NYT/Krugman: Unsavvy People

[markpkessinger]

Nieman Watchdog has a very good piece by John Hanrahan about press coverage of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. Coverage was initially dismissive and minimal — and mea culpa, I wasn’t paying attention myself. But it’s becoming clear that there’s something important happening: finally, after three years in which Very Serious People refused to hold the financial industry accountable, there’s a real grass-roots uprising against the Masters of the Universe.

There will, of course, be the usual attempts to dismiss the whole thing based on trivialities. Look at the oddly dressed people acting out! So? Is it better when exquisitely tailored bankers whose gambles brought the world economy to its knees — and who were bailed out by taxpayers — whine that President Obama is saying slightly mean things about them?

Or, why don’t they try to work within the system? Well, how’s that been going for those who did indeed try? When palace intrigue undermined the likes of Elizabeth Warren even within the Obama administration, and Republicans have thrown their full backing behind the malefactors of great wealth, why shouldn’t protesters go outside the usual channels?

Finally, why not defer to people who know what needs to be done? Regular readers know the answer: the VSPs have been consistently, awesomely wrong, both before the financial crisis and after. Nothing in the recent record of policy suggests that the wise men of finance deserve any credence at all.

Read full article at: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/06/unsavvy-people/

[Supersedeas]

1. that's some juxtaposition

[Warpy]

2. I've been feeling the anger building for over 10 years

You live in a shitty neighborhood and work a real job, you know exactly what I mean. It's not an everyday subject of conversation, but every time someone mentions getting screwed by a bank, usually on some fee that just got outrageous, there's a consensus that the banks are in business to screw us, not to keep our money safe, whaddya gonna do? You get stiffed on a couple of hours on a paycheck, all the bosses are chislers and crooks, whaddya gonna do? You see prices going up and sizes getting smaller and find yourself living on beans for more than that one pious meatless day a week just so the government can lie about inflation, buncha crooks and liars, whaddya gonna do?

You can't pile insult on insult forever. People start to seethe and eventually it's going to pop out on the surface and boy, are the masters of the universe taken by surprise when it does! Every time!

I hope this is the tipping point, it's way overdue. 30+ years of Reaganism have just about destroyed this country, giving us a defacto aristocracy far above the law and 99.5% of the people ground to death beneath it.

Let's hope they allow us a peaceful revolution. A violent one is never pretty and seldom works as advertised.