The Madness spreads...... "Occupy Whatever",

So, what started as a protest by some disenchanted individuals on Wall street is spreading around the world and receiving media coverage. Naturally those involved in the protest see this as a sign of victory, rather than the flash in the pan it truly is.

The ironies involved in this protest are numerous, but somehow get missed......

• The very people ( the wealthy) these protesters have so much animosity towards are the same ones that contribute the lions share of income tax (personal and corporate) that in turn helps pay to a huge degree for all the social programs that many of these protesters hold near and dear to their heart and consider their birthright. In fact in The US the top 1% pay 38% of the personal income tax collected!
• Again, the very people that these protesters hold in such disdain are generally the individuals that by default create many of the jobs that the protesters hold.
• Although I am in no way, shape or form an advocate of government bailouts for business I will say that although I disagreed with them in 2008 most actually worked out to some degree, and in fact in the case of  auto manufacturers both the Canadian and US governments have already been paid back a fair chunk of their money with interest years ahead of schedule. Am I suggesting that the government should step in every time a business is at risk of failing, not a hope! However I will say that saving a company like GM or Chrysler will continue to provides jobs for years or decades to come, name me just one government job creation plan that can make the same claim.
• Although our capitalistic society is not perfect, it still does one thing better than any other system on the face of the planet. It provides a higher standard of living to the most amount of people. Think about it, even those marching the streets and crying out how bad things are for them and their peers are living far better than most do in many parts of the world. Every political system worldwide where the government attempts to spread the wealth has failed or provides a third world standard of living for the vast majority of it's citizens. As well, in most cases the countries that practice ( or claim to) something such as Communism are always the ones that rule with an iron hand, restrict civil liberties, imprison those that speak out, and funny enough whose wealthy ruling class tends to be those in power, the very ones who claim that their only interest is the common working man.
  
  What I would like to see is an interviewer ask these questions to protesters,
  
  - Do you own a car, colour television, iPod, laptop, etc.?
    (Most will not see how this has any relationship to their protests)
  - How much did you pay for your shoes?
    (Some of their shoes cost the equivalent (or more) of a years income for an entire family in some countries)
  - How much do spend in a month on entertainment (movies, meals, restaurants, etc)?
    (Again, many will have spent enough to house and feed a family for an entire year  in many countries)
  
  and last but certainly not least
  - When was the last time you went hungry due solely to the fact you could not afford to eat?

The problem I have with these types of protests is that too often they attract the uninformed, the ignorant, or "jump on the latest cause" crowd. Typically the vast majority of protesters are young (or parents, grandparents, etc, of young protesters) who don't understand why the middle aged individual who has worked his entire life has more wealth than they do. Before you protest too much here are a couple of videos I posted last week that you may or may not find amusing.

What inspired me to write my thoughts on this today is the fact that this craze has spread to my home town , Edmonton. Although we have never been considered (at least to my knowledge) a financial capital, we still have enough of a population that you can always find a group of the uninformed to show up for a protest.
Here is a news article from CTV that gives a brief overview. What I really found comical was this part...

"We are not consenting this system," Activist Luke Lupul said. "We were born into it, and we dislike it,

"That's why the youth are coming out to protest."
Starting Saturday afternoon, dozens of them have taken over a park downtown – and said they won't leave until they see change.

"I think it's going to be nice for awhile," Lupul said. "The novelty will wear off, but I'm not planning to vacate anytime soon."

I suspect "soon" may be very soon as the temperature drops , maybe Luke has already gone home. Now I don't know about you but if I was holding a protest, Luke is not the type of guy I would want showing to be counted as part of my movement and particularly not the guy to be interviewed, unless of course I was going strictly for head count rather than commitment and understanding of the cause.