Occupy Wall Street Movement is an ongoing series demonstration starting on September 17th, that hundreds of people marched in Financial Districts of New York City, against power and influences of corporation, social and financial inequality and several other issues. Participants are very diverse, including high-educated, religions, low-incomes and different classes of people. This movement is not organize by one or few group, “the 99% movement comes from and looks like the 99%”. As we see, the movement represents most of American citizen. On October 9th, demonstration became larger and wider: Protesters spread out into 70 major cities in the US. Movement has held continuously until now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG_TKAJyV6k
For me, one of the most motivating quotes is the one made by the 9-year-old. Sam makes the comment that they are doing the reverse of Robin Hood, which is pretty spot on. The big-name corporations are taking the money that is coming in and turning them into bonuses for their higher paid employees. Robin Hood and his merry men were said to have robbed the rich, and give to the poor, which is what should be done, except that instead of the English Outlaw with a group of followers, it needs to be the government with laws preventing this, especially after the companies just got bailed out from the down turn in the economy.
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ReplyDeleteAlthough I do not believe the actions of the larger corporations and the government is right, I disagree with Aaron in that they should not take from the rich and give to the poor, but instead focus on bringing the lower classes up, not the upper classes down. Taking money from any side and giving it to the other is in no way right. I believe the economic situation we are in can be blamed on the government and their careless spending and reckless decisions to bail out companies. The problem I have with the 9 year old boy is that there is a very slim chance that his ideas are of his own research and thought. He most likely gets it from his parents, which is fine, but to put it him television is what I see as an attempt to use pathos and people's emotions to agree with that side of the argument.
ReplyDeleteFINALLY!!!! Here are some people that know the government is corrupt have, (most of them) have the facts to support their cause and are actually taking a stand and doing something about it. My dad always gets into talks with other people about the problems of the government, but it always gets me mad because while he does have good ideas he does nothing to change what is going on in government. I think the people are spot on and know that there needs to be a switch in money and somewhat in power as well. Here I have to agree with Aaron, but I understand where Justin is coming from. The lower class definitely needs to be brought up financially. In order to do so however we need to get the money from somewhere. Why the term "steeling from the rich and giving to the needy" is just an analogy in this case, it means that we need to stop paying bankers and other high end government officials ridiculously large sums of money. Instead lower their pay checks, no bonuses because they are receiving enough money as it is and use that money to bring up the lower class. While it would be wrong to go knock on the wealthy's door and ask for money instead just start taking away from their future pay checks. I did find the one man's comment interesting when he said that if one of the protesters did what they did they would be put in jail, but the bankers and government officials did get away with it. It gets me to thinking, are these government officials and bankers abusing their power?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Justin. The first thought I had when watching this video is how rehearsed the little boys statement was. It was almost like he was told exactly what to say and he was pushing to remember. Yes, the government isn't doing as well as they should be, which is true, but the demands that some people are asking for are a little extreme. The upper class has obviously worked their way up to the top so we shouldn't pull a robin hood and take their money from them. I feel as if the government just needs to regulate the bonuses and where the banks are spending their money. However, taking money from them to help the lower classes is not the answer.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Keitlyn. The boy's wording didn't sound what his age would say. In addition, he was frequently looking at some place when he forgot what to say， which looked very unnatural. Indeed rich people own the major part of wealth. This is also true in China! However, rich people earn their money by themselves. I could not think of any reason that the rich should share their wealth because of this. Omaba said he would legislate and strengthen the regulation of financial markets in his election campaign. This is also the wish of most U.S citizen. But when Omaba started thinking of the legislations, Republicans were always against him. I think this is because of the market economy. Republican claims that the government should not intervene the market. This leads to the fact that investors and bankers do anything that is profitable without thinking the long-term effect. And this is the partial reason of the financial crisis. I think the government should regulate financial markets, make it the way which most people could benefit.
ReplyDeleteBesides the 9 years old mentioned by other classmates, I am concerning about the words said by the old man appeared in 2:10. He implies that the workers weren’t the one that lead to such situation, so they shouldn’t be punished or be fired. What I consider is that actually no one makes that crisis intentionally—bankers haven’t done that, riches haven’t done that and government hasn’t either. The recession took place because economy cannot respond to unanticipated shocks immediately.
