It is a welcomed sight to see the Occupy Wall Street protests growing. Protesters in Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Seattle and Oakland are beginning to define their message. Maintaining their focus and poise are extremely important.
Chanting, “Banks got bailout. We got sold out. Hey Chase, what do you say? How many houses did you take today?” the protesters are defining something that has been happening all across America. Banks got bailed out and kept the money. They didn’t provide the necessary assistance to homeowners. They let the loan rates get higher and took over millions of homes, flooding the market with foreclosures that sank the housing market. Once you sink the housing market, you destroy millions and millions of jobs. States do not collect much needed taxes from foreclosed homes. When a home is foreclosed, electricians, plumbers, painters, carpenters, and contractors lose jobs. In addition, the stores that sell home improvement products and merchandise lose millions of customers. When you ‘sack’ the housing market you put the entire nation at risk because the housing industry is one of the major sources of employment and revenue.
In Oakland, the protesters are rallying at the Oakland Port where huge shipments of Chinese imports arrive daily. Importing just about everything from China is so destructive to our economy. Chinese workers and Chinese imports have taken millions of jobs away and forced the closure of millions of small businesses and hundreds of corporations all across America. The current Republican platform calls for giving more tax incentives to American businesses and corporations. They mistakenly believe that if you give even more tax breaks to the wealthiest, they will use their tax savings to hire American workers. What foolishness. Corporations will take their tax savings and import more goods from China.
When the bailout happened, there were no oversights imposed. The plan should have been to have banks work with American homeowners to lower their interest rates so they could stay in their homes. What are the Republicans suggesting? That we lower the interest rate for the corporations??? Hello?? Is anyone home?? Republicans and Democrats have their heads deeply embedded in the sand. No one knows what to do.
What was that great line from the Wizard of Oz? Dorothy asked Scarecrow, “How can you talk if you don’t have brains? “I don’t know,” responded the Scarecrow. “Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don’t they?”
America, keep on protesting! Your message is getting clearer and making more sense every day. But remember the wisdom of Gandhi and Martin Luther King: Keep your movement peaceful!
John A. Tamiazzo, PhD is the Author of, Returning to the Land of Oz: Finding Hope, Love, and Courage on Your Yellow Brick Road, available at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.uk, Barnesandnoble.com and as an e-Kindle book and Nook book.
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