[This may just be a troll feeding, but I created a rebuttal to the idea that the occupy movement is a bunch of "dirty hippies" that believe they are entitled to the benefits of other people's labor. Parts of the rebuttal use the original posters language, so it should have enough context within it.]
Yes, Paul, there is something rotten in Denmark when one assumes that a choice to live off of the products of other's work is an act of god. We called that "Divine Right" back in the day and it was also a back-bone of the lord-serf economic system. It was born out of Calvinist and Stoic ideas that the poor were poor because they were inferior and God loved them less, because everything happened according to God's will. If someone suffered it was because of sin, not because of bad circumstances or abuse. This was the way that the powerful stayed in power - and sat on their asses as the serfs and blue-collar workers, child labor and slave labor, did all the work and they profited - by convincing those laborers that working their lives away with little compensation was godly.
I know - it's a radical idea to think that someone who works 40 hours a week (oh wait, 40 hours? - that was the labor movement) should get a living wage; and receive the pension and retirement they depend on and were promised. I know - it's a radical idea to think that someone's tax dollars should be spent on educating children and investing in infrastructure instead of giving tax-breaks and subsidies to companies making record profits. I know - it's a radical idea to disallow someone to sell bad debt that they know will fail and take a large insurance policy out on it. I know - Reinstating the Glass-Steagall act is all about looting, not bathing, and living in your mom's basement. I know - Protesting the increase in wealth disparity, decrease in socioeconomic mobility, and lack of employment is the SAME as being content to subsist off a welfare safety-net, not increase your productivity through education and vocational training, and not work.
Just plug your ears and repeat the mantra "dirty hippie" "dirty hippie" "dirty hippie" - it will make all those issues disappear and make you feel better about yourself. It will also make all the veterans and professionals involved in the movement disappear - and replace them with your second nephew's brother's sister's cousin that smokes too much weed and litters.
Yes, Paul, there is something rotten in Denmark when one assumes that a choice to live off of the products of other's work is an act of god. We called that "Divine Right" back in the day and it was also a back-bone of the lord-serf economic system. It was born out of Calvinist and Stoic ideas that the poor were poor because they were inferior and God loved them less, because everything happened according to God's will. If someone suffered it was because of sin, not because of bad circumstances or abuse. This was the way that the powerful stayed in power - and sat on their asses as the serfs and blue-collar workers, child labor and slave labor, did all the work and they profited - by convincing those laborers that working their lives away with little compensation was godly.
I know - it's a radical idea to think that someone who works 40 hours a week (oh wait, 40 hours? - that was the labor movement) should get a living wage; and receive the pension and retirement they depend on and were promised. I know - it's a radical idea to think that someone's tax dollars should be spent on educating children and investing in infrastructure instead of giving tax-breaks and subsidies to companies making record profits. I know - it's a radical idea to disallow someone to sell bad debt that they know will fail and take a large insurance policy out on it. I know - Reinstating the Glass-Steagall act is all about looting, not bathing, and living in your mom's basement. I know - Protesting the increase in wealth disparity, decrease in socioeconomic mobility, and lack of employment is the SAME as being content to subsist off a welfare safety-net, not increase your productivity through education and vocational training, and not work.
Just plug your ears and repeat the mantra "dirty hippie" "dirty hippie" "dirty hippie" - it will make all those issues disappear and make you feel better about yourself. It will also make all the veterans and professionals involved in the movement disappear - and replace them with your second nephew's brother's sister's cousin that smokes too much weed and litters.
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