So, a ton of people including many in my family members have been taking the attitude of "I understand why they're pissed, but I'm not exactly sure what their demands are" when it comes to the Occupy movement.
Well, a guy named DC Douglas has put together a brilliant 3-minute video which boils down the situation and just what the hell should be done about it.
Video below the fold.
For those without video access, or who just want a summary of the piece, here you go:
It starts with Elizabeth Warren breaking down (in what appears to be an interview by, I would guess, Charlie Rose) the three major things enacted after the Great Depression which kept things running smoothly for 50 years:
--Glass-Steagall
--FDIC Insurance
--various SEC regulations
...and how those were systematically dismantled starting in the 80's.
Then she notes how once the deregulation happened, things started falling apart:
--S&L crisis in the late 80's
--Hedge fund mismanagement in the late 90's
--Enron in the early 2000's
...leading to the mess today.
Then it switches to statements by Sen. Bryon Dorgan urging that Glass-Steagall be reinstated, Alan Greenspan admitting that he totally fucked up, Sen. Levin and GOP Sen. Collins grilling a couple of Wall St. douchebags, Rep. Grayson and Sen. Sanders trying to unravel the mystery of where the hell all the money went, a woman's voice (I recognize the voice but can't place it at the moment) summarizing what a disaster the Citizens United decision was, and then back to Warren's instantly-famous "underlying social contract" speech.
The demands are pretty damned easy to summarize:
--Reinstate Glass-Steagall
--Audit the FED
--Reverse Citizens United (via Constitutional Amendment)
--Overhaul the tax code for the mega-rich (1%) and corporations
The video then cuts to various clips of the police confronting the Occupy protestors by beating/corralling/pepper spraying them...
...and wraps things up with a list of various #Occupy hash tags by city: #OccupySanFrancisco, #OccupyBoston, #OccupyDenver and so on:
Occupy Your City
Occupy Online
Occupy the Voting Booth
I strongly advise making this go viral; it quickly and powerfully answers the question "What the hell do these people want, and why?"