Two term Vice-President, should-have-been President in 2001 but for a corrupt supreme court decision, and long time environmental activist Al Gore offered his support for the Occupy Wall Street Movement yesterday.
Thoughts on Occupy Wall Street October 12, 2011 : 5:07 PM
For the past several weeks I have watched and read news about the Occupy Wall Street protests with both interest and admiration. I thought The New York Times hit the nail on the head in an editorial Sunday:
“The message — and the solutions — should be obvious to anyone who has been paying attention since the economy went into a recession that continues to sock the middle class while the rich have recovered and prospered. The problem is that no one in Washington has been listening.”
“At this point, protest is the message: income inequality is grinding down that middle class, increasing the ranks of the poor, and threatening to create a permanent underclass of able, willing but jobless people. On one level, the protesters, most of them young, are giving voice to a generation of lost opportunity.”
From the economy to the climate crisis our leaders have pursued solutions that are not solving our problems, instead they propose policies that accomplish little. With democracy in crisis a true grassroots movement pointing out the flaws in our system is the first step in the right direction. Count me among those supporting and cheering on the Occupy Wall Street movement.
You can support the protests by clicking here.
Al Gore's Journal/Blog
OWS is a major step in the right direction and I hope it brings courage to some politicians and fear to others. Issue activism like OWS is awakening the people.
Income inequality is grinding down that middle class, increasing the ranks of the poor, and threatening to create a permanent underclass of able, willing but jobless people.
It's The Inequality Creating The Joblessness And Bad Economy:
A widening gap between rich and poor is reshaping the U.S. economy, leaving it more vulnerable to recurring financial crises and less likely to generate enduring expansions.
Left unchecked, the decades-long trend toward increasing inequality may condemn Wall Street to a generation of unimpressive returns and even shake social stability, economists and financial-industry executives say.
“Income inequality in this country is just getting worse and worse and worse,” James Chanos, president and founder of New York-based Kynikos Associates Ltd., told Bloomberg Radio this week. “And that is not a recipe for stable economic growth when the rich are getting richer and everybody else is being left behind.”
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“The large and growing gap between the haves and have-nots will tend to undermine growth, both directly and indirectly -- including by reducing the marginal propensity to consume and by amplifying the political polarization that has already contributed to poor economic policymaking,” says Mohamed El- Erian, chief executive officer of Pacific Investment Management Co. in Newport Beach, California.
Bloomberg: Growing Income Gap Raises U.S. Vulnerability to Crises
snip
Many of the American people are beginning to wise up and rise up.
It's the inequality. Until we reduce that, the economy will be bad for the 99%ers.