Hi. This is a diary in response to MinistryOfTruth asking for assistance in framing a message and providing visuals for the Occupy Wall Street movement.
If you agree with the below (and if you don't I implore you to seize the day and craft your own messaging diary) rec this up so that the protesters notice it. Here's the article asking for help.
First of all, Economic Policy is social policy. People have to understand that.... If you don't collect taxes you can't build roads, fight fires, cure cancer, etc.
With that in mind, frame wall street like this:
“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.”
Frederic Bastiat, 1850
So, Wall Street represents the moral code of systemic greed. Downsizing is a code word for mass firing, off-shoring is code for labor abuse, and globalization is code for race to the bottom (ie. the idea that by trying to be competitive with China or India in regards to labor policy means we have to adopt their standards of living as well)
Wall Street is Morally Bankrupt.
We live in the Neo Gilded Age, and only a strong progressive movement can stem the tide.
Moving on from that, here's a chart showing the approximate distribution of wealth that we currently experience as a nation compared to what people think it is and what they would like it to be:
In fact, the entire article is awesome, and replete with useful and easy to understand charts.
So, thats a start.....More then would fit in comments anyway. I think it would be great to see a framing campaign and some messaging leadership coming from the DKos community!