The Occupy Wall Street
movement (OWS) has been evolving over the last few months and I have been
observing them with great interest. They began as a seemingly ragtag group of
demonstrators but have grown into a very influential movement. OWS has
demonstrably raised awareness regarding the growing wealth disparities and
corporate malfeasance within the United States and the world. Their commitment
to this cause in the face of inclement winter weather, a paucity of amenities,
and the growing police crackdowns around the country has been nothing short of
inspirational. I myself have wished that I could support them in person on Wall
Street. After all, I worked there for 27 years before falling victim to the
financial chicanery which took place in those institutions. Now I work
difficult hours within the retail field in New Jersey far from Wall Street. My
current work schedule is long and tiring making my attendance at the
demonstrations in downtown Manhattan problematic at best. I have wanted to
support them in some way and have struggled with how I might accomplish that.
I would like to
outline the goals and issues that I feel the OWS movement should emphasize to
further their cause and to maintain their relevance. The goals and issues I
will outline are the ones I have heard and read the demonstrators elucidate upon
from time to time along with others I consider vital to our nation. The first
three that I will define are issues that I feel are at the core of the
movement's ideals. They are the three main foundation issues that should drive
the movement on their way to achieving their goals. These issues are the
increasing wealth disparity between the rich and poor, the flood of corporate
money into our elections and governments, and the increasing size and lack of
regulation of our financial institutions. Finally, I will discuss three less
central but still very important issues that I feel that OWS should incorporate
into their movement. These are affordable universal healthcare, alternative
renewable energy, and the increasing threat to our industrial and financial
regulatory framework. These three issues come under the umbrella of improving
the American quality of life. I hope I will have enunciated a clear program of
goals and issues that most citizens can rally behind by the end of this
article. This will be my first small contribution to the movement and hopefully
not my last.
The most common chant
heard at OWS gatherings is that the upper 1% of Americans in wealth are
controlling and harming the lives of the other 99%. One way they do this is by
influencing governmental policies and legislation that allows these disparities
to grow. These wealthy individuals along with Corporate America wield this
influence through intense lobbying and massive election campaign contributions.
The OWS movement is right on target by focusing on this issue.
The main area where
the upper 1% have engineered this increased wealth disparity is by way of their
influence on Capitol Hill tax policies. The income tax rates on the wealthy
have been falling steadily since the Reagan administration. They dropped from
70% in 1980 to 50% by 1982. They dropped again to 38.5% in 1987 and then to 28%
in 1988. The theory behind the last two cuts was that the elimination of most
tax loopholes would make up for the lost revenue of the rate cuts. That never
fully materialized and the loopholes for the wealthy and corporations soon
reappeared. Eventually these rates rose to 31% in 1991 and 39.6% in 1993 to
close the massive budget deficit. This was a much fairer rate than those
instituted during President Reagan's terms. The budget was balanced ten years
after these rate increases were installed. This occurred not only because of
the rate increases but also because the economy became very robust during this
period generating much greater tax revenue. This disproved the conservative
theory that higher tax rates necessarily hurt the economy. These rates remained
in effect until 2003 when the Bush tax cuts were fully implemented.
Capital gains and
estate tax rates were also slashed dramatically leading to a reverse Robin Hood
effect. This was the most massive wealth shift from the poor and middle classes
to the wealthy in United States history. In the meantime, the Social Security
income threshold has remained at $106,800 for more than two decades. This far
exceeds the inflationary growth of this period further enriching the upper
classes. These trends need to be
reversed back to at least the Clinton era rates. The Social Security income
threshold must be increased by a large amount to ensure that this essential
program remains solvent for our retiring baby boom generation. Elderly retirees
have given vast amounts of their income into this fund over the course of their
many years of employment. We must preserve this program by increasing revenue
not cutting benefits.
