While it is unknown if the “Occupy Wall Street” protest movement will grow much larger, there is clearly a growing feeling in this country that the politicians have abandoned the poor and middle classes. Our politicians have allowed the big corporations and financial institutions to pillage our economy.
The deregulation of our trade laws have caused tens of thousands of factories and millions of jobs to move to China. And financial deregulation created the “too big to fail” banks which have been bailed out by the US taxpayers, allowed banks to avoid the credit card interest rate ceilings which existed in the various states, and allowed banks to make money by “trading” various financial instruments.
At some point, the American people must join together to stop the big corporations and their political lackeys from destroying our economy. We need political candidates who are willing to listen to the cries of the American people, instead of listening to the big corporations.
One problem with getting the people together is factionalism. This makes the people susceptible to salami tactics. When the techies were ousted (which included me – now I drive a Taxi for a living), we cried, but nobody else cared. Most others weren’t techies. Bush said that we needed illegal aliens to do jobs Americans wouldn’t do, and the people bought it. Now the truckers are about to come under fire as Obama’s cross boarder trucking agreement (without the advice or consent of Congress) has seen the first cross border trucks traverse the United States this month. The people will say that’s a shame, but since most people aren’t truckers, and given a choice between protecting trucker jobs and the promise of paying lower prices at WalMart, they will sadly choose the latter.
Too many factions care only about their own plights. I have seen software engineers who are out of work due to H-1b (like me) still be in favor of free trade, and who endorse guest-worker programs for “unskilled” jobs, so long as their techie jobs remain protected.
Somehow, we need to get Americans to see that we are all in this together. Free trade, outsourcing of services, and guest-workers must all be treated as the same thing, since in the final analysis, they are.