Occupy Wall Street or Should it be Occupy Washington? Part I

Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Oakland, Occupy Los Angeles.  Where is Occupy Compton?

Occupy Wall Street is a movement that addresses the disparity in income between the fat cats in Wall Street and the other 99% of people who are trying to make a living in America.

First question:  What is the Occupy (insert city) movement all about?

Simply, I believe the movement is about changing the dialogue and political discourse in the United States from how to create more jobs to why there are no jobs.  I am not sure how changing this discourse can actually benefit the "ninety-nine percenters.  Yes, the anger against the big banks is justified to the extent that they received bail out money to extricate themselves from the very decisions that led America into its current financial predicament.  However, part of that anger needs to be, if not more, targeted at Washington than it does at Wall Street.

For example, Michael Moore argues that politicians are not responsible for the disparity in wealth in this country because they are just paid employees for the banks.  The premise behind Moore's argument is that corporations lobby and control politicians with money in exchange for the creation of policies favoring big corporations.  While Moore's argument is well-taken, his premise fails to recognize that Washington and the politicians who are put there to represent Americans have a duty to protect the interests of the People first.  In other words, politicians do not have to take the money directed their way to support their campaigns.  If politicians truly want to take away the incentive of big corporations to finance their campaigns in a quid pro quo way, they need to reform campaign laws that tilts the balance of how one is elected away from money and towards one focused on substance.  That is to say, politicians already have the power to create the laws that can limit big businesses' influence in politics.  While campaign finance reform laws have been introduced and passed during the past decade, there are still too many loopholes in the law to effectively prevent influence from big corporations.  Therefore, the well-intentioned protesters need to focus more of their energy in Washington, where the rules of the game often dictate who receives the most influence.

Question II and its conclusions will follow soon.