The largest threat to
our political system and American way of life resides in the exploding
influence of unlimited and anonymous election campaign funding. The United
States Supreme Court ruled that corporations, unions, and all other
organizations have the same "freedom of speech" rights as individual
United States citizens when they issued their Citizens United decision. The
influence of money on our electoral process had already proven to be enormous
even before Citizens United. That ruling turned more than thirty years of
campaign finance law on its ear. Now any organization can receive and utilize
unlimited amounts of contributions to campaign for or against any candidate.
The only limitation is that these organizations are not allowed to coordinate
in any way with any of the candidate campaign teams.
The campaign spending
during the 2010 elections shattered all previous records. Corporations and
wealthy Americans poured huge amounts of money into Republican campaigns all
over the country. Many of the Democratic candidates were outspent 2-1or more.
The industrialist Koch Brothers had been at the head of their own conservative
group long before the Citizens United decision. They funded the Citizens United
organization with the aim of tearing down the existing campaign finance
restrictions so they could extend their political influence even further. It
worked brilliantly. They now fund many right wing organizations including many
Tea Party groups. Their funding was essential in creating that movement. They
also fund a conservative policy writing organization called the American
Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Newly elected Republican legislatures all
around the country have been passing new legislation written by ALEC. These new
laws have included lower corporate taxes, slashing or eliminating regulations,
curtailing municipal union rights, and placing restrictions on voting groups
that lean heavily Democratic.
It is obvious from all
of these conservative corporate machinations that action needs to be taken to
restrict this unlimited and mostly anonymous campaign financing. They are
corrupting our democratic electoral system as well as our governments. The only
way I can see for us to effectively accomplishing this goal in our current
judicial environment is to actively push for a strong campaign finance constitutional
amendment. The Supreme Court in the Citizens United decision declared that
corporations, unions, and other organizations have the same rights such as
freedom of speech as individuals. This is the personhood issue.
A new constitutional
amendment should state from the outset that this corporate personhood premise
is false. They should continue from this point and state that all campaign
financing should be regulated and fully disclosed from the outset. Political
donors are revealed the year after an election under our current system. This
is too late for voters to make an educated assessment regarding the influence
these donors have and whether it is positive or negative. A public financing
mechanism should also be included along with strict limitations on campaign
contributions. This goes for both individuals and for all organizations. Contributions
would be fully disclosed with easy and quick access provided to the public with
this information. No positive changes will be possible for the governance of this
country without the elimination of these unlimited campaign funds. The upper 1%
in the United States now set the laws and policies within our governments
because of these contributions. True change for the other 99% will not occur
without an amendment cancelling out the Citizens United ruling. This will bring
sanity back to our elections and subsequently our governments.
The third major issue
that I feel the OWS movement should adopt is the strengthening of the
regulation of our financial markets while also downsizing our "too big to
fail" financial institutions. The sheer size and interconnectedness of
these institutions constantly threaten our economic security. The 2008
financial meltdown is the prime example of this condition. Financial institutions
were given virtual carte blanche in the late 1990's to take any risks they
wished while also growing to monstrous sizes. This occurred by way of repealing
the section of the Glass-Steagall Act that separated investment banks from
commercial banks. Banks were now allowed to invest both their clients' money as
well as their own in the stock market as well as other markets.
These financial
institutions were soon investing their money heavily with declining degrees of
risk management as their profits grew steadily. They also created new and much
more complex security instruments such as derivatives to create even greater
profits. Over a trillion dollars were invested in these instruments with very
little knowledge of what their makeup was and what risks were attached to them.
In actuality, they were little more than bets on how certain market segments
would move. They were operating as if they were in a casino. These mortgage
securities derivatives were cashed in when the housing market crashed to the
detriment of these financial institutions. The only thing our federal
government could responsibly do was to bail them out to prevent a catastrophic
collapse of our entire economic system. This would most certainly have led to
another "Great Depression".
We have effectively
become the backstop and the insurance policy for these financial institutions.