ReplyDeleteIn China, we also have cyclical recession. Especially today U.S put much pressure on Chinese currency which hit our export industry. However, the reaction under such situations is not to fire workers and cut off their income of living. The company always reduce each worker’s salary instead of reduce the number of workers which guarantees most of people are employed and have a source of living. I did not mean to compare which one is better. It is just caused by cultural difference.
The structure of social society is consisted by upper, middle and lower classes since the word “society” exists. It is impossible to have a society just has all populations in a same class level. There is a golden triangle system states for the distribution of society which cannot be changed. Thereby, I do not completely agree the 9-year-old boy’s words that the rich steal money from the poor. The upper-class people use their own wisdom to earn more money. So it is unfair to request the rich just give money back to the poor. However, the phenomenon of corruption does exist in the society. Lower-class people get fewer rights and chances than upper classes in daily life. Consequently, a fair regulation system which is independent from the government system is needed to balance the relationship between different classes.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Americans shouldn't be bringing the upper class down but helping the ones who occupy the lower class. I've never really been involved in politics so this was the first time I was actually educated on the Occupy Wall Street protest but it definitely got me thinking that the government, in how it spends its money, needs to be reformed. The woman speaking at 1:32 shows a lot of passion in her argument and has the ability to strike a nerve with those watching, encouraging them to recognize that how the government functions is wrong. How the protestors say they are representing 99% of the country is a strong tactic in gaining more supporters because when this protest is shown in the media, people watching at home will feel like they can relate to the protestors. After watching this video I did a little more research about the Occupy Wall Street protest and it is obvious that the media is trying to relate to and engage with the protestors, the majority (99%), instead of the higher class.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it isn't fair to take from the rich and spread the money out between the lower class. That will not solve any problems, as the economy needs a major revamp. I agree in that government officials and bankers aren't acting very ethical on their part, but you can't take away from the fact that they did a lot to be in the positions they are in now. Everyone has a "somewhat" equal opportunity to be as successful as these rich people, so no one should ever try and take away from their incomes.
ReplyDeleteStarted from September, Occupy Wall Street has been contained by a month. Protesters were saying they're fighting for the "99 percent," or the vast majority of Americans who do not fall into the wealthiest 1 percent of the population. I thought this event would not cause direct change on American Economic system for now maybe it will affect later. First of all, this movement doesn’t have a clearly objective. Unlike the other protests, the public oppose which specific decision that government has made, Occupy Wall Street movement actually is representation of the public hate Wall Street, hate those 1% population are extremely rich. In that Youtube video, there is an old man was wearing suit, lots of cash was put in his pocket and he was taking cigar. He hoisted a sign “Trust me, I am a banker.” That is the satirical image of those bankers and CEOs in the public eyes. Basic on couple interviews in the video, the protesters angry about those Wall Street bankers steal money from the poor, and they do believe that cause high unemployment rate. No matter how it is related, it cannot change situation of Wall Street. It still is the economic center of America and the whole world, the bankers and CEOs in Wall Street will still get high salaries and bonus. But this protest does exhibit the pressure on the government. The government needs to thoughtfully think and makes new policy to regular the financial industry and to balance the position of Wall Street with the public.
ReplyDeleteI don't really know much about the issues being discussed in this video, and this lack of knowledge ahead of time leaves me with an unbiased opinion to analyze it. The protestors in the video seem justified in their attempt to "rise up" and take a stand against the government due to the large amount of money given to CEO's and large corporations while the middle class was losing jobs. Also, the media seems very biased toward the middle class, and they use pathos very well to try to portray a strong argument against the government, especially when they interview the 9 year old about his thoughts. This is great and I agree with the general public. However, having said all that, there is still one problem with the video's argument: where's the ethos? The video does give some statistics to support the people, but it just states them without giving any proof or references, and they make mostly general statements that could easily be skewed. What gives any one of those angry people interviewed any credibility? Having a 9 year old, who really has no idea what's happening, analyze exactly what government is doing touches ones emotions, sure, but gives absolutely no credibility to the argument. Even interviewing random adults about their opinions doesn't really tell you anything, because you don't have a clue if they have a clue. In other words, the people interviewed could have flunked out of high school and have no idea who the president of the United States is. The viewer has no way of knowing. So while I agree with the argument being presented in the video, I think the media should have interviewed someone with some credibility so I could really get a sense of exactly what happened and how much the government and the banks are really to blame.
