% is a convenient simplification, but one that precludes a more realistic understanding of the complexity of the global capitalist system. In reality, the top 1% works in alliance (class compromise) with managerial/professional classes and other upper middle-class social groups that benefit from the current neoliberal global capitalist system. These groups make up 20-30% of the population.
Yup, the ol' Coordinator Class.
I was skeptical when Albert/Hahnel first coined the concept, but it seem more useful a way to view things all the time
I would add that those who make a decent living providing services to the top 20-30% are also not going to be predisposed to oppose the current neoliberal capitalist system.
The point is that while binary constructs such as "The Ruling Class vs. The Working Class" and the currently popular version, "The 1% vs. the 99%," may be beneficial as motivational "Us vs. Them" slogans, they grossly oversimplify reality and thereby undermine the kind of sophisticated analysis needed to provide a theoretical basis for truly effective praxis.
Excuse me, but the 'them' we're talking about are deranged - demented - delusional. They suffer from a mental illness born of inadequacy (crops up in ultra-conservative families) - you cannot 'reason' with them. And although I'm all for giving them the psychiatric care they need - they only understand WAR - it's how their minds work. They think THEY are the victims here, and the rest of us are trying to disenfranchise them from their 'rightful' due - which is EVERYTHING. Study the Nazis - and then tell me how many of them you think could have been rehabilitated - hell, the die-hard Nazis from the WWII era STILL believe in fascism, Hitler, and the whole spiel about 'eugenics' and the right of the 'Master Race' to rule - ours are no different. Look at Dick Cheney and tell me he's not at war. How about Idiot-Bush? Rummy? Yeah.
So, would you have also rejected "binary constructs" such as slaves versus slave owners, management versus labor, colonizers versus indigenous peoples, subjects versus rulers, camp guards versus prisoners...?
Am I "oversimplifying reality" with those "binary constructs?"
Well played.
I think what PP is talking about is process, what you get when you add all those things together. The process is much bigger but the players are a select few.
Very good comments......
Thomas Gilbert-
" "The 1% vs. the 99%," may be beneficial as motivational "Us vs. Them" slogans, they grossly oversimplify reality and thereby undermine the kind of sophisticated analysis needed to provide a theoretical basis for truly effective praxis."
"Analysis paralysis
The term "analysis paralysis" or "paralysis of analysis" refers to over-analyzing (or over-thinking) a situation, so that a decision or action is never taken, in effect paralyzing the outcome. A decision can be treated as over-complicated, with too many detailed options, so that a choice is never made, rather than try something and change if a major problem arises. A person might be seeking the optimal or "perfect" solution upfront, and fear making any decision which could lead to erroneous results, when on the way to a better solution.
The phrase describes a situation where the opportunity cost of decision analysis exceeds the benefits that could be gained by enacting some decision, or an informal or non-deterministic situation where the sheer quantity of analysis overwhelms the decision-making process itself, thus preventing a decision. The phrase applies to any situation where analysis may be applied to help make a decision and may be a dysfunctional element of organizational behavior. This is often phrased as paralysis by analysis, in contrast to extinct by instinct (making a fatal decision based on hasty judgment or a gut-reaction)."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_paralysis
Typical temporizing WaPo attempt to disarm and water down a movement that has the potential to bring about truly historic change. Klein uses the meme that has been used for years: folks who are hurting right now economically don't want to start a class war or punish the rich. They just want their own piece of the pie.
"It’s a bit hard to say how to make the economy work better for average people. There’s an intuition out there that part of the reason it’s not working better is that the rich hold too much political power, and so there’s a clear desire to reduce that political power, but it’s not clear how far that actually gets you in terms of bringing wages up."
It's in no way hard to say how to make the economy work better for the 99%. Scads of economists like Joe Stieglitz (who went to Zucotti to speak and listen) have detailed and coherent plans to do just that, including a New Deal style program of economic stimulus, reregulation of Wall St. and much more. It's not rocket science. If this advice is not being followed it's precisely because the rich have too much political power. Ezra Klein knows this very well. Ezra Klein is lying in his teeth.
Economist Richard Wolff:
"To achieve the goals of this renewed movement, we must finally change the organisation of production that sustains and reproduces inequality and injustice. We need to replace the failed structure of our corporate enterprises that now deliver profits to so few, pollute the environment we all depend on, and corrupt our political system.
We need to end stock markets and boards of directors. The capacity to produce the goods and services we need should belong to everyone – just like the air, water, healthcare, education and security on which we likewise depend. We need to bring democracy to our enterprises. The workers within and the communities around enterprises can and should collectively shape how work is organised, what gets produced, and how we make use of the fruits of our collective efforts.
If we believe democracy is the best way to govern our residential communities, then it likewise deserves to govern our workplaces. Democracy at work is a goal that can help build this movement.
We all know that moving in this direction will elicit the screams of "socialism" from the usual predictable corners. The tired rhetoric lives on long after the cold war that orchestrated it fades out of memory. The audience for that rhetoric is fast fading, too. It is long overdue in the US for us to have a genuine conversation and struggle over our current economic system. Capitalism has gotten a free pass for far too long.
Capitalism is the problem – and the joblessness, homelessness, insecurity, and austerity it now imposes everywhere are the costs we bear. We have the people, the skills and the tools to produce the goods and services needed for a just society to prosper. We just need to reorganise our producing units differently, to go beyond a capitalist economic system that no longer serves our needs."
The picture with the note speaks volumes.
yes...her parents were no help at all...
My response to that sign - welcome to the working class. Welcome to the nightmare the rest of the people in the world have been living in. Restoring your "America" of "you can become anything you want to become" means 99% of the people on the planet suffering.
Outstanding commentary, Two Americas, as usual. It seems that you took a break from this forum. Welcome back.
Thanks. Good to be back.
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