It is about time we held them responsible for proper risk management. We need a
renewed separation of commercial and investment banking, the elimination of
predatory banking practices, and a return to smaller more manageable
institutions. The Dodd-Frank Reform Act of 2010 was a good first step towards
implementing common sense reform to our financial system. Unfortunately it was
greatly watered down to secure wavering Senate votes. The banking industry
lobbied hard for this moderation and is still working behind the scenes to
water down or eliminate this legislation. It is reprehensible that they
accepted huge bailouts to survive and now want to continue on as they had
before the financial meltdown. The OWS movement should continue to place a
spotlight on this abomination and advocate for much stronger regulations and
smaller institutions.
There are three other
issues that I feel the Occupy Wall Street movement should incorporate as their
causes even though they are not at the core of the movement. The first is
universal healthcare. Our current healthcare system is incredibly unfair and
inefficient. Employment is required for most Americans to obtain affordable
healthcare insurance. This is very inhumane and as a nation we should be weaned
off this system as quickly as possible. The new Affordable Healthcare
legislation passed in early 2010 is an important first step though it does not
go far enough. OWS should work feverishly to advocate for universal healthcare
while also working to strengthen this new legislation. They should also argue
for the weakening of the healthcare insurance companies that make huge profits
while limiting healthcare options and declining claims. OWS should also demonstrate
for the creation of an entirely new results oriented system instead of the
current dysfunctional fees for tests and procedures process. This would place a
strong curb on the skyrocketing costs of healthcare by curtailing the plethora
of unnecessary tests and procedures. These tests and procedures are only
ordered to generate revenue for the healthcare provider. This is due to the
stingy reimbursement system the insurance companies have created. Healthcare is one of the largest industries in
our economy today and is growing rapidly due to the aging of the baby boom
generation. Controlling its costs and covering everyone is essential to the
revival and sustainability of our nation's economic health.
The second ancillary
issue for the OWS movement to adopt is the need for America to convert from our
current fossil fuel energy industry into one run on alternative renewable
energy sources. The supply of fossil fuels in the world is depleting rapidly.
This is occurring just as China, India, Brazil, and other developing countries
are rapidly growing their economies. This is similarly expanding their energy
needs. The results will be oil and gas prices rising prohibitively threatening
the strength of our economy. These fossil fuels are also destroying our
environment and promulgating global warming. Both our economic and physical
survivals are at stake. I feel that the OWS movement should strongly demand our
government fund research into all promising alternative renewable energy
options. They should also encourage all of our governments to institute cleaner
industry and automobile emissions standards.
Finally, the OWS
movement should fight the growing trend of industry deregulation. Corporate
leaders have been pushing heavily for deregulation for several decades. They
are now able to use unlimited money to accomplish this goal by funding
independent Political Action Committees (PAC) to help elect candidates that
will be friendly to their deregulation desires. This is due to the Citizens
United decision. This is in addition to the massive amounts of lobbying money
they already use to influence legislators. Many candidates were elected this
way in 2010 by way of independent corporate money. One of the major goals of
the Koch Brothers, the leading corporate organizer and donor, is the
elimination of as many industry regulations as possible. They feel that they
know how best to run their industries and in turn what is best for America.
Corporate America has already wreaked tremendous damage upon our country
through environmental degradation, product defects, and numerous financial
shenanigans. Loosening or eliminating the regulations that already exist would
be madness. Strengthening them is imperative to the environmental and economic
health of the United States.
The Occupy Wall Street
movement has already made a strong impact on the political psyche of the
American people. Where will they go from here? They are strengthening their
online capabilities to connect with supporters and the public. Will they also
combine this with a more cohesive message? My opinion is that they will have to
develop one for the movement to significantly advance further. They have
successfully brought to the forefront the issue of the gross wealth disparity
between the wealthy 1% of our country and the rest of us. They need to continue
to hammer this point across while fleshing out the issue with solutions to
rectify the problem.
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