ReplyDeleteWhile I think that political reformation is important in the financial district, I think that the Occupy Wall Street Movement is silly and that little will come out of it. The only way to change the current situation is from the inside, not from standing around with little signs saying how you are the 99% because you do not have any money, a job, etc. I once listened to a seminar with Jim Tressel and Les Wexner on how they starting with nothing but through smart business, creative ideas and hard work, were able to raise to the top of their professions.
ReplyDeleteHowever, what I am most shocked about with the Occupy Wall Street Movement is the police brutality toward the protesters. There have been numerous YouTube videos showing police pepper spraying and doing other cruel acts toward unarmed civilians. I do not think that these actions were completely necessary. The video of a US Marine Corps Sargent in NYC speaking out against this brutality is extremely compelling. He uses logos and pathos to go against the police actions and compel the people to stand with him. He repeats that the US citizens that they are hurting don't have guns so there is no honor in what they are doing. I just find his argument extremely interesting and how the police seem to ignore everything that he is saying. The police just want him to calm down and move on.
This is the link to the video of Sargent Thomas. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmEHcOc0Sys
This video is mostly based on pathos. The cry of the people saying how the banks cleaned them out. There is very little ethos in this video because we know nothing about any of the speakers in this video how do we know that they are credible? There is also a little logos involved in revealing suddenly banks are shelling out hundreds of millions in bonuses again. I honestly don't know much about the subject so I'm not gonna go out and say who's right or wrong. I'm just gonna say this this video seems to side with the public.
ReplyDeleteCause we live in Columbus , so I think the effect was no very big . But I know that many people join in New York , in wall street, even my parents in China know this thing.And I always believe that this action represents a significant part of the people cause many people in different states Join and support them.At last , I think the action is good of the united states development , It will never happen in China
ReplyDeleteActually, last month my mother were very worried about the demonstration and asked me if there were any in Columbus. However, I just saw some demonstration in downtown high street. Too many people just hold the poster and asked jobs, money and equality. At that time, I did not understand what was happening. Now, after I saw the video, I totally agree with Justin and Kaitlyn that the richer should not give the money to the poor. Why should they do that? They earn the money by their own capability , while somehow the poor just wait to get the money. Even though the demonstration seems to be very strong and may have some effects, the result wont be changed if the poor are just satisfied with the money they get from the richer. The essence of this issue stays the same.
ReplyDeleteIt is not a secret in today’s economic turmoil that Americans are fed up. The so-called “99%” that is currently occupying Wall Street has had enough of the scams and political shiftiness of big banks and Congress. This video posted on YouTube portrays the sentiments felt by the American people and draws attention to the increasing gap between the elite and middle class. An interesting phenomenon pointed out in the video is that if a regular citizen were to commit the same “racket” or “scam” that the big banks have, they would be in prison; however, very few bankers have even gone to court, nevertheless jail. In fact, “not a single executive who ran the companies that cooked up and cashed in on the phony financial boom – an industry wide scam that involved the mass scale of mismarked, fraudulent mortgage-baked securities – has ever been convicted” (Rolling Stone). The baffling paradox in which taxpayers bail out bankers who should be spending time behind bars is only exacerbated by the fact that banks are not returning the favor. Instead of allowing the money to trickle back down to the masses through jobs and community programs, banks are issuing enormous bonuses to their executives or as the Rolling Stone diplomatically puts it “Wall Street is fucked up.”
ReplyDeleteI agree with Justin. I find what is the most weird is a 9 years old boy also join the Occupy Wall Street. He is just a little kid, what does he knows about the economic crisis? I don't think all of those people really have techniques, some of them just gather together and cause a commotion. I don't think that boy--Sam, really understand what does he do. Maybe he just heard from his parents, the government makes their life hard. So he joins the team. I don't think it is a good way, we should not make children join the struggle even though it is not a really war. It is bad for his growth.
ReplyDeleteAs for Occupy Wall Street I do believe that cooperate America is taking over this country to control us the U. S. citizens. Some examples are like gas prices always go up at will due to some stupid reasons like weather, world events, and paydays. I wish we can get paid more for those same reasons. Another is how companies take away our rights to get hired for an instant a company searched employees cars say they are hunting for drugs but in realality to search cars for guns for the beginning of hunting season, they were all fired who had weapons on their property although they were unloaded at the time by state law for guns to be carried in cars